Installing Lizmap Web Client on Linux Debian or Ubuntu

Generic Server Configuration

This documentation provides an example for configuring a server with the Debian 9 distribution. We assume you have base system installed and updated.

Warning

This page does not describe how to secure your Nginx server. It’s just for a demonstration.

Configure Locales

For simplicity, it is interesting to configure the server with UTF-8 default encoding.

# configure locales
locale-gen fr_FR.UTF-8 #replace fr with your language
dpkg-reconfigure locales
# define your timezone [useful for logs]
dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
apt install ntp ntpdate

Note

It is also necessary configure the other software so that they are using this default encoding if this is not the case.

Installing necessary packages

Warning

Lizmap web client is based on Jelix 1.6. You must install at least the 5.6 version of PHP. The dom, simplexml, pcre, session, tokenizer and spl extensions are required (they are generally turned on in a standard PHP 5.6/7.x installation)

On debian 9, install these packages:

sudo su # only necessary if you are not logged in as root
apt update # update package lists
apt-get install curl openssl libssl1.1 nginx-full nginx nginx-common
apt-get install php7.0-fpm php7.0-cli php7.0-bz2 php7.0-curl php7.0-gd php7.0-intl php7.0-json php7.0-mbstring php7.0-pgsql php7.0-sqlite3 php7.0-xml php7.0-ldap

Web configuration

Create a new file /etc/nginx/sites-available/lizmap.conf:

server {
    listen 80;

    server_name localhost;
    root /var/www/html/lizmap;
    index index.php index.html index.htm;

    # compression setting
    gzip_vary on;
    gzip_proxied any;
    gzip_comp_level 5;
    gzip_min_length 100;
    gzip_http_version 1.1;
    gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript text/json;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
       fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.*)$;
       set $path_info $fastcgi_path_info; # because of bug http://trac.nginx.org/nginx/ticket/321
       try_files $fastcgi_script_name =404;
       include fastcgi_params;

       fastcgi_index index.php;
       fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
       fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $path_info;
       fastcgi_param PATH_TRANSLATED $document_root$path_info;
       fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock;
       fastcgi_param SERVER_NAME $http_host;
    }
}

You should declare the lizmap.local domain name somewhere (in your /etc/hosts, or into your DNS..), or replace it by your own domain name.

Enable the virtual host you just created:

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/lizmap.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/lizmap.conf

Enable geolocation

The automatic geolocation provided by Lizmap relies on Google services. To enable it, your webGIS must be placed under a secure protocol, like HTTPS. See for more details:

https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/dev/Home/chromium-security/deprecating-powerful-features-on-insecure-origins

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-create-a-self-signed-ssl-certificate-for-apache-in-ubuntu-16-04

Restart Nginx

You must restart the Nginx server to validate the configuration.

service nginx restart

Create directories for data

Qgis files and other cache files will be stored into these directories.

 mkdir /home/data
 mkdir /home/data/cache/
# optional
 mkdir /home/data/ftp
 mkdir /home/data/ftp/template/
 mkdir /home/data/ftp/template/qgis

Spatial DBMS: PostgreSQL

Note

This section is optional

PostgreSQL and PostGIS can be very useful to manage spatial data centralized manner on the server.

Install

# Install packages
apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib postgis pgtune

# A cluster is created in order to specify the storage directory
mkdir /home/data/postgresql
service postgresql stop
pg_dropcluster --stop 9.6 main
chown postgres:postgres /home/data/postgresql
pg_createcluster 9.6 main -d /home/data/postgresql --locale fr_FR.UTF8 -p 5678 --start

# Creating a "superuser" user
su - postgres
createuser myuser --superuser
# Modifying passwords
psql
ALTER USER postgres WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD '************';
ALTER USER myuser WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD '************';
\q
exit

Adapting the PostgreSQL configuration

We will use pgtune, an utility program that can automatically generate a PostgreSQL configuration file adapted to the properties of the server (memory, processors, etc.)

