DreamFactory is a free and open source REST API middleware platform that provides RESTful services for building applications. It automatically generates a customizable and secure REST API for backend data resources. It also allows you to securely proxy to any remote REST or SOAP service and run your own custom APIs with DreamFactory. DreamFactory can be deployed on various platform and some of its features are listed below.
- Instant API creation
- Deep SQL support
- Combine databases
- Server-side scripting
- Rock solid security
- Live API docs
- Run anywhere.
Prerequisites
You’ll need a CentOS 7 server and root user to follow this guide if in case you are logged in as non root user then run sudo -i command to switch to root user.
Updating System
It is recommended to update your system and available packages before installing DreamFactory open source on your server. To update your system run underneath command.
yum -y update
Installing Apache Web Server
Once the system is updated, you can install the dependencies required. To install DreamFactory open source you will need to install the Apache web server along with MaraiDB and PHP with a few extensions.
Run the following command to install the Apache web server.
yum -y install httpd
Now you can start Apache and enable it to start at boot time, using the following commands.
systemctl start httpd.service systemctl enable httpd.service
You can check the status of Apache web server using the following command.
systemctl status httpd
You should see following output:
[root@Sajid ~]# systemctl status httpd
● httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2017-02-13 13:13:01 UTC; 24s ago
Docs: man:httpd(8)
man:apachectl(8)
Main PID: 10553 (httpd)
Status: "Total requests: 0; Current requests/sec: 0; Current traffic: 0 B/sec"
CGroup: /system.slice/httpd.service
├─10553 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
├─10554 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
├─10555 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
├─10556 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
├─10557 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
└─10558 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
Feb 13 13:13:01 ip-172-31-17-249 systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server...
Feb 13 13:13:01 ip-172-31-17-249 systemd[1]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.
We will need to install MariaDB for database purposes for DreamFactory. MariaDB 5.5 is shipped in the default CentOS 7 repository, so just run this command to install MariaDB.
yum -y install mariadb-server
Now you’ll have to start the MariaDB service and enable it to start at the boot time like we have done before for apache server, to do so please run following command.
systemctl start mariadb.service systemctl enable mariadb.service
You can check status of mariaDB using this below given command and you should see following output.
systemctl status mariadb.service
[root@Sajid ~]# systemctl status mariadb.service
● mariadb.service - MariaDB database server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2017-02-13 13:14:40 UTC; 20s ago
Main PID: 10703 (mysqld_safe)
CGroup: /system.slice/mariadb.service
├─10703 /bin/sh /usr/bin/mysqld_safe --basedir=/usr
└─10860 /usr/libexec/mysqld --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --plugin-dir=/usr...
Feb 13 13:14:38 ip-172-31-17-249 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[10624]: The latest information about Ma....
Feb 13 13:14:38 ip-172-31-17-249 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[10624]: You can find additional informa...:
Feb 13 13:14:38 ip-172-31-17-249 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[10624]: http://dev.mysql.com
Feb 13 13:14:38 ip-172-31-17-249 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[10624]: Support MariaDB development by ...B
Feb 13 13:14:38 ip-172-31-17-249 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[10624]: Corporation Ab. You can contact....
Feb 13 13:14:38 ip-172-31-17-249 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[10624]: Alternatively consider joining ...:
Feb 13 13:14:38 ip-172-31-17-249 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[10624]: http://mariadb.com/kb/en/contri.../
Feb 13 13:14:38 ip-172-31-17-249 mysqld_safe[10703]: 170213 13:14:38 mysqld_safe Logging to '/...'.
Feb 13 13:14:38 ip-172-31-17-249 mysqld_safe[10703]: 170213 13:14:38 mysqld_safe Starting mysq...ql
Feb 13 13:14:40 ip-172-31-17-249 systemd[1]: Started MariaDB database server.
Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.
We recommend you to make sure that this installation is secure and to do so run following command.
mysql_secure_installation
You’ll be asked to provide root password so enter appropriate password and answer yes to all questions by pressing Y.
Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter button
Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
New password: your-root-password
Re-enter new password: your-root-password
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y
Now you’ll have to create a database for DreamFactory so please follow the instructions.
mysql -u root -p
You’ll be asked to enter password so simply enter a password and now execute the following queries to create a new database.
CREATE DATABASE dreamfactory;
The above query will create a database named dreamfactory. For the database you can use any name you prefer in the place of dreamfactory. Make sure that you use semicolon at the end of each query as a query always ends with a semicolon. Once the database is created you can create a new user and grant the required permissions to the user for the database.
CREATE USER 'df_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword';
The above query will create a user with username df_user. You can use any preferred username instead of df_user. Replace StrongPassword with a strong password.
Now provide the appropriate privileges to your database user over the database you have created. Run the following query to do so.
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON dreamfactory.* TO 'df_user'@'localhost';
Now run the following query to immediately apply the changes on the database privileges.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Now you can exit from MariaDB prompt using following command.
\q.
