How to Install Flarum (Modern Forum Software)

Flarum is a fast, modern and mobile-friendly forum - a lightweight alternative to phpBB and Discourse. OpenPanel installs it with Composer in one click and can update it for you.

Requirements

OpenPanel Enterprise - the Flarum module must be enabled for your hosting plan.
A domain or subdomain, e.g. community.example.com.
PHP 8.1 or newer for the domain.

Install Flarum

Add the domain in OpenPanel → Domains (Add a new domain).
Go to OpenPanel → Websites → Install App and click Install Flarum.
Fill in the domain, Flarum version (Latest stable), forum title, and admin username, password and email.
Start the installation.

Install Flarum form with the site details, domain and location, and admin credentials

OpenPanel runs composer create-project flarum/flarum, creates a MySQL/MariaDB database, runs Flarum's installer and links the domain's document root to Flarum's public/ folder, so the rest of the code isn't reachable from the web.

Open https://community.example.com and log in with the admin account. The admin dashboard is at /admin.

Install Extensions

Flarum extensions are installed with Composer. Open OpenPanel → Containers → Terminal, select the domain's PHP container (e.g. php-fpm-8.3) and run:

cd /var/www/html/community.example.com
composer require fof/upload        # example: file uploads
php flarum cache:clear

Then enable the extension in Admin → Extensions. The web terminal is an Enterprise feature - see Terminal. Browse extensions at extiverse.com or discuss.flarum.org.

Email

Flarum sends email confirmations and notifications. In Admin → Email, choose SMTP and enter a mailbox from your domain. See Why do my emails go to spam?.

Scheduler

Some extensions (digests, cleanups) use Flarum's scheduler. Add a job in OpenPanel → Cron Jobs:

Container: php-fpm-8.3
Schedule: Every Minute
Command: php /var/www/html/community.example.com/flarum schedule:run

Managing the Forum

The forum's manage page in OpenPanel → Websites → Sites has:

Update - updates flarum/core with Composer, runs migrations and clears the cache.
Cache - runs php flarum cache:clear.
Logs - the tail of storage/logs/flarum.log.
Remove - uninstalls the forum and its database.

Take an account backup before updating or installing extensions.

More: Flarum in OpenPanel.