isn't just an ordinary software package that you can install on your own computer: it needs a web server to run.. In this chapter you'll learn about: What you need to install Joomla!.
Trang 1Chapter 1
[ 17 ]
The SRUP site is a good example of what you can do with Joomla! You start out with a basic website and add sophisticated features as you go Of course, you can follow along in this book without having to actually perform all of the actions described—but you'll find it's a good and fun way to learn building a site and honing your skills as you go
Summary
In this chapter, you've been introduced to the wonderful world of the Joomla! CMS You've learned about:
The difference between building a website the traditional way and using a CMS You don't have to create HTML documents (web pages) one by one, instead you use a web application to develop and maintain your site Using the tools and features of the CMS, you can create more powerful sites that are easier to maintain
The benefits of using Joomla!, such as its ease of use, the ability to add extra features, and the ability to change the look and feel of the site fast
The structure of this book; step-by-step, you'll learn how to build a realistic example site with Joomla!
That's enough theory for now—let's get started! In the next chapter, you'll install Joomla! and get it up and running After that, you'll get familiar with the way Joomla! works and start building
Trang 3Installation: Getting Joomla! Up
and Running
Joomla! isn't just an ordinary software package that you can install on
your own computer: it needs a web server to run If you're new to Joomla!,
installing a web application may seem daunting And well, let's be honest,
running the installation procedure is probably the least exciting part of
work-ing with Joomla! However, if you just follow the required steps, it's pretty
straightforward It does take a little preparation, but if you've got everything
ready, you can walk through Joomla!'s user-friendly setup wizard that takes
most of the hassle out of the installation.
In this chapter you'll learn about:
What you need to install Joomla!
How to install Joomla! on a web server
What's in the box: what do you get when you install Joomla!?
Where to find help if you get stuck
You'll install Joomla! on a web server, allowing you or anyone else with Internet access
to immediately see, and visit your Joomla!-powered site Your site will be accessible via your own web address (URL), such as http://www.example.com When you build and customize the site you'll access the site through your browser
So let's get started!
Trang 4Installation: Getting Joomla! Up and Running
[ 20 ]
Don't fear the technical mumbo jumbo
Joomla! will make it really easy for you to build a state of the art website—but
installing the program will inevitably introduce you to some technical names and acronyms Don't let this intimidate you If you've never heard of PHP, MySQL,
and the like, you may be tempted to call in your computer geek nephew to carry out the installation for you, allowing you to jump ahead to the fun and creative part—creating a beautiful site But rest assured, you can pull this off yourself
It's like following directions to a destination in a city you're new to If you keep
to the instructions, you're certain to get there Moreover, as you'll do this more often, you'll get to know the city map better and better It will take you less and less time to get a new Joomla! site up and running
What do you need to start?
To be able to install and run Joomla!, you'll need hosting space and a few tools Here's your shopping list
1 Hosting space
First of all, you'll need hosting space; a place on a web server where you can set up your site
to make it accessible to anyone with Internet access Your hosting account should support the PHP scripting language (as Joomla! is written in PHP); it should support the type of database that Joomla! uses, called MySQL; and it has to run the Apache server software Specifically, these are the system requirements for Joomla! 1.5:
PHP 4.3.10 or above
MySQL 3.23 x or above
Apache 1.3.x or above
You shouldn't have any difficulty finding hosting accounts that meet these system
requirements If you're not sure, any hosting provider should be able to tell you if
they support Joomla!
You can find detailed system requirements at the Joomla! official help site:
http://help.joomla.org/content/view/1938/302
Download at Wow! eBook
WWW.WOWEBOOK.COM
Trang 5Chapter 2
[ 21 ]
And what if you don't have hosting space?
