How to get started with Wheels 3.0 without 'modern tooling' #1838
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Are you using commandbox for your local environment? Just trying to figure out where the friction is?Can you provide more information on what you are doing and what the issues are.-Peter Amiri Sent from my iPhone (auto-typing mispell disclaimer in effect)On Jan 17, 2026, at 8:30 AM, andoradmiraal ***@***.***> wrote:
After building Wheels 2.5 apps for years, I'm hopelessly frustrated that I haven't been able to deploy a first Wheels 3.0 testing application, even after two solid working days trying.
Undoubtedly it's me being dumb, but I do hope there will soon be some information on how to (manually) deploy Wheels 3.0 applications. I see a lot that looks really promising, I just wish it wasn't so damn hard to get started.
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I understand now. We probably lean too much into simplification and leaned into command box approach. It should be simple enough to download the wheels-base-template-3.0.0+XX.zip and the wheels-core-3.0.0+XX.zip from https://github.com/wheels-dev/wheels/releases Wheels core is the old Wheels directory from the pre 3.0 day. Just expand it and drop it into the vendor folder. You’ll also need to download wirebox and testbox and drop them into the vendor folder as well.I’ll have to look at what else the install scripts do about variable replacement. Perhaps moving these to an initial setup phase might be better.Thanks for the feedback. It’s good to learn out people are using the framework. While building 3.0 we probably moved more toward new users’ experience with the framework and may have made it more difficult for existing users with existing workflows.-Peter Amiri Sent from my iPhone (auto-typing mispell disclaimer in effect)On Jan 19, 2026, at 6:53 AM, andoradmiraal ***@***.***> wrote:
Hi Peter,
Thanks for getting back—much appreciated, as is all your work on Wheels 3.
Our use case: Lean IIS/Lucee integration via our own app installers/Git repos.
Main friction (coming from pre-3.0 archive downloads):
No step-by-step docs for minimal setup from repos (core, CLI, base templates, etc.)—which combos for bloat-free?
Yes, did run installer and CommandBox to add additional webservers/Java/CF engines, though it feels intrusive for our workflow; extracting deployable files (e.g., skip TestBox, keep WireBox) requires trial/error and eventually poses the same problem as downloading repos directly: how to deploy? "Export" didn't work for production, but also wouldn't fit our workflow to begin with.
Core needs a lot of of manual file generation, for which I didn't find any guidance.
What worked: Layering base templates + core + WireBox ≈ Wheels 2.5 experience. A release note on this would save 2.5→3.0 upgraders grief.
Hope these notes help others. Even basic repo explanations on the GitHub download page would go far.
Wheels 3 now runs great on our production server—excited to upgrade apps! 🎉
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To complete my little guide for people doing an install without ColdBox/CommandBox/WhateverBox... We didn't run into any issues yet without 'Testbox' installed with Wheels, but officially it's required for Wheels. Finding the download link is quite tricky, so here it is:
Hope this helps!😊 |
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@andoradmiraal If you want to install Wheels manually without using CommandBox or the CLI, here’s a clear breakdown of what’s required and how to get it running. Core pieces you need:
Step-by-step setupCreate your application directory
The main entry point for a wheels 3.0 application is "/public/index.cfm". So you must configure that in IIS as the entry point to make sure that the wheels application works correctly. |
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have you seen a similar set of instructions for getting the sample app installed. I have tried various combinations of downloads without much luck. I am trying to get it working on a cf2025 / iis installation but was having troubles with relative vs absolute resolution of modules. could get around this and another problem arose. I couldnt decide if installation error or an error in the sample app. |
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First of all, @andoradmiraal, let me kiss your eyes. I was I afraid, i was just too stupid to get this running (and I am still not sure, if I am). I changed the root folder to The documentation about the manual installation says nothing about all this stuff, the example application doesn't have this stuff. Just in case, here are the other folders: |
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Hi guys, I just wanted to pipe in and apologize in a way. As I eluted to above we made some assumptions and leaned too much into the modern workflows and reliance on CommandBox, WireBox, and TestBox. I realize now that for those whose normal workflows don't include these tools, using Wheels 3.0 becomes increasingly difficult. Having to manually download multiple packages and manually put them into the right order just to get the framework operational was not what we set out to achieve. By adopting a CommandBox native implementation mechanism we were trying to simplify adoption and use of the framework but now see that we may have had the opposite effect for some veteran users. I now have some work in flight for the next revision of the framework dubbed 3.1. This revision reorganizes the directory slightly in order to make it completely runnable from a simple GitHub download or clone. It will have zero dependencies as well so you will not have to scramble to download multiple packages just to get the framework running. The latest round should start to show up in the snapshots and I'll blog about it in a day or so once the dust settles. |
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I’ve reworked the directory structure on the develop branch so a single download is all you need. No dependencies just point an app server to the /public folder. I hope to have the work finished up in the next few days and be able to update the docs so you can test. It started out as a 3.1 target, but it is starting to look more and more like a 4.0 target. Not in time, most of it is done, but in the scope of what is included.
I’ve been a little sidetracked with a side project that is starting to blow up right now. It's an AI agent orchestrator, I know, not another one of those, but needed it for all the work I'm doing in my day job and accross multiple GitHub Orgs. Read about it here:
***@***.***_9391/welcome-to-the-grove-6537759563ee
Welcome to the Grove
medium.com
…-Peter
On Mar 23, 2026, at 8:31 AM, blastiko ***@***.***> wrote:
Yeah, good times when i was download the zip, extract it and i was alredy to go.
Anybody of expert can give me how to cofigure Nginx web server to obtain a work environment?
Because I'm a developer, non system administrator.
Thank bpamiri, I hope that the framework return to be easy to set-up like in the past.
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After spending two entire days trying to run Wheels 3.0 for the first time, I finally figured out the secret souce. So to help others who might be in the same situation, this is my advise on how to install Wheels 3.0:
The hardest part is perhaps figuring out which files to download. I found you need to download 3 files:
The first two you can download from the Wheels Github, the last one you can download from https://forgebox.io/view/wirebox (click Versions, then on the three dots behind the latest version, then Download).
You might need to reboot your website or even your server, but now the Wheels application should run the home page.
Hope this helps!
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