# PostgreSQL Tuning with pgtune
pgtune -i /etc/postgresql/9.6/main/postgresql.conf -o /etc/postgresql/9.6/main/postgresql.conf.pgtune --type Web
cp /etc/postgresql/9.6/main/postgresql.conf /etc/postgresql/9.6/main/postgresql.conf.backup
cp /etc/postgresql/9.6/main/postgresql.conf.pgtune /etc/postgresql/9.6/main/postgresql.conf
nano /etc/postgresql/9.6/main/postgresql.conf
# Restart to check any problems
service postgresql restart
# If error messages, increase the linux kernel configuration variables
echo "kernel.shmall = 4294967296" >> /etc/sysctl.conf # to increas shred buffer param in kernel
echo "kernel.shmmax = 4294967296" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 4294967296 > /proc/sys/kernel/shmall
echo 4294967296 > /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax
sysctl -a | sort | grep shm
# Restart PostgreSQL
service postgresql restart

FTP Server: pure-ftpd

Note

This section is optional

Install

apt-get install pure-ftpd pure-ftpd-common

Configure

# Creating an empty shell for users
ln /bin/false /bin/ftponly
# Configuring FTP server
echo "/bin/ftponly" >> /etc/shells
# Each user is locked in his home
echo "yes" > /etc/pure-ftpd/conf/ChrootEveryone
# Allow to use secure FTP over SSL
echo "1" > /etc/pure-ftpd/conf/TLS
# Configure the properties of directories and files created by users
echo "133 022" > /etc/pure-ftpd/conf/Umask
# The port range for passive mode (opening outwards)
echo "5400 5600" > /etc/pure-ftpd/conf/PassivePortRange
# Creating an SSL certificate for FTP
openssl req -x509 -nodes -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/pure-ftpd.pem -out /etc/ssl/private/pure-ftpd.pem
chmod 400 /etc/ssl/private/pure-ftpd.pem
# Restart FTP server
service pure-ftpd restart

Creating a user account

# Creating a user accountr
MYUSER=demo
useradd -g client -d /home/data/ftp/$MYUSER -s /bin/ftponly -m $MYUSER -k /home/data/ftp/template/
passwd $MYUSER
# Fix the user's FTP root
chmod a-w /home/data/ftp/$MYUSER
# Creating empty directories that will be the future Lizmap Web Client directories
mkdir /home/data/ftp/$MYUSER/qgis/rep1 && chown $MYUSER:client /home/data/ftp/$MYUSER/qgis/rep1
mkdir /home/data/ftp/$MYUSER/qgis/rep2 && chown $MYUSER:client /home/data/ftp/$MYUSER/qgis/rep2
mkdir /home/data/ftp/$MYUSER/qgis/rep3 && chown $MYUSER:client /home/data/ftp/$MYUSER/qgis/rep3
mkdir /home/data/ftp/$MYUSER/qgis/rep4 && chown $MYUSER:client /home/data/ftp/$MYUSER/qgis/rep4
mkdir /home/data/ftp/$MYUSER/qgis/rep5 && chown $MYUSER:client /home/data/ftp/$MYUSER/qgis/rep5
# Create a directory to store the cached server
mkdir /home/data/cache/$MYUSER
chmod 700 /home/data/cache/$MYUSER -R
chown www-data:www-data /home/data/cache/$MYUSER -R

Map server: QGIS Server

Note

Details for the installation may differ for specific versions of the operating system. Please refer to http://qgis.org/en/site/forusers/download.html for up to date documentation.

First declare the QGIS repository into a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-qgis.list file. Its content should be:

deb http://qgis.org/debian-ltr stretch main

Install also the Qgis key for the package manager

# Add keys
sudo gpg --recv-key CAEB3DC3BDF7FB45
sudo gpg --export --armor CAEB3DC3BDF7FB45 | sudo apt-key add -

Update the package repository and install the Qgis packages:

# Update package list
sudo apt-get update

# Install QGIS Server
sudo apt-get install qgis-server python-qgis

Note

See https://docs.qgis.org/testing/en/docs/user_manual/working_with_ogc/server/index.html for more information on QGIS Server.

Retrieve and install Lizmap Web Client

cd /var/www/

With ZIP file

Retrieve the latest available stable version from https://github.com/3liz/lizmap-web-client/releases/

cd /var/www/
# Options
VERSION=3.3.0
# Archive recovery with wget
wget https://github.com/3liz/lizmap-web-client/releases/download/$VERSION/lizmap-web-client-$VERSION.zip
# Unzip archive
unzip $VERSION.zip
# virtual link for http://localhost/lizmap/
ln -s /var/www/lizmap-web-client-$VERSION/lizmap/www/ /var/www/html/lizmap
# Remove archive
rm $VERSION.zip

Set rights for Nginx, so php scripts could write some temporary files or do changes.

cd /var/www/lizmap-web-client-$VERSION/
lizmap/install/set_rights.sh www-data www-data

Create lizmapConfig.ini.php, localconfig.ini.php and profiles.ini.php and edit them to set parameters specific to your installation. You can modify lizmapConfig.ini.php to set the url of qgis map server and other things, and profiles.ini.php to store data in a database other than an sqlite database.

cd lizmap/var/config
cp lizmapConfig.ini.php.dist lizmapConfig.ini.php
cp localconfig.ini.php.dist localconfig.ini.php
cp profiles.ini.php.dist profiles.ini.php
cd ../../..

