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First-run setup

Until setup is finished every page sends you to /setup. Setup takes about five minutes.

0. Setup code​

The setup code stops a stranger from claiming a fresh server. It's printed in the startup log, saved in App_Data/setup-code.txt, and filled in for you when you open setup on the server itself (localhost). Choose your own with PayLink__SetupCode.

The first page also shows where the data folder is and how to move it (PayLink__DataRoot), and warns when /app/App_Data isn't a mounted volume in Docker.

1. New or restore​

  • Start new. The encryption key for stored secrets (connection strings, client secrets, gateway keys) is created inside bootstrap.db in the data folder, so mounting App_Data is all a container needs. Tick that you understand that losing the folder loses the key.
  • Restore. Upload a backup .zip from Platform settings → Backup, or a bootstrap.db. PayLink reattaches its databases.

Setting PayLink__MasterKey (a base64 32-byte key) keeps the key outside the folder instead. It's optional and for advanced setups; if you do it, keep that value as safe as the folder.

2. Database hosting (optional)​

Somewhere PayLink may create MySQL databases: for the platform database now and, if you allow it, for tenants at signup. Choose Off (skip), A MySQL server (an admin user that can create databases and users, and which hosts new users may connect from), Plesk (panel host, admin login and password or a secret key, and the subscription ID) or cPanel (host, account user name and an API token).

Host PayLink connects to (optional) is the address PayLink uses for the databases it creates, when it differs from the panel's. In Docker the usual answers are offered as one-click suggestions: the gateway it detects, 172.17.0.1 or host.docker.internal.

Test & verify creates a test database and user, connects, and removes them again. If the panel refuses to remove them, the message names what was left so you can delete it. Details: database auto-provisioning.

3. Platform database​

  • SQLite (default): a file in the data folder. Fine for most installations.
  • A MySQL or PostgreSQL database you run: fields or a connection string; the test connects and checks it's empty (or already a PayLink platform database, which is reattached).
  • Create one with auto-provisioning: a MySQL database on the hosting from step 2, with a name you can edit. Its generated user and password are shown masked.

You can move the platform database later.

Every sign-in to PayLink goes through LoginLink. This step has four short parts; nothing is created in LoginLink until the last one.

  1. What you need and the server. The LoginLink address (default https://loginlink.websvc.in, or PayLink__LoginLink__DefaultServer) and PayLink's public address: where people reach PayLink, used for sign-in callbacks ({public address}/auth/callback). Test checks LoginLink answers.
  2. Platform credential (optional). A LoginLink Platform API credential with CreateTenants lets businesses create a new LoginLink organization during signup. Without it they connect an organization they already have.
  3. Your organization. Whose people sign in to /admin:
    • an existing organization and its management credential (Register apps, and Manage connectors so PayLink can switch on a sign-in method for its app),
    • a new organization created for you (needs the platform credential),
    • an app you registered yourself (client ID and secret), or
    • LoginLink's platform root organization.
  4. Who signs in to /admin. People you approve (default), the organization's LoginLink admins automatically, or anyone with a PayLink platform role in LoginLink. See admin access.

PayLink registers a "PayLink admin" app in the organization and makes sure it has a sign-in method turned on (Password first). If it can't, it tells you exactly where to turn one on (LoginLink Console → Apps → the app → Connectors) instead of sending you to a sign-in that would fail.

5. First admin​

Sign in with LoginLink. You become the first platform admin and land on /admin.

How setup behaves​

  • Every step with connection details has a Test button. Continue opens only after the test passes, and closes again if you change a field.
  • Nothing is saved until its test passes. Values you typed are kept, encrypted, as a draft while you move between steps.
  • Saved secrets are shown masked (••••••••••ab12), never in full. Leave a secret field empty to keep the saved one.