Sulu CMS (Symfony) Installation and Setup

Sulu CMS Installation and Configuration (Symfony)

Sulu is installed as a Symfony project via Composer. It requires PHP 8.2+, MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL, and understanding of the Webspaces concept. This is not WordPress — without Symfony knowledge, the installation process takes more time.

System Requirements

• PHP 8.2+ with extensions: intl, gd or imagick, pdo_mysql / pdo_pgsql, xml, zip, curl
• MySQL 8.0+ / MariaDB 10.6+ / PostgreSQL 14+
• Composer 2
• Node.js 18+ (for building the backoffice frontend)

Installation

composer create-project sulu/skeleton my-project
cd my-project

Configure .env.local:

APP_ENV=dev
APP_SECRET=your-secret-key-here

DATABASE_URL="mysql://sulu:[email protected]:3306/sulu_db?serverVersion=8.0"
# or PostgreSQL:
# DATABASE_URL="postgresql://sulu:[email protected]:5432/sulu_db?serverVersion=14&charset=utf8"

[email protected]

Database Initialization

# create database
php bin/console doctrine:database:create

# run Sulu migrations
php bin/console doctrine:migrations:migrate --no-interaction

# create first admin user
php bin/console sulu:security:user:create \
  --firstName="Admin" \
  --lastName="Admin" \
  --username=admin \
  [email protected] \
  --locale=en \
  --role=ROLE_SULU_ADMIN

# populate necessary Sulu data
php bin/console sulu:document:initialize
php bin/console sulu:phpcr:init

Sulu Configuration

# config/packages/sulu.yaml
sulu_core:
    content:
        structure:
            default_type:
                homepage: 'default'
                page: 'default'
            paths:
                app:
                    path: '%kernel.project_dir%/config/templates'
                    type: 'page'
                app_homepage:
                    path: '%kernel.project_dir%/config/templates'
                    type: 'home'

sulu_document_manager:
    mapping:
        - alias: 'page'
          phpcr_type: 'sulu:page'
          class: 'Sulu\Bundle\ContentBundle\Document\PageDocument'

sulu_media:
    storage:
        name: 'local'
        options:
            base_path: '%kernel.project_dir%/public/uploads/media'
            base_url: '/uploads/media'
    image_format_files:
        - '%kernel.project_dir%/config/image-formats.xml'

Nginx Configuration

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name example.com en.example.com admin.example.com;

    root /var/www/my-project/public;
    index index.php;

    ssl_certificate     /etc/ssl/certs/example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/example.com.key;

    client_max_body_size 50M;

    location / {
        try_files $uri /index.php$is_args$args;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.*)$;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param DOCUMENT_ROOT $realpath_root;
        internal;
    }

    location /uploads/ {
        expires 30d;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }
}

Jackalope and PHPCR

Sulu uses PHPCR (PHP Content Repository) via Jackalope. By default, Jackalope Doctrine DBAL stores content in a relational database. Alternative is Jackrabbit (Java), but for most projects, DBAL is sufficient.

# config/packages/doctrine_phpcr.yaml
doctrine_phpcr:
    session:
        backend:
            type: doctrinedbal
            connection: default
            caches:
                meta: cache.app
                nodes: cache.app
        workspace: default
    odm:
        auto_mapping: true
        auto_generate_proxy_classes: '%kernel.debug%'

Route Configuration

# config/routes_website.yaml
sulu_website:
    resource: "@SuluWebsiteBundle/Resources/config/routing/website.xml"
    type: xml

app_default:
    path: /{slug}
    requirements:
        slug: .*
    defaults:
        _controller: Sulu\Bundle\WebsiteBundle\Controller\DefaultController::indexAction

# config/routes_admin.yaml
sulu_admin:
    resource: "@SuluAdminBundle/Resources/config/routing/admin.xml"
    prefix: /admin

sulu_core_api:
    resource: "@SuluCoreBundle/Resources/config/routing/api.xml"
    prefix: /api

app_admin:
    resource: ../src/Controller/Admin/
    type: annotation
    prefix: /api

Building the Backoffice Frontend

# install dependencies
npm install

# development
npm run build:dev   # or npm run watch

# production
npm run build

Sulu backoffice is a React application. Custom components are added via custom Bundles.

Caching and Performance

# warm up cache
php bin/console cache:warmup --env=prod

# clear PHPCR cache
php bin/console cache:clear

# task queue (Messenger)
php bin/console messenger:consume async --limit=100

For production, Redis is recommended as cache backend:

# config/packages/cache.yaml
framework:
    cache:
        default_redis_provider: 'redis://127.0.0.1:6379'
        pools:
            cache.app:
                adapter: cache.adapter.redis

Deployment

# on server
composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
npm ci && npm run build
php bin/console cache:warmup --env=prod
php bin/console doctrine:migrations:migrate --no-interaction --env=prod

Timeline

Basic installation with one Webspace, two languages, and first user: 1 day. With Nginx setup, Redis, Messenger, and initial template configuration: 2–3 days.