3. Installing Joomla!

This chapter will explain how to download and manually install Joomla! and will explain the basic configuration options. The screenshots and instructions will reference a common Web hosting control panel called Cpanel. Cpanel is an interface that allows users to control the various functionalities of their hosting account. A number of hosts have their own hosting control panel account interfaces that are similar to Cpanel, and your host will have documentation that shows you the equivalent actions and functions that we describe in this walk-through.

The main functions we will be referencing are creating a database, accessing phpMyAdmin, and using File Manager. If your host does not use Cpanel, please refer to the documentation for each of those functionalities that your host has available to familiarize yourself with them before proceeding. Also note that some hosts may limit your ability to create databases or your access to phpMyAdmin. In that case, you will have to contact your host to get the database name, database username, and database password. You should make sure that the database character set is UTF-8 and the collation is utf8_general_ci. Having the database set to this character set and collation gives the broadest available use of numerals, alphabetic characters, and symbols across many languages.

In Chapter 2 we discussed how to choose a good host for Joomla! and what the minimum requirements are for running Joomla! This chapter requires that those best practices have been followed and that the host offers an optimal environment for running Joomla!

Choosing a Joomla! Version and Installation Options

Joomla! will always have two versions available for installation, the long-term-support (LTS) release and the short-term-support (STS) release. At the time of this writing the LTS release is Joomla! 2.5 and the STS release is Joomla! 3.0. Joomla! 3.1 will be released in March 2013. Eventually there will be Joomla! 3.5 as an LTS release and Joomla! 4.0 as a new STS release. As someone building a new Web site, you can choose either Joomla! 2.5 or Joomla! 3.0. Both will work well, but there are some considerations.

A short-term release will always have new and better features, but at the same time it may not have as many extensions and it may have more challenges for use, especially if it has a 0 after the decimal in the version number. A long-term release will be the most stable and mature, but if it is close to the end of its life cycle (for example, if version 3 is already at 3.2), you will have to upgrade to a new LTS release relatively quickly.

In the history of Joomla! the number of fresh installations of the newest version in a given day tends to surpass the number of installations of the old version about two to three months after the major release. While we can’t give you firm advice on this because we don’t know when you will be reading this, we recommend that you discuss your options with people on forum.joomla.org and see what their experiences are with the new and old versions. In particular you will want to assess what, if any, extensions you want to add to your site and their availability for each version.

Once you have chosen a host, there are several ways to install Joomla! We will spend most of this chapter explaining how to do a manual installation step by step. However, most hosts offer a “one-click” installation option for Joomla! In some cases they create their own applications for this, but in many cases they use a standard application, the most popular of which is called Fantastico. Fantastico is included on many server control panels and is part of the standard setup of the Cpanel control panel. Please review your host’s instructions for a one-click installation. In some cases you will need to carry out some of the steps outlined in the manual installation instructions such as creating a database. While one-click installations have some limitations, they can be very useful for beginners. They can be especially handy for learning Joomla! before you install your real site since the process is quick and easy. For following along with what we do in the chapters that follow you may want to use one-click installation and uninstallation to create and delete Joomla! instances quickly.

If you choose managed hosting, you really won’t even need to install; your host will usually give you an already installed instance. The site demo.joomla.org provides a managed hosting environment. We will discuss using an exported installation from the demo site as an alternative to a manual installation later in this chapter.

Even with all of these options, we still prefer to do manual installation of Joomla! It gives you the most control over the process and, for beginners, will help you understand some of the underlying structure of your site and the software. As a Webmaster it is important that you understand how your server works with Joomla! and the different pieces that work together to make your site.

Downloading Joomla!

Go to www.joomla.org and look for the Download link, which at this time looks as shown in Figure 3.1.

Figure 3.1. Get the latest version of Joomla!

