Document CiviCRM: Installation, and import and configuration of database and template settings

[gitressa]

This is not a request for help, but just to document how to restore a CiviCRM installation in DDEV, in case anyone ever needs this information, since I spent some time figuring out how to import the second database, which contains CiviCRM.

A dedicated page for setting up DDEV with CiviCRM would be great, and if and when it is created, this tip could get included.

After restoring the Drupal installation files and database, you can import the CiviCRM database with this command:

ddev import-db --database=cividb --file=cividb.sql

Note: The extra database cividb will not be included if you run ddev describe.

civicrm.settings.php

Comment out the server settings, and use these values in your civicrm.settings.php file, inserted right after global $civicrm_root; if you want to keep them in one place:

global $civicrm_root;

/* LOCAL DEVELOPMENT */
define( 'CIVICRM_UF_DSN'  , 'mysql://db:db@db:3306/cividb?new_link=true' );
define( 'CIVICRM_DSN'     , 'mysql://db:db@db:3306/cividb?new_link=true' );
define('CIVICRM_LOGGING_DSN', CIVICRM_DSN);
$civicrm_root = '/var/www/html/sites/all/modules/civicrm';
define( 'CIVICRM_TEMPLATE_COMPILEDIR', '/var/www/html/sites/default/files/civicrm/templates_c/' );
define( 'CIVICRM_UF_BASEURL'      , 'https://civicrm.ddev.site/' );

[gitressa]

Closing, since there is nothing to fix.

[rfay]

Thanks for this. There are a couple of ways you might make this more accessible.

• A writeup on Stack Overflow, where you click the checkbox to answer your own question. Those are easier to maintain over the long term.
• There are still some things on ddev-contrib although the most important ones have become add-ons
• Maybe this could become and add-on?
• A github template might also be interesting, not sure if that's applicable or not.

Anyway, thanks for capturing it!

[gitressa]

You're welcome @rfay, thanks for a fast answer!

An add-on could be an idea, though the install process is fairly "hand held" ...

https://docs.civicrm.org/installation/en/latest/drupal/

Maybe adding a recipe with just a README like for example https://github.com/ddev/ddev-contrib/tree/master/recipes/redaxo-cms could be worth considering?

[gitressa]

I created https://github.com/ddev/ddev-contrib/pull/235.

I have two questions and you probably know the answer :-)

• ToDo: Add command to add ext-intl PHP extension in DDEV.

  Is this possible?

• Note: The extra database cividb will not be included if you run ddev describe.

  Maybe this is a feature request, which should this be addressed in a follow up issue?

[rfay]

The intl PHP extension is provided by default in DDEV.

Note: The extra database cividb will not be included if you run ddev describe.

I assume you're saying that ddev describe doesn't tell you about your extra databases. I never thought about that as being its job. It doesn't tell you about the mysql or information_schema or performance_schema databases. And of course all these things are different with PostgreSQL.

[gitressa]

Ah yes, you're right. I forgot to put ddev in front of the Composer command, so it was evaluating my machine PHP, not DDEV's. This works:

ddev composer require civicrm/civicrm-{core,packages,drupal-8}

Should I create a new merge request, or can you update the command in the documentation, and remove this bit? --ignore-platform-req=ext-intl

About the database, it's just because the default database is included:

$ ddev describe
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Project: civicrm ~/dev/civicrm https://civicrm.ddev.site                                      │
│ Docker platform: Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS                                                           │
│ Router: traefik                                                                               │
├──────────┬──────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────┤
│ SERVICE  │ STAT │ URL/PORT                                               │ INFO               │
├──────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ web      │ OK   │ https://civicrm.ddev.site                              │ drupal10 PHP8.1    │
│          │      │ InDocker: web:80,8025,443                              │ nginx-fpm          │
│          │      │ Host: 127.0.0.1:32777,32778                            │ docroot:'web'      │
│          │      │                                                        │ NodeJS:18          │
├──────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ db       │ OK   │ InDocker: db:3306                                      │ mariadb:10.4       │
│          │      │ Host: 127.0.0.1:32774                                  │ User/Pass: 'db/db' │
│          │      │                                                        │ or 'root/root'     │
├──────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ Mailpit  │      │ Mailpit: https://civicrm.ddev.site:8026                │                    │
│          │      │ `ddev launch -m`                                       │                    │
├──────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ All URLs │      │ https://civicrm.ddev.site, https://127.0.0.1:32777,    │                    │
│          │      │ http://civicrm.ddev.site, http://127.0.0.1:32778       │                    │
└──────────┴──────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────┘

After importing the database, it's of course possible to verify via ddev ssh and mysql and show databases; and show tables;. But it would be nice if it was included, both to show the credentials, but also confirm it was created and working, like this:

$ ddev describe
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Project: civicrm ~/dev/civicrm https://civicrm.ddev.site                                      │
│ Docker platform: Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS                                                           │
│ Router: traefik                                                                               │
├──────────┬──────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────┤
│ SERVICE  │ STAT │ URL/PORT                                               │ INFO               │
├──────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ web      │ OK   │ https://civicrm.ddev.site                              │ drupal10 PHP8.1    │
│          │      │ InDocker: web:80,8025,443                              │ nginx-fpm          │
│          │      │ Host: 127.0.0.1:32777,32778                            │ docroot:'web'      │
│          │      │                                                        │ NodeJS:18          │
├──────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ db       │ OK   │ InDocker: db:3306                                      │ mariadb:10.4       │
│          │      │ Host: 127.0.0.1:32774                                  │ User/Pass: 'db/db' │
│          │      │                                                        │ or 'root/root'     │
├──────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ cividb   │ OK   │ InDocker: db:3306                                      │ mariadb:10.4       │
│          │      │ Host: 127.0.0.1:32774                                  │ User/Pass: 'db/db' │
│          │      │                                                        │ or 'root/root'     │
├──────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤
[...]

[gitressa]

I created https://github.com/ddev/ddev-contrib/pull/236 to remove the redundant intl PHP extension note.

[JoeMurray]

Thanks, @gitressa for contributing back to the community like this. Just a note for people coming here and wanting to understand the state of play here, before possibly going further, in the following statements

define( 'CIVICRM_UF_DSN'  , 'mysql://db:db@db:3306/cividb?new_link=true' );
define( 'CIVICRM_DSN'     , 'mysql://db:db@db:3306/cividb?new_link=true' );

These two mysql connection strings define how CiviCRM will communicate with the User Framework, ie Drupal CMS database, in CIVICRM_UF_DSN and the CiviCRM database in CIVICRM_DSN. As configured, they indicate that Drupal and CiviCRM will share a single database named cividb. They also both use the same mysql username, db, which has a password also db, and a mysql server location of db communicating on the standard mysql port of 3306. Future work would be:

1. Improve security by using a strong password.
2. Slightly improve convenience of managing backups and restores by using a separate database for Drupal and CiviCRM.
3. With separate databases, defining separate mysql users with their own strong passwords arguably would improve security a bit.

2 and 3 are perhaps bike-shedding, but 1 is important.