How do I install Aero?

Required Services

First, we need to install a few required services.

Composer

A dependency manager for PHP (Download Composer).

Node.js

A JavaScript runtime that lets you run tools and apps outside of the browser (Download Node.js).

Laravel Herd

An all-in-one local development environment for Laravel and PHP,

MacOS: Installation guide for MacOS
Windows: Installation guide for Windows

If not using Herd Pro you'll need to run MySQL yourself, we suggest using DBngin (Download DBngin).

If needed, you can secure a Herd site by clicking the lock next to its name in the Site Manager (See herd docs).

Docker

An open source container service provider (Download Docker).

Setting up Agora

Agora is our platform for managing Aero projects. It allows organisations to oversee their projects, collaborate with agencies, and publish custom packages and/or themes. These packages and themes can be installed via Composer to extend or customise the functionality of any Aero store.

You must apply to be an agency on Agora to be able to use Aero Commerce.

Applying to be an Aero Commerce Agency

You can begin the application process here: https://agora.aerocommerce.com/register.

Creating your Project Credentials

To create your project credentials, navigate to https://agora.aerocommerce.com/projects and click the New Project button, then simply enter the project's name and optionally its domain.

Elasticsearch

Elasticsearch is the search engine that we'll use for our store. To set it up, we will create a Docker container by running the following command in our terminal:

docker run -d \
  -p 9200:9200 \
  -m 1GB \
  -e "discovery.type=single-node" \
  -e "xpack.security.enabled=false" \
  elasticsearch:8.17.4

-d Enables detached mode, meaning the container will run in the background without blocking the terminal.
-p 9200:9200 Maps port 9200 on your local machine (host) to port 9200 inside the container.
-m 1GB Limits the container's memory usage to 1 GiB (else it will reserve 50% of your Docker memory).
-e "discovery.type=single-node" Sets the environment variable to configure Elasticsearch to run in single-node mode.
-e "xpack.security.enabled=false" Disables X-Pack security, meaning no authentication is required for accessing Elasticsearch.

You can check for the latest version to install instead of 8.17.4 here.

You can ensure Elasticsearch is running by visiting http://localhost:9200.

Creating your First Store

Before we can create our first store we must install the command-line installer tool using Composer, to do this run the following commands in your terminal:

First, install it globally:

composer global require aerocommerce/cli

Then, make sure to place Composer's system-wide vendor bin directory in your $PATH:

export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.composer/vendor/bin"

Now we have global access to the aero new command in our terminal which we can use like so to create our first store:

aero new my-first-store --laravel=13

--laravel=[version] Optionally specifies the laravel version to install.

You will be prompted to enter your Agora project credentials that you created earlier, you can find them here.

Storefront

You can view your storefront by navigating to http://my-first-store.test in your browser, which will be empty as your store has no listings.

Admin

You can view the admin by navigating to http://my-first-store.test/admin in your browser and logging in.

Username: admin@example.com
Password: aerocommerce

Upon logging in you will be prompted to change your password & must do so before being able to navigate to other pages of the admin.

Importing Sample Data

First, enter the store’s directory, e.g.:

cd my-first-store

Then run the products import command (choose one of the below):

Fashion: herd php artisan aero:import:products:csv https://aero-data.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/products.csv
Furniture: herd php artisan aero:import:products:csv https://aero-data.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/furniture.csv

As well as the blocks import command (choose one of the below, inline with previous choice):

Fashion: herd php artisan aero:import:blocks:csv https://aero-data.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blocks/fashion.csv
Furniture: herd php artisan aero:import:blocks:csv https://aero-data.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blocks/furniture.csv

Finally, run your search queue:

herd php artisan queue:work --queue=search --timeout=0

Once done, navigate to http://my-first-store.test to see your imported products on the storefront or http://my-first-store.test/admin/catalog/products to view them in the admin.