Installation
DreamFactory is supported on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.
Get started with DreamFactory by following the installation instructions below. To get started select an install method and platform below.
Contents
Free Hosted Developer Environment
Sign up for a free DreamFactory-hosted developer account at www.dreamfactory.com. Your developer environment is hosted by DreamFactory, allowing you to try out the software without any additional installation and configuration. It supports almost all of the available service types, including the paid services so you can try everything out before purchasing a license. This trial expires after 30 days.
GitHub
You can install DreamFactory directly from GitHub. We have provided platform specific instructions. If your desired platform is not available, you may need to modify the instructions presented herein.
Platforms
- Linux
- Mac
- Windows
General Instructions
Required Software and Extensions
At minimum, you will need the following software and extensions installed and enabled on your system in order to successfully clone and install DreamFactory 2.12.
- PHP 7+ - check and install the requirements below for your particular environment.
- PHP required extensions: Curl, MBString, MongoDB, SQLite, and Zip. You may need to install other extensions depending upon DreamFactory usage requirements.
- Git - see https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-Installing-Git
- A web server such as NGINX, Apache, or IIS. You may use PHP's built-in server for development purposes.
- One of four databases for storing configuration data: MS SQL Server, MySQL (MariaDB or Percona are also supported), PostgreSQL, or SQLite.
- Composer - see https://getcomposer.org/download/, may require cURL to be installed from particular environment below.
- MongoDB driver - DreamFactory versions >= 2.1 require PHP's MongoDB driver to be installed. If the driver is not available, please remove the
df-mongodb
requirement fromcomposer.json
, or include the--ignore-platform-req
option when running composer install.
The commands shown below are primarily for a Linux/Unix-based operating system, but should also work on Windows (directory structure is obviously different) with all the required software and extensions installed.
- Clone this repository to a directory on your system. For testing, using a directory under your home directory is easiest, otherwise choices like
/var/www/
or/opt
may be preferred.
$ git clone https://github.com/dreamfactorysoftware/dreamfactory.git ~/df2
- Change your working path to that directory.
$ cd ~/df2
- Install dependencies using composer. If you're installing DreamFactory for use in a production environment, include the
--no-dev
option to avoid installing development-specific packages.
$ composer install --no-dev
- Run DreamFactory's command-line setup wizard. This wizard will prompt you for things like the database settings, first administration user account, etc.
- Note: In earlier versions of DreamFactory this command was named
dreamfactory:setup
ordf:setup
. As of DF 2.7.0 the command is changed todf:env
- to set up the db connection
$ php artisan df:env
- to set up the tables and the admin user in the db.
$ php artisan df:setup
- Make sure your web server can read/write from/to
storage/
andbootstrap/cache/
directories.
Example:
$ sudo chown -R {www user}:{your user group} storage/ bootstrap/cache/ $ sudo chmod -R 2775 storage/ bootstrap/cache/
Set Up a Web Server
If you're just trying out DreamFactory, consider using PHP's built-in web server:
$ php artisan serve
Alternatively, you'll want to provision a web server by following these instructions:
Nginx
Apache
Set Up a Database
Additional drivers may be required if you plan on REST-enabling a database:
Switching Your System Database
Your DreamFactory application manages many configuration details within an underlying database (four of which are supported: MySQL, MS SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and SQLite). If you want to change from one system database to another after you've already run setup/installation:
- Stop your web server
- Edit the
.env
file found in the DreamFactory application's root directory to define the correct driver, host, and port number. For example:
DB_CONNECTION=mysql DB_HOST=localhost DB_DATABASE=dreamfactory DB_USERNAME=dreamfactory DB_PASSWORD=dreamfactory DB_PORT=3306
- In your shell navigate to the DreamFactory application's root directory (
htdocs
in Bitnami installs) - Run these commands:
$ php artisan config:clear $ php artisan cache:clear $ php artisan df:setup //Answer the on screen prompts
- Restart the web server
Bitnami Desktop/Server Installers
Installation
You can install DreamFactory using a simple GUI installer for the following desktop operating systems. Most of the common extensions and drivers are included with these installers.
- Linux (CentOS, Red Hat, Mint, Debian, and Ubuntu desktop and server).
- Mac OS X.
- Microsoft Windows (Windows 7, 8, 10 and Server 2008R2). Note: that some features may not be available or may be limited in this environment.
Bitnami Virtual Machine
You can download DreamFactory as a virtual machine for VMware, VirtualBox, or other hypervisor environments.
Bitnami Installs
Bitnami lists the requirements for a native installer as such:
- Intel x86 or compatible processor
- Minimum of 512 MB RAM
- Minimum of 150 MB hard drive space
- TCP/IP protocol support
- One of the following compatible operating systems:
- A Linux operating system.
- A Windows operating system such as Windows Server 2008+, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10.
- An OS X operating system.
These requirements are subject to change, so be sure to check the Bitnami Documentation for the most up to date information.
Docker Image
The DreamFactory Docker image on DockerHub is now maintained by Bitnami. You can pull it and follow their instructions for deploying a Bitnami package of DreamFactory in Docker.
If you don't want to use Bitnami, you can still build your own docker image using our df-docker repo on GitHub.
IaaS Clouds
You can install DreamFactory on IaaS cloud platforms with Bitnami. Follow the instructions below:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud Platform
- Oracle Cloud Platform
- CenturyLink
- 1&1 Cloud Platform
- IBM SoftLayer
- Rackspace
PaaS Clouds
You can install DreamFactory on PaaS cloud platforms (Platform as a Service). Follow the instructions below.
Raspberry Pi
You can install and configure DreamFactory on Raspberry Pi 2 as an open source IoT gateway. Follow the general instructions here.