Clicking the Download link will take you to a page that lists the latest downloads, as shown in Figure 3.2, including both the long-term and short-term releases. Select the release you want and download the full package by clicking Download. Save the file onto your computer in a place you will remember easily, such as your desktop. At this time the page for downloading Joomla! also includes a lot of other helpful information about using Joomla!

Figure 3.2. Joomla! Download screen showing where to click to get the Full Package ZIP file

Once you have downloaded Joomla! and subscribed to the security update e-mail list, you need to navigate using your browser to your hosting account’s control panel, log in, and use the following steps to prepare your hosting account to install Joomla! In the examples in this chapter, the screenshots depict Cpanel as the hosting account control panel. Some hosts may use an older or newer version of Cpanel, which will look slightly different but include the same functions. Your host may use a custom control panel and may look very different. Your host should have documentation available to help you navigate and complete these steps.

Creating a Database

Once you have logged in to administer your hosting account through your host’s control panel or Cpanel, you want to look for the MySQL Database Wizard. Cpanel offers a Find box in the upper-left corner that allows you to find the function you are looking for easily. In the Find box type in data. Figure 3.3 depicts using the Find box and how Cpanel then filters the functions available to show only those that may pertain to Databases (1). You want to click MySQL Database Wizard to open the database wizard screen to create a new database.

Figure 3.3. Using Cpanel to create a database using the MySQL Database Wizard

Once you have clicked and opened the database wizard, you will be walked through screens to create your database. The first step is creating a database by giving it a name, as shown in Figure 3.4.

Figure 3.4. Create a new database by entering a name for your database

After you click Next Step, you will see a confirmation that a database has been created, and it will confirm the name of that database. Some hosts will add your hosting account name or another string of characters to the name that you gave to the database; see the blurred text in Figure 3.5 (1). It is helpful to keep notes about what the full database name is, which is its combined name. The wizard then asks you to create a database username and give the database user a password. Figure 3.5 (2) points out that you need to have a very strong password for your database that is a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols to be the most secure. Do not use a common phrase, name, or easily guessed dictionary word. Cpanel includes a password generator that will generate a password made up of a random string of letters, numbers, and symbols that you can use by clicking Generate Password. Using Generate Password will open a small overlay window where you can select how you want the generator to generate the password. Please write down your username and password for safekeeping. Once the password is generated, you can click Next Step.

Figure 3.5. Create a user and a password for the new database

Figure 3.6 shows that the user has been added and the password that was entered for that user (1). The Step 3: Add User to the Database section states the full username of the user and the full name of the database (2). This is where you attach the user of the database to the database and assign the privileges that the user has in relationship to the database. For this database used for Joomla!, you want to assign All Privileges by checking the All Privileges box (3).

Figure 3.6. Assigning privileges to a database user and confirming the database full name, full username, and user password

Complete the process of creating a database by clicking Next Step. You will see a confirmation screen, as shown Figure 3.7, that will give you options to create another database, add another user, or return to the Cpanel home screen. You want to go to the home screen to continue with uploading and installing Joomla!

Figure 3.7. Final confirmation screen of creating a new MySQL database and assigning a user to the database

After you have created your database, check to make sure that the character set is UTF-8 and the collation of the database is utf8_general_ci. You can see these settings in phpMyAdmin. To access phpMyAdmin, do a search for data, on the front page of your Cpanel (the search box will be in the top-left corner). This will bring up the options you have regarding databases. Click the selection for phpMyAdmin to open it (usually it opens in a new window or tab in your browser). When you open phpMyAdmin, you will see your databases on the left side. Figure 3.8 is an example of the screen that you see in phpMyAdmin. Select the database we just created, and then click the Operations tab (1). The Operations tab shows a variety of information regarding your database such as the character set and collation. When we created our database, it was given the collation of latin1_swedish_ci (2). It is common on a number of hosts to have latin1_swedish_ci as the default collation and Latin as the default character set.

