Installation

Requirements

• PHP >= 8.0
• Composer
• MySQL / MariaDB (or PostgreSQL / SQLite for alternative drivers)
• Apache with mod_rewrite enabled (or use the built-in development server)

Option A — Via Composer (recommended)

composer create-project gustocoder/dorguzen my-app
cd my-app

Replace my-app with your project folder name. Composer will pull the latest stable release and install all dependencies automatically.

Option B — Clone from GitHub

git clone https://github.com/gustavNdamukong/Dorguzen.git my-app
cd my-app
composer install

1. Set up your environment file

Dorguzen ships with .env.example as a starting template.

cp .env.example .env

Open .env and fill in the values for your local setup. At minimum you need:

APP_NAME=yourAppName
APP_URL=http://localhost/yourAppName

FILE_ROOT_PATH_LOCAL=/yourAppName/

DB_CONNECTION=mysqli
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_DATABASE=your_database_name
DB_USERNAME=your_db_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_db_password
DB_KEY=a-random-encryption-key

DB_KEY is used to AES-encrypt password fields in the database. Choose any random string and keep it consistent — changing it after data has been inserted will break password verification.

See the Configuration page for the full list of available environment variables.

2. Create the database

Create a MySQL database that matches the DB_DATABASE name you set, then run the migrations:

php dgz migrate

This creates all the core tables — users, logs, jobs, SEO settings, contact form messages, and more.

3. Seed the database

php dgz db:seed

This creates the default super-admin account and populates the baseSettings table with sensible starting values.

The default admin credentials are:

Change these immediately after your first login.

4. Point your web server at the project root

Apache (MAMP / XAMPP)

Set the document root so that http://localhost/yourAppName resolves to the project directory containing index.php. Apache's mod_rewrite must be enabled and AllowOverride All must be set for the directory so that .htaccess is respected.

Built-in PHP development server

If you prefer not to configure Apache, use the serve command:

php dgz serve

This starts the app on http://localhost:8000 by default. You can specify a different port:

php dgz serve --port=9000

The built-in server is for local development only. Use Apache or Nginx in production.

5. Log in

Visit http://localhost/yourAppName and you should see the home page. Navigate to /auth/login and sign in with the admin credentials above to access the admin dashboard at /admin/dashboard.