We will have to install PHP 7.1. To do so run following commands as shown below.
yum -y install epel-releaserpm -Uvh https://mirror.webtatic.com/yum/el7/webtatic-release.rpm
Now use this command to install PHP 7.1 and required extensions.
yum install mod_php71w php71w-common php71w-cli php71w-gd php71w-mbstring php71w-mcrypt php71w-xml php71w-mysqlnd php71w-pecl-mongodb -y
Next you’ll have to restart your apache web server to load new components that we just configured and use following command to restart apache web server.
systemctl restart httpd.service
Installing Composer
You’ll have to install composer first to install DreamFactory software so let’s install latest release of composer and please execute below given commands to do so.
cdphp -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
php -r "if (hash_file('SHA384', 'composer-setup.php') === '55d6ead61b29c7bdee5cccfb50076874187bd9f21f65d8991d46ec5cc90518f447387fb9f76ebae1fbbacf329e583e30') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;"
php composer-setup.php
php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"
We have installed composer successfully and now you’ll need to make it globally accessible so you’ll have to move files and you can do so by running underneath command, it will do the job for you.
mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
Installing DreamFactory
Once you have installed all the dependencies required then now you are ready to install DreamFactory. DreamFactory open source software is available in the github repository so install git and download latest stable release of DreamFactory, to do so run following commands.
yum -y install gitwget https://github.com/dreamfactorysoftware/dreamfactory/archive/2.4.2.tar.gz
We have downloaded DreamFactory and no we have extract it so run below given commands to extract it and install required dependencies.
tar -zxvf 2.4.2.tar.gzcd dreamfactory-2.4.2
If in case you don’t have composer package installed on your system then you can install it using yum -y install composer
composer install --no-dev
The above command may take some moments so you’ll have to wait until it finished.
mv ~/dreamfactory-2.4.2 /opt
Next set proper ownership to the software using below given commands:
chown -R root:root /opt/dreamfactory-2.4.2
chown -R apache:apache /opt/dreamfactory-2.4.2/storage/ /opt/dreamfactory-2.4.2/bootstrap/cache/
chmod -R 2775 /opt/dreamfactory-2.4.2/storage/ /opt/dreamfactory-2.4.2/bootstrap/cache/
Next change your directory to /opt/dreamfactory-2.4.2 and create a .env file to store DreamFactory configuration and you can do so using these commands as shown.
cd /opt/dreamfactory-2.4.2php artisan dreamfactory:setup
Next input database details as shown below:
Which database would you like to use for system tables? [sqlite]:
[0] sqlite
[1] mysql
[2] pgsql
[3] sqlsrv
> 1
Enter your mysql Host:
> localhost
Enter your database name:
> dreamfactory
Enter your database username:
> df_user
Enter your database password:
> yourpassword
Re-enter your database password:
> yourpassword
Enter your Database Port [3306]:
> 3306
Run same command again to set up admin details.
php artisan dreamfactory:setup
Enter your admin details as shown below:
Creating the first admin user...
Enter your first name:
> Sajid
Enter your last name:
> Qureshi
Enter display name:
> Sajid Qureshi
Enter your email address?:
> me@sajidbhaijaan.net
Choose a password:
> <your-admin-password>
Re-enter password:
> <your-admin-password>
Creating a Virtual Host
You’ll need to set up a virtual host for DreamFactory, you can do that using any text editor here we are using nano text editor if in case you don’t have nano editor then you can install it using yum -y install nano and run this command to create a virtual host configuration file.
nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/dreamfactory.conf
Add below given content to the file and replace the values of ServerAdmin, ServerName, ServerAlias, Errorlog, and CustomLog with your own ones.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin@example.com
DocumentRoot /opt/dreamfactory-2.4.2/public/
ServerName dreamfactory.example.com
ServerAlias www.dreamfactory.example.com
<Directory /opt/dreamfactory-2.4.2/public/>
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
AllowOverride None
Require all granted
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^.*$ /index.php [L]
<LimitExcept GET HEAD PUT DELETE PATCH POST>
Allow from all
</LimitExcept>
</Directory>
ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/dreamfactory.example.com-error_log
CustomLog /var/log/httpd/dreamfactory.example.com-access_log common
</VirtualHost>
Save the file and exit from the text editor and restart your apache web server using this command to apply changes that we have just made.
systemctl restart httpd.service
Finally you’ll have to modify firewall rules so if in case you don’t have firewalld services installed on your server then you can install it using yum -y install firewalld and you can start it using systemctl start firewalld
Next run these below given commands to modify the firewalld rules.
firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-service=httpfirewall-cmd --reload
Next temporarily disable SELinux services and then restart your apache web server using these commands as shown.
setenforce 0systemctl restart httpd
Web Access
Open up your favorite web browser and visit http://yourserverIP to access DreamFactory and log in using admin email address and password.
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By clicking on log in button you’ll see admin dashboard like this shown below and you can turn your database into a RESTful API platform using it.
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Conclusion
In this tutorial you have learned how to install and configure DreamFactory open source software on your CentOS 7 server. We hope now you have enough knowledge to work with DreamFactory.
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