Figure 3.8. Example of phpMyAdmin and where to find the collation information

The collation should be changed to UTF-8 to allow the broadest use of characters, because Joomla! requires UTF-8. Click the collation drop-down to pick utf8_general_ci (see Figure 3.9) as a collation, and then click Go (1).

Figure 3.9. Selecting utf8_general_ci to change the character set and collation of a database

You will then be presented with a screen that confirms that the change has executed successfully, and as shown in Figure 3.10 (1), the collation is now changed to utf8_general_ci.

Figure 3.10. Successful change of character set and collation

You can now close the tab or window for phpMyAdmin. The next step will be using the File Manager located in Cpanel to upload the Joomla! zip file we downloaded earlier in this chapter.

Using the File Manager to Upload Joomla!

From the Cpanel home page in the top-left corner, search for file, and you will see the options available to work with files using your hosting account. Select and open the File Manager. This will open in a new tab or window in your browser. Once File Manager has opened, navigate to your root folder for your hosting account. On most hosts this is called public_html; it can also be called htdocs or something similar. Your hosting company should have documentation available to you that states what your root folder is and where you put your Web site files. The root folder of your Web site is the folder into which you want to upload the Joomla! zip file. Click Upload in the toolbar located at the top of the screen. This will open a new tab or window where you can then click Browse to find and select the zip file, as shown in Figure 3.11. If you are familiar with the use of an FTP client such as FileZilla, you can use it to upload the zip file, but always wait to unzip until your file is on the server to minimize the risk of file corruption.

Figure 3.11. Using Cpanel to upload files to your hosting account

Once the file has uploaded, you can go back to the main File Manager screen either by clicking the option to return to the File Manager on the screen or by closing that tab or window. Once you are back in the File Manager, you will see the Joomla! zip file in your public_html folder. Select the zip file by putting a check mark in the box (1), and then click Extract (2), as shown in Figure 3.12.

Figure 3.12. Using Cpanel File Manager to extract the files from a zip archive

Once you have clicked Extract in the top menu of the File Manager, you will be asked to confirm a path. This path should be in your default root hosting account folder, which is usually called public_html or home. This may vary from host to host, so you may want to confirm with your host what your root hosting account folder is called before extracting the files. Figure 3.13 demonstrates the extraction path selection.

Figure 3.13. Extract path selection screen

Figure 3.14 shows the results of clicking Extract File(s).

Figure 3.14. Results of extraction

Upon closing the Extraction Results screen, you will see that all the files for Joomla! have been extracted into your public_html directory. Keep the File Manager open in your browser, either in its own window or on a tab, because you will be using the File Manager in the very last step of installation.

The next step is to go through the Web installation to install Joomla!

Joomla! Web Installation

In your browser, in a new window or tab, navigate to your Web site such as www.yourwebsitename.com. If your domain has not propagated throughout the Web yet, you can usually use a temporary URL for your site. This temporary URL will be specific to your hosting company, which will be able to give it to you. Most times a temporary URL for a hosting account will look similar to http://yourhostingcompanyservername.com/~yourhostingaccountname.

The installation processes for Joomla! 3 and Joomla! 2.5 differ in details although the same general process is in place. Please read the instructions for the version you are using.

Installation in Joomla! 3

When your domain or temporary URL has opened, you will be presented with the first Joomla! installation screen, as shown in Figure 3.15. Give your site a short name and description (both can be edited later) and provide a username, e-mail address, and password. These will define your account for logging in to Joomla!, so use a safe password and make sure you write the information down for use later. You can also select the language that you want to use while going through the installation (the default in your browser will be preselected). Once you have picked your language, click Next in the top-right corner of the screen.

Figure 3.15. The first of five steps to install Joomla! through the Joomla! 3 Web installer

You will be taken to the Database screen as shown in Figure 3.16. This is where you will fill in the database username, password, and name, all of which you should have at hand from following the instructions for creating a database. The first selection box allows you to pick the type of database. The database we set up was a MySQLi database, which is the default selection for that drop-down menu. However, you may use any of the available options (only the ones your server supports will be listed), although you should always use MySQLi rather than MySQL.