In case you want to enable the demo repositories, just add to localconfig.ini.php the following:

[modules]
lizmap.installparam=demo

Then you can launch the installer

php lizmap/install/installer.php

For testing launch: http://127.0.0.1/lizmap in your browser.

In case you get a 500 - internal server error, run again:

cd /var/www/lizmap-web-client-$VERSION/
lizmap/install/set_rights.sh www-data www-data

Development version with git

Warning

The development version is always changing, and bugs can occur. Do not use it in production.

The first time

apt-get install git
cd /var/www/
VERSION=master
# Clone the master branch
git clone https://github.com/3liz/lizmap-web-client.git lizmap-web-client-$VERSION
# Go into the git repository
cd lizmap-web-client-$VERSION
# Create a personal branch for your changes
git checkout -b mybranch

To update your branch from the master repository

cd /var/www/lizmap-web-client-$VERSION
# Check that you are on the branch: mybranch
git checkout mybranch

# If you have any changes, make a commit
git status
git commit -am "Your commit message"

# Save your configuration files!
lizmap/install/backup.sh /tmp

# Update your master branch
git checkout master && git fetch origin && git merge origin/master
# Apply to your branch, marge and manage potential conflicts
git checkout mybranch && git merge master
# Apply rights
chown :www-data temp/ lizmap/var/ lizmap/www lizmap/install/qgis/edition/ -R
chmod 775 temp/ lizmap/var/ lizmap/www lizmap/install/qgis/edition/ -R

Note

It is always good to make a backup before updating.

Give the appropriate rights to directories and files

cd /var/www/lizmap-web-client-$VERSION
chown :www-data temp/ lizmap/var/ lizmap/www lizmap/install/qgis/edition/ -R
chmod 775 temp/ lizmap/var/ lizmap/www lizmap/install/qgis/edition/ -R

First test

Go to the Lizmap Web Client home to see if the installation was performed correctly: http://localhost/lizmap

Note

Replace localhost with the address or IP number of your server.

Lizmap is accessible, without further configurations, also as WMS and WFS server from a browser:

http://localhost/lizmap/index.php/lizmap/service/?repository=montpellier&project=montpellier&VERSION=1.3.0&SERVICE=WMS&REQUEST=GetCapabilities

http://localhost/lizmap/index.php/lizmap/service/?repository=montpellier&project=montpellier&SERVICE=WFS&REQUEST=GetCapabilities

and from QGIS:

http://localhost/lizmap/index.php/lizmap/service/?repository=montpellier&project=montpellier&VERSION=1.3.0&

http://localhost/lizmap/index.php/lizmap/service/?repository=montpellier&project=montpellier&

Note

Access to the WMS and WFS servers can be limited by assigning privileges to specific repositories, see the administration section.

Editing tool: Configure the server with the database support

Note

This section is optional

PostgreSQL

For the editing of PostGIS layers in Web Client Lizmap operate, install PostgreSQL support for PHP.

sudo apt-get install php7.0-pgsql
sudo service nginx restart

Note

For editing, we strongly recommend using a PostgreSQL database. This greatly simplifies installation and retrieval of data entered by users.

Spatialite

Enable Spatialite extension

To use editing on layers spatiatlite,you have to add the spatialite extension in PHP. You can follow these instructions to do so: http://www.gaia-gis.it/spatialite-2.4.0-4/splite-php.html

Lizmap Web Client tests whether the spatialite support is enabled in PHP. If it is not, then spatialities layers will not be used in the editing tool. You can always use PostgreSQL data for editing.

Give the appropriate rights to the directory containing Spatialite databases

So that Lizmap Web Client can modify the data contained in databases Spatialite, we must ensure that the webserver user (www-data) has well write access to the directory containing each Spatialite file

For example, if a directory contains a QGIS project, which uses a Spatialite database placed in a db directory at the same level as the QGIS project:

/path/to/a/lizmap_directory
|--- mon_projet.qgs
|--- bdd
   |--- my_spatialite_file.sqlite

So you have to give the rights in this way:

chown :www-data /path/to/a/lizmap_directory -R
chmod 775 /path/to/a/lizmap_directory -R

Note

so if you want to install Lizmap to provide access to multiple map publishers, you should tell them to always create a db directory at the same level as the QGIS projects in the Lizmap Web Client directory. This will facilitate the admin work that just have to change the rights of this unique directory.