Like every other endeavor in life, there are two ways of installing Joomla!—the easy way and the difficult way. In order to do it the difficult way, you will need to set up your server by yourself before you proceed with the installation. You have the choice of environment to use for your new installation: you may install directly to a live server or you can set up a test environment on your local computer.
A fully-operational web server (preferably Apache) is required to successfully install and use Joomla!. You also need a database (preferably MySQL) and the server-side scripting language PHP, together with specific modules for MySQL, XML, and Zlib functionality, which are activated within PHP amongst others. Following are the minimum versions of these server components that are required:
Software | Minimum requirement | Recommended | Latest options | Website |
PHP | 4.3.10 | 4.4.7 | 5.x.series | http://php.net |
MySQL | 3.23.x or above |
| 5.x series | http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.0.html |
Apache | 1.3 or above |
| 2.2 series | http://httpd.apache.org |
There are a number of ways to set up a test environment on your own local computer. Most time-pressed developers will install and configure directly onto a live server, but there are good reasons for running your application first on a local development server:
WampServer2 enables you to run Apache, MySQL, and PHP on Windows, and is available for free. You can download it from http://www.wampserver.com. The WampServer2 package comes with the following components already configured to work together:
There are similar packages that already include Joomla! (such as DeveloperSide and WDE). However, note that these may not always have the latest secure version of Joomla!. Therefore, it is better to use WampServer2 and load it with the Joomla! version of your choice.
WampServer2 is self-installing. Just double-click on the icon after you’ve unpacked your zipped download and follow the installation instructions. This gets your development environment ready in just a few minutes. Now let the fun begin!
Installing Joomla! on localhost can be remarkably straightforward:
This page asks what language you want to use for the installation.
We select English as the language of choice. Click on the Next button to continue with your installation.
Checks are made by the installation script on server configuration. If any of these items are not supported (marked as No), then your system does not meet the minimum requirements for the installation of Joomla!, and you should take the appropriate actions in order to correct the errors.
Failing to do so could lead to your Joomla! installation not functioning properly. You are not likely to face this problem on your local installation, and if you do, it can be quickly fixed.
The License page is just a page of legalese that the developers of Joomla! really think you must read. It tells you the conditions for use of the free software and also spells out liabilities. Primarily, if the Joomla! installation makes your computer to explode or you start acting funny after you are done with the installation, the suppliers of Joomla! will accept no liability. After correcting any host-specific errors and reading the license, you will be directed to the Database Configuration page.
On the Database Configuration page, you specify the database where Joomla! will store and retrieve data.
Select the type of database from the drop-down list. This will generally be mysql. Also, enter the hostname of the database server that Joomla! will be installed on. This may not necessarily be the same as your web server, so check with your hosting provider if you are not sure. In the present case, it will be localhost. Now enter the MySQL username, password, and database name that you wish to use with Joomla!. These must already exist for the database that you are going to use. We have already determined this when we created the data base. Here are the values for our present project:
Click on the Next button to continue.
You can safely omit this step and go on to the next page. But if you do decide to carry out this step, do take notice of the following requirements:
However, for security reasons, if the option is available, you are advised to create a separate FTP user account with access to the Joomla! installation only and not to the entire web server.
This is where you define your site’s public identity.
The descriptions of the fields are as follows:
That’s all! Your installation success screen will be displayed. Congratulations, you are now on your way to becoming a Joomla! Guru.
Once the installation script has successfully been completed and you have removed the installation folder, you will be directed to the Joomla! Administration login page—if you want to immediately perform administrative functions on your new site. Otherwise, clicking on the Site icon will direct you to the front page of your site showing all of the sample data—if you have loaded it.
That is the most of what you need to know about installing Joomla!.
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