Installing user Docker

Since v0.3, Light Store can be installed using Docker & docker-compose.

This is the preferred way to install as it is OS-agnostic and provides pre-configured components (like a PostgreSQL database, reverse proxy, redis cache) for set up.

Follow this guide closely and you should have little to no problems setting up the store.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, this guide will assume a fresh installation of a Ubuntu 24.04 full-root server.

This guide should also apply to any other OS that docker and docker-compose work on, like Windows, MacOS and other Linux distros.

For linux-based distros, you may refer to Docker Engine Installation Guide for Docker installation guides related to your specific platform.
For Windows & MacOS it is recommended to use Docker Desktop for Windows or Docker Desktop for Mac.

Installing Docker

To install Docker it is usually recommended to follow the guides for your operating system linked in the prerequisites.

These steps are the recommended Docker installation steps for Ubuntu 24.04 taken from the Docker engine installation guide.

If you have an old version of docker installed already, make to sure to uninstall it using:

for pkg in docker.io docker-doc docker-compose docker-compose-v2 podman-docker containerd runc; do sudo apt-get remove $pkg; done

Set up Docker’s `apt` repository:

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

Install Docker:

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Test Docker:

sudo docker run hello-world

If this test works and prints a hello world, you’re ready to run the app.

Running Light Store

Download the provided product .zip from BuiltByBit or another licensing site in version v0.3 or above.

Once downloaded, unzip it on your target machine. On Ubuntu, this can be done using unzip Light\ Store\ v*.*.zip.

You can now change-directory into the unzipped directory and run docker-compose.

cd Light\ Store\ v*.*

Install store

Install the store by running:

php artisan app:install --key

This will prompt you for the hosting solution (either “docker” or “local”, choose “docker” when following this tutorial) and the final page url.

For non-https the URL will be http://your-server-ip:app-port, by default http://your-server-ip:8001. The port (8001) can be customized in docker-compose.yml.

For https, you will require a domain, generate a certificate, and use port 443 or native Nginx to proxy requests internally.

Starting Compose containers

sudo docker compose up -d --build

This command will run the docker-compose containers, as well as build the local image (required for this project).

The -d flag is used to detach from the running program so that leaving the command line does not cause the store page to terminate.

You should now observe docker compose download appropriate images, build the local image and eventually running them. Depending on the speed of your machine, this can take up to 10 minutes, so be patient.

Troubleshooting: Too many unauthenticated pulls

In this case, please log in to Docker Hub using the following command: shell docker login

Once complete, docker-compose will list the containers are “Started”.

Pre-v0.5

For versions before v0.5, you will need to run the following commands instead:

shell sudo docker compose exec -it store-app-1 cp .env.docker .env shell sudo docker compose exec -it store-app-1 php artisan key:generate shell sudo docker compose exec -it store-app-1 apt-get update && apt-get install -y nano shell sudo docker compose exec -it store-app-1 nano .env // Edit in your store url, exit & save with Ctrl + x

Navigate to this URL to see your store in action.

http://<your server's ip>:8001

Setting up the queue worker

On your host machine, create a new file in /etc/systemd/system/ called lightstore.service and add the following:

[Unit]
Description=Light Store Queue Worker
After=docker.service
Requires=docker.service

[Service]
User=root
Group=root
Restart=always
ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker exec store-app-1 php artisan queue:work
StartLimitInterval=180
StartLimitBurst=30
RestartSec=5s

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then run the following commands to enable the service and start it:

sudo systemctl enable --now lightstore.service

This should start up the queue worker. Check status by running sudo systemctl status lightstore (should say active (running))

Once you’ve got the page running, try logging in as admin using the default credentials:

Email: admin@admin.com
Password: admin

You should then be able to access the admin panel visible at /admin, or via the button in the profile dropdown menu.

Once in Admin, head down to the Users tab:

Users Tab

and create a new user for yourself, making sure you mark yourself as “Admin”.

User Form

Log out via the profile panel on the main page and re-log to the admin panel using your newly created account.

Next, delete the default admin@admin.com account. This step is very important for security, as, if not addressed this account could easily be used to access your admin panel.

A less secure option, but also viable, is to simply change the password of the default admin account, however this is not recommended, due to possible bruteforce attacks.