Setup ExpressionEngine

Setup ExpressionEngine

This example installs ExpressionEngine inside the Devilbox PHP container, creates a MySQL database, and serves the CMS through the standard Devilbox htdocs document root.

Overview

Project name	Container path	Database	TLD_SUFFIX	Project URL
my-ee	/shared/httpd/my-ee	my_ee	lvh.me	http://my-ee.lvh.me / https://my-ee.lvh.me

Projects live in /shared/httpd/ inside the PHP container and in ./data/www/ on the host.

Prerequisites

• Devilbox installed with PHP 8.3 or PHP 8.4 available.
• HTTPD, MySQL, and Bind services enabled.
• An ExpressionEngine download URL or release archive from your ExpressionEngine account.

Start the stack:

./dvl.sh up php httpd mysql bind

Walk through

It will be ready in eight steps:

1. Enter the PHP container.
2. Create a new virtual host directory.
3. Download and extract ExpressionEngine.
4. Link the webroot to htdocs.
5. Add a MySQL database.
6. Verify DNS.
7. Run the installer.
8. View the site and control panel.

1. Enter the PHP container

./dvl.sh shell php83

2. Create the vhost directory

mkdir -p /shared/httpd/my-ee
cd /shared/httpd/my-ee

3. Download and extract ExpressionEngine

Download the current ExpressionEngine release archive from the official source, then place it in the vhost directory as ee.zip:

mkdir ee
unzip ee.zip -d ee

Expected structure:

tree -L 1
.
├── ee
└── ee.zip

4. Link the webroot

ExpressionEngine can be served from the extracted directory unless you move its public entrypoint elsewhere:

ln -s ee htdocs

Expected structure:

tree -L 1
.
├── ee
├── ee.zip
└── htdocs -> ee

5. Add the MySQL database

mysql -u root -h 127.0.0.1 -p -e 'CREATE DATABASE my_ee CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;'

Remember the database name and credentials for the browser installer.

6. Verify DNS

my-ee.lvh.me resolves to 127.0.0.1 by default. For a custom suffix, add an equivalent hosts-file entry.

7. Install ExpressionEngine

Open http://my-ee.lvh.me/admin.php or https://my-ee.lvh.me/admin.php and follow the installer.

Use these database values:

• Host: 127.0.0.1
• Database: my_ee
• User: root
• Password: your MySQL password from .env

Caution

After the installer finishes, remove or rename the installer directory if ExpressionEngine does not do it automatically.

8. View your site

Open http://my-ee.lvh.me or https://my-ee.lvh.me. The control panel remains available at /admin.php.

Next steps

• Use the Devilbox intranet database tools to inspect my_ee.
• Configure trusted HTTPS before production-like testing.
• Add cache or queue services only when your ExpressionEngine project requires them.