Figure 3.16. Second Joomla! 3 installation screen: database settings

The next page, called Overview, shown in Figure 3.17, provides you with a detailed summary of your settings and also warns you about any settings that will prevent Joomla! from installing. If any items are highlighted in red or say No, you will need to stop what you are doing and ask your host for assistance. If it is not possible to install Joomla! 3.0 or later, you may need to switch to Joomla! 2.5. One of the most common problems is that your configuration.php is not writable. This could be an indication that your host is not running an optimal setup in regard to file permissions and/or file ownership on its servers. To solve this issue if you cannot resolve it with your host, please see Appendix A. Joomla! will provide you with an option to manually create a configuration.php file at the end of the installation process if this situation applies to you. In this case you will also want to enable the FTP layer that Joomla! offers.

Figure 3.17. Third Joomla! 3 installation screen: pre-installation check

You can request that an e-mail summarizing this be sent to the e-mail address you provided on the first screen. This can pose a small security risk because the e-mail will include your password. You may wish to take a screen-shot of this screen instead.

This page will also allow you to install sample data. Sample data can help you learn Joomla! and also give you a head start in setting up your site, but it also can be a bit of work to delete when you are finished. If you are going to follow along with Chapter 5, you will want to select None so that what you see matches the illustrations. However, if you want to just explore Joomla! for a little while before continuing with the book, you can install one of the options. Click the Install button.

The next page lets you watch as installation is completed, as shown in Figure 3.18. This may take a few minutes, but you just need to watch and let it run.

Figure 3.18. Fourth Joomla! 3 installation screen: finishing the installation

When complete it will automatically forward you to the final success page, shown in Figure 3.19. At this point you are reminded of your username and password and instructed to press a button to delete the installation folder. After doing that, you can click to go to either your Joomla! site or the administrator. For now, go to the site. This will look like Figure 3.20. If you wish to use a language besides English on your site, click the install language button and select the language you would like.

Figure 3.19. The languages install button

Figure 3.20. Joomla! 3 site with no sample data installed

Installation in Joomla! 2.5

When your domain or temporary URL has opened, you will be presented with the first Joomla! installation screen, as shown in Figure 3.21, where you will be asked to select the language that you want to use while going through the installation. Once you have picked your language, click Next in the top-right corner of the screen.

Figure 3.21. The first of seven steps to install Joomla! through the Joomla! 2.5 Web installer

The next screen is Pre-installation Check (see Figure 3.22), which will help you determine whether your server is optimally set up to install Joomla! The top portion shows items that are required to install Joomla!, and all of the items should have a green Yes beside them. If any of the items in the top box show a red No, you should rectify the situation with your host before continuing. One of the most common issues to show up as No in the top box is that the configuration.php is not writable. This could be an indication that your host is not running an optimal setup in regard to file permissions and/or file ownership on its servers. To solve this issue if you cannot resolve it with your host, please see Appendix A. Joomla! will provide you with an option to manually create a configuration.php file at the end of the installation process if this situation applies to you. In this case you will also want to enable the FTP layer that Joomla! offers.

Figure 3.22. Second installation screen: Pre-installation Check

The second set of information relates to specific settings for PHP. Joomla! will install if these settings are not optimal, but any indication of an issue with a recommended setting not being present could cause problems with your site in the future.

If you are able to change or have your host change any settings to their optimal selections, you can click Check Again to see whether the changes have taken effect. We strongly recommend that all of the settings be optimal for your Joomla! site to be successful. If they are not, submit a support ticket with your host asking for assistance in changing them. When you are ready to proceed from this screen, click Next in the top-right corner to go to the License screen.

