History: Requirements
Preview of version: 224
See also Tiki's Lifecycle and Browser Compatibility.
Requirements and Setup
This page lists the minimum requirements and recommended settings to install Tiki.
If you are using a standard shared webhost, your webhost most likely meets these requirements and you should be able to install Tiki with no problems. Tiki is designed to run on shared hosting, using the LAMP stack.
These instructions are useful for people that are configuring their own server for Tiki.
Shared Host
Tiki will run in most shared webhost environments. Many hosts offer Tiki installation via a control panel application (such as Fantastico).
You should verify that your webhost meets the minimum requirements:
See Tiki Friendly Hosts for a list of working shared host environments.
Requirements
Webserver
You must have a fully operational webserver in order to install and use Tiki. Tiki should run on any webserver that supports PHP (such as Windows IIS or lighttpd), but is most widely tested and used with Apache. You may need to make minor modifications for non-Apache webservers.
To simply installation on Windows IIs, Tiki is included in the Windows Web App Gallery and can be installed with the Microsoft Web Platform Installer. See Microsoft Web Platform installer for details.
Your webserver should be configured with the following minimum requirements:
- 512 MB RAM
- 100 MB free storage
Database 
Tiki requires MariaDB or MySQL.
| Tiki Version | MariaDB Versions | MySQL Versions | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tiki21 LTS | 5.5+ | 5.5.3+ | Maximum versions too soon to know. |
| Tiki19 or Tiki20 | 5.5-10.4 | 5.5.3-5.7 | MySQL 5.6+ or MairaDB 10.1+ are recommended |
| Tiki18 LTS | 5.1-10.4 | 5.0-5.7 | MySQL 5.6+ or MairaDB 10.1+ are recommended as not all features will be available at lesser versions. |
| Tiki15 LTS | 5.0-10.1 | 5.0-5.6 | In Tiki 15+ Upgrade scripts in in MariaDB 10.1 / MySQL 5.6 may not work from earlier versions of Tiki. |
| Tiki12 LTS | 5.1-5.5 | 5.0-5.5 |
The database can be installed in the same physical location of the webserver (that is, as localhost) or Tiki can access a remote database.
PHP
| Tiki Version | Minimum PHP Version | Maximum PHP Version | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tiki21 LTS | 7.2 | Too soon to know | |
| Tiki19 or Tiki20 | 7.1 | 7.2 (maybe 7.3 as well) | There is known issue with Tiki 20.2 where PHP requirement was bumped up to PHP 7.2 accidentally |
| Tiki18 LTS | 5.6 | 7.2 | |
| Tiki15 LTS | 5.5 | 5.6 | |
| Tiki12 LTS | 5.3 | 5.6 |
Interesting links about PHP lifecycle
- http://php.net/supported-versions.php
- https://wiki.php.net/rfc/releaseprocess
- http://w3techs.com/technologies/history_details/pl-php/5/q
The default memory_limit in a standard PHP installation is 128M, and this should be fine for the vast majority of Tiki installations. Some web hosts install PHP with a lower default. Although Tiki may appear to install successfully, you will continually face issues with pages failing to load and system errors.
To review your PHP Memory Limits, access http://www.example.com/tiki-phpinfo.php and review the following values:
- max_execution_time = 60 ; Maximum execution time of each script, in seconds
- max_input_time = 60 ; Maximum amount of time each script may spend parsing request data
- memory_limit = 128M ; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume
For some shared webhosts, these values may not be user-configurable and you may need to request changes from your webhost, whereas in other hosts you are allowed to fine tune these settings for your needs. You can try uncommenting the corresponding lines in the .htaccess file at your tiki root folder on the server, like:
# increase memory php_value memory_limit 128M # increase execution time... php_value max_execution_time 90
More information
Required PHP Functions
Some webhosts tend to disable some functions which are required for Tiki to run flawlessly.
| Function | Notes |
|---|---|
| eval() | Required by Smarty templating engine. Causes "Please contact support about" messages appearing instead of Modules when ev php.ini. |
Additional Libraries
| Library | Notes |
|---|---|
| libxml | Required |
| DOM | Required starting from Tiki 19 |
| mbstring | Required by zend_search_lucene for Admin panel searching and managing preferences in perspectives. Useful when working with languages that require it mbstring needs to be compiled with --enable-mbregex or otherwise you will be missing functions like mb_split() which are needed for example by Smarty. Since Tiki 17, the symfony/polyfill-mbstring compatibility library (via symfony-console) is used in core functionality, but mbstring is still required for some functionality. |
| ctype | Required |
| calendar | Required |
| iconv | Required by certain Zend Framework validation and parsing classes |
| MySQLi | In Tiki 12-18 MySQLI is recommended but the Tiki installer will fall back to the older MySQL driver if MySQLi is unavailable. |
| zip | The ZipArchive class for php must be installed for some features such as XML Wiki Import-Export and PluginArchiveBuilder |
php.ini Configuration
We recommend using the following configuration in your php.ini file:
| PHP.INI Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| memory_limit = 128M | Specify the maximum memory for PHP scripts. |
| _file_uploads = On | Required to allow uploads (files, images, etc.) to your Tiki |
| upload_max_filesize = XXM post_max_size |
Specify the maximum upload filesize (in MB). |
| session.save_path = /tmp | The directory where PHP stores session information (for the default handler (files)). Ensure that the location exists and is writable. In Shared Hosting environments, if you do not have access to /tmp, use temp (no slash) instead. |
| max_execution_time = 60 max_input_time = 60 |
Specify the idle timeout (in seconds). If you experience timeouts (such as when performing Admin functions) you may need to increase these settings. |
| default_charset = "utf-8" | Specify the default character encoding. |
| mbstring.func_overload = 0 | Tiki will not work properly with mbstring.func_overload = 7. |
The location of the php.ini file may vary, depending on your operating sytem. Some common locations include:
- /etc/php.ini
- /etc/php/php.ini
- /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini (Debian)
- /etc/php/7.x/apache2/php.ini
- \windows\system\php.ini (Windows)
Optional Software or Libraries
Some Tiki features require the following additional software or libraries:
| Feature | Additional Requirements |
| Rewrite Tiki's default URLs | Use the Apache Clean URLs to create shorter, or custom, URLs. |
| Elasticsearch | See Elasticsearch page (requirements section) |