To use the fpm image, you need an additional web server that can proxy http-request to the fpm-port of the container. See docker-compose.fpm.yml for example.

Using the fpm Image with HTTPS

If you would like to run the fpm setup with https, you can get a free certificate from Letsencrypt. As an example, the configuration in docker-compose.fpm-certbot.yml will take care of getting a certificate and installing it. Please note that you will have to adjust the domain name in the file examples/nginx-certbot.conf to match the domain used in the HOSTNAMES variable in the docker-compose configuration file. If you added both the a domain and the hostname www within the domain, nginx-certbot.conf needs to contain the domain without the hostname. E.g. if you set "HOSTNAMES=example.org www.example.org", the path in nginx-certbot.conf needs to contain example.org.

Using an external database

LimeSurvey requires an external database (MySQL, PostgreSQL) to run. See docker-compose.yml for example.

Persistent data

To preserve the uploaded files assign the upload folder into a volume. See docker-compose.yml for example.

Path: /var/www/html/upload/surveys

Hint: The mounted directory must be owned by the webserver user (e.g. www-data)

LimeSurvey configuration

The entrypoint will create a new config.php if none is provided and run the LimeSurvey command line interface for installation.

Hint: Changing the ADMIN_ configuration has no effect after the initial configuration. It's best to do this within the application.

To change to LimeSurvey configuration, you can mount a Volume into the Container at:

/my-data/config.php:/var/www/html/application/config/config.php

Hint: If this configuration is present before the installation, the LimeSurvey Web Installer will not run automatically.

Data encryption

LimeSurvey 4 supports data encryption, this image give you these options:

Provide a security.php file directly (volume)
Provide encryption keys for the security.php file (environment variables)
Provide nothing and get a non-persistent security.php file

For further details on the settings see: https://manual.limesurvey.org/Data_encryption

Reverse Proxy configuration

Traefik example

# BASE_URL = /limesurvey
"traefik.http.routers.limesurvey.rule=PathPrefix(`/limesurvey`)",
"traefik.http.routers.limesurvey.middlewares=strip-limesurvey@docker",
"traefik.http.middlewares.strip-limesurvey.stripprefix.prefixes=/limesurvey",

Environment Variables

Parameter	Description
DB_TYPE	Database Type to use. mysql or pgsql
DB_HOST	Database server hostname
DB_PORT	Database server port
DB_SOCK	Database unix socket instead of host/port
DB_NAME	Database name
DB_TABLE_PREFIX	Database table prefix
DB_USERNAME	Database user
DB_PASSWORD	Database user's password
ADMIN_USER	Initial LimeSurvey Admin User
ADMIN_NAME	Initial LimeSurvey Admin Username
ADMIN_EMAIL	Initial LimeSurvey Admin Email
ADMIN_PASSWORD	Initial LimeSurvey Admin Password
PUBLIC_URL	Public URL for public scripts
BASE_URL	Application Base URL
URL_FORMAT	URL Format. path or get
DEBUG	Debug level (0, 1, 2). Default: 0
DEBUG_SQL	SQL Debug level (0, 1, 2). Default 0
ENCRYPT_KEYPAIR	Data encryption keypair
ENCRYPT_PUBLIC_KEY	Data encryption public key
ENCRYPT_SECRET_KEY	Data encryption secret key

For further details on the settings see: https://manual.limesurvey.org/Optional_settings#Advanced_Path_Settings

Running this Image with docker-compose

The easiest way to get a fully featured and functional setup is using a docker-compose file. Several examples are provided in the repository.

docker-compose up

# Frontend
http://localhost:8080/

# Backend
http://localhost:8080/index.php/admin

README.md

LimeSurvey Docker

Quick reference

Supported tags and respective Dockerfile links

Using the Apache Image

Apache Configuration

Using the fpm Image