The License screen, shown in Figure 3.23, presents a copy of the GNU General Public License and is for informational purposes. When you are ready to proceed, click Next in the top-right corner to go to the Database Configuration screen.

Figure 3.23. The GNU General Public License

The Database Configuration screen, as shown in Figure 3.24, is where you will define the database for your Joomla! site that was set up previously. This is also where you will define the user and the user’s password for the database. The first selection box, which is a drop-down, allows you to pick the type of database. The database we set up was a MySQLi database, which is the default selection for that drop-down menu.

Figure 3.24. The Database Configuration screen

The second box to fill out is Host Name. This is usually localhost, but if it is not, you will have to get the host name from your hosting provider.

The third box is where you will enter the username for the database that we set up earlier. It is important to remember that your host may have added your hosting account name to the front of the name you set up for your user. You will have to use the entire name for installation to continue (for example, xxyyzz_dbuser).

The fourth box is where you will put in the password you created for the user.

The fifth box is where you will enter the name of the database that was created earlier. It is also important to remember that your host may have added your hosting account name to the front of the name you set up for your database. You will need to use the entire name for installation to continue (for example, xxyyzz_dbname).

The sixth box lets you select a table prefix. Joomla! will randomly create one for you. At times you may want to choose your own. If you do change the default, be sure to include the underscore character. Without the underscore, the prefix letters will run into the database table names. You also have the ability to drop (remove) any tables that may exist in your database or back up any existing tables. Backup tables will automatically use the prefix bak_.

When you have finished putting in the details of your database, click Next in the top-right corner to go to the FTP Configuration screen.

The FTP layer exists to help with managing your Web site files in certain hosting environments. FTP is a network protocol used to facilitate a connection between two computers over the Internet. This connection allows users to upload, download, and manipulate files between the two computers. Some Linux-based servers have issues with system permissions and restrictions. The FTP layer in Joomla! allows authorized users on hosts with these issues to have access to upload processes available within Joomla! such as installing extensions and uploading images in the Media Manager. If your host is using good practices to manage hosting account file ownership and permissions by using suPHP, PHPsuExec, or a similar solution, you should not have to use the FTP layer.

To use the FTP layer, you must enable it by selecting Yes to enable it and then fill in the FTP user with your FTP username and your password. Your host can supply this username and password to you, or if your host allows it, you can create an FTP username and password for your account through your hosting control panel. Once you have entered the credentials for your FTP account, you can use Autofind to find the path to the directory containing your Joomla! files and verify your FTP settings.

As shown in Figure 3.25, there is an Advanced Settings slider. If you click on it, there will be fields where you can specify the FTP host and FTP port, if your hosting provider has a specific setting that you need to use. You will need to get that information from your hosting provider. Later, you will be able to change the FTP settings through the Global Configuration settings in Joomla!

Figure 3.25. The FTP configuration screen

If you are not using the FTP layer or after you have put in the information needed to make the FTP layer work, click Next in the top-right corner to go to the Main Configuration screen.

As shown in Figure 3.26, the Main Configuration screen is where you set your site name (1), set up the main administrator account for your site with your e-mail address (2) and password (3), install sample data (4), and migrate data from a Joomla! 1.0 site into your database.

Figure 3.26. The Main Configuration screen

In the Site Name field, put the name of your site; typically this will be your company name, your business name, or the name you want people to associate with your Web site. The Your E-mail field is where you will put the e-mail address that will be the main e-mail address associated with the administrator of the Web site. The Admin Username, Admin Password, and Confirm Admin Password fields are for the administrator information; enter a username and password. This password should be a strong password made up of a random string of letters, numbers, and symbols to make it as secure as possible. You may want to write this username and password down and keep it for reference with other important information about your Web site.

There are two choices you can make when it comes to the Data portion of the installation configuration:

• Install sample data. The sample data that is distributed with Joomla! is a good general example of how Joomla! works, how content can be organized, and how content can be presented. Several choices are available, and if you know, for example, that you want a simple brochure site, you can install that, or you can install the default sample data set to learn in much more detail about all the options Joomla! offers.

