Installation

Before you start#

Obtain an authorised Care CMS source copy through your project arrangement. There is no public self-service download. Install PHP 8.2 or newer, Composer and the required extensions. The current distribution is SQLite-first; MySQL requires a separate application migration and concurrency review.

• PHP: PDO SQLite, ctype, iconv, mbstring, DOM/XML, intl, fileinfo, GD and OpenSSL.
• Optional Google connections: PHP cURL and working certificate validation.
• Optional encrypted backup bundles: PHP ZIP with AES-256 support.
• Optional local email inbox: Docker Desktop with Docker Compose.
• Node is not needed to run the PHP CMS. Browser development checks use Node separately.

Install the application#

Extract the authorised source into its own directory. Do not place a client database or production secrets inside it. Run these commands from that directory:

composer install
docker compose up -d
php bin/setup.php
php bin/console app:create-admin reviewer@example.test

Docker starts Mailpit only. It does not run the PHP application or a production mail service. Without Docker, configure another local SMTP catcher privately before testing email verification. Setup creates a random local application secret when needed, applies migrations, prepares fictional content and installs assets. It does not create a shared administrator password. The administrator command prompts for your own password: at least 14 characters, at most 72 bytes.

Start the local website#

php -S 127.0.0.1:8020 -t public bin/router.php

Subsequent Windows starts#

Stop any older CMS development server first, then use the bundled startup script:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\start-local.ps1

It warms Symfony's cache before starting the loopback server. It does not change global php.ini, rerun migrations or reset content during ordinary startup. Keep the terminal open while you use the local website.