• Choose to not install sample data or migration data, and start with a totally blank site (typically used by people already familiar with Joomla! who are creating a new Joomla! site).

For the purposes of this book, we are starting with a new site and will not install sample data, so if you wish to follow along step by step, you can skip the sample data installation. If you install sample data and the data installs successfully, you will see a confirmation that the data has installed. Click Next at the top right to go to the Finish screen.

Figure 3.27 shows the final screen for the Web installation of Joomla! There is a “Congratulations!” message, as well instructions on how to move forward from this point. This screen also directs you to remove the installation directory from your site. Removing the installation directory is required to ensure the security of your site. Simply click the button to remove the folder.

Figure 3.27. The Finish screen

Once you have deleted the installation directory, using the buttons located at the top of the screen for either Site or Administrator, as shown in Figure 3.27, you can direct your browser to either the front end (Site) or the back end (Administrator) of your newly installed Joomla! site. If you visit the site and did not install sample data, it will look like Figure 3.28.

Figure 3.28. Installation is finished, and you can now navigate to your new Joomla! 2.5 site.

Setting Up a Test Site on demo.joomla.org

An alternative way to set up a Joomla! installation is to use the Joomla! Demo site system. This will allow you to set up a Joomla! site for free for 30 days. During the 30 days you can export the site you have created and move it to your own host. The Joomla! Project developed this concept for a demo site as a way to give beginners a great first experience with Joomla! by making installation simple (one click) and ensuring that the server settings are set up correctly. The Joomla! Demo site is also a good place to explore Joomla!, and we suggest that you go ahead and create an account there so that you can experiment.

To sign up, visit demo.joomla.org and fill out the requested information. You will then receive an e-mail with detailed information about your site, including login credentials and links to documentation. Follow the instructions to visit your site and administrator. When you visit your site, you will have a fully installed Joomla! site that you can manage. You will be able to change the site however you want, and you can also add other users, install extensions, and work just as you would on any other host.

As currently implemented, the demo site provides you with some additional features comparable to other hosting accounts. These are found in the CloudAccess.net Client Area. From inside the Client Area you will find an Options button beside each of your demo account instances. The options available allow you to manage your application, which allows you to see server, MySQL, FTP/SFTP, and Joomla! site information. You can access phpMyAdmin as well as Manage Backups, and log directly into the Administrator of your site.

If you want to move the site you created on your demo account to another server, you can do this by creating a backup of your site. In the Manage Backups area click on Create Backup as shown in Figure 3.29 to allow you to select Files, Database, or both to backup. Then click Create. When this is completed, you will have a new row in the backup list representing the backup process. Download the two files (one for the database and one for the files).

Figure 3.29. The Backup Manager on demo.joomla.org. Joomla! 3 is similar but with a different template. Note that this is not a Joomla! interface and details may change in the future.

On your host, you will now upload the archived copy of the files just as described earlier in this chapter. The only differences will be that any extensions you have installed will be included, the installation folder is already deleted, and the configuration.php file is already set up. Next, go to your server control panel and create a database as described previously. Go to phpMyAdmin (or whatever database manager your server uses) and open the database. Click on the Import tab for your database. As shown in Figure 3.30, browse for the SQL file you downloaded and then click Go to import it.

Figure 3.30. The content of the Import tab page for your database. (1) Browse for your SQL file, and then (2) click Go to import it.

Finally, edit configuration.php so that the $user, $password, and $db are the correct ones for your database. You will also probably want to change $host to localhost. At that point your site should be migrated.

Conclusion

In this chapter you installed your very own copy of Joomla! and took a brief tour of how to navigate in a hosting panel and work with file management on a server. Having a good basic understanding of your control panel, your database, and how to manage files is important and will empower you to manage your site. With this done, you are ready to configure your site.