If you don't have a hosting account yet, you can install Joomla! on your
com-puter This does involve installing the web server software first This means
you'll make Joomla! run on your computer as if it were a real, "live" web server
The quickest way to do this is to use an all-in-one installation package
Go to http://bitnami.orgto download thefree, open-source
"BitNami Joomla! Stack" that will automatically install both web server software and Joomla! in one go
Another option is to first install the web server software, and then install the Joomla! software on your computer There are several free web server software packages available, such as WampServer for Windows, and XAMPP for Windows, Linux, and Apple computers See
www.wampserver.com or www.apachefriends.org
Although this approach is OK for testing purposes, there are some drawbacks
You'll only have access to Joomla! from just one computer, and when your site is ready for the world, you'll have to install it on a real web server anyway In this
book, we'll focus on installing and running Joomla! on a web server
2 FTP software
To transfer files from your computer to a web server, you need special File Transfer Protocol (FTP) software An FTP program is comparable to the Windows file Explorer or the Mac
Finder You use it to manage files and move them from one place to another—the only difference being that the FTP program allows you to move files from your computer to your hosting space on a web server (and vice versa)
If you're new to FTP, perform a Web search for 'FTP Tutorial' to get familiar with the basic procedures See for example http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/ftp
Looking for FTP software? Check out the free (open-source) FileZilla
software, available for computers running Windows, Apple, and Linux You
can download it from http://filezilla-project.org If you're
using the Firefox you might be interested in FireFTP, an FTP plugin for your
browser—as explained next
Download at Wow! eBook
WWW.WOWEBOOK.COM
Trang 6Installation: Getting Joomla! Up and Running
[ 22 ]
3 A great browser (think Firefox)
If you're perfectly happy with whatever your current browser may be, you won't have any trouble managing your Joomla! site with it However, people creating websites often install more than one browser on their computer Apart from the ever-popular Microsoft Internet Explorer (www.microsoft.com), you might want to install the up-and-coming Google Chrome (www.google.com) But you'll definitely want to use Mozilla Firefox (www.mozilla.org) Having more than one browser allows you to check if your site looks OK in all of the
major browsers
A special benefit of having Firefox at your disposal is that there are many extensions for this browser that will make your web developing life much easier One of these is Firebug that helps you to style your web pages (more about Firebug in Chapter 11 on templates) Another great Firefox plugin is FireFTP that turns your browser into a full-blown FTP client Go to
http://fireftp.mozdev.org to see how it works and to download a copy
Installing Joomla! in four steps
If you have set up a web hosting account and got the tools you need, you're set to go Installing Joomla! takes these steps:
1 Download the Joomla! files from www.joomla.org
2 Place the files on the web server
3 Create a database
4 Install Joomla! itself, using the installation wizard
It doesn't get more simpler than this The rest of this chapter will give you a detailed
walkthrough of this procedure
Time for action – step 1: Download the Joomla! files
Let's download the current and stable version of Joomla!
1. Point your browser to www.joomla.org On the home page, click on the
Download Joomla! button:
Trang 7Chapter 2
[ 23 ]
2 You'll be taken to the download page Select the latest release (at the time of writing this is 1.5.15)
Make sure to download the Full Package (the other versions are upgrades
for existing Joomla! installations)
3. The default download file is a ZIP file If you're using Windows, download this file to
your hard drive If you're using another operating system, click on the Download
other Joomla! 1.5.x packages link to select the appropriate package file.
4. Unpack the compressed file to a folder on your hard drive If you don't have a software program for unpacking files, check out http://www.7-zip.org
for an open-source file extraction program
What just happened?
You've now got all of the files required to install Joomla! in a folder on your computer Time for action – step 2: Place the files on the web server
Start up your FTP program (see What do you need to start? earlier in this chapter) and
upload all of the unzipped files in the folder to the web server This is how you do it:
1. In your FTP program, browse to the folder containing the unzipped Joomla!
files Select all of the files (do not select the folder, only its contents)
2. Select the target directory, the root directory of the web server The root directory
is often called httpdocs, htdocs, httpd, public_html, or www If you can't find that folder, your web hosting company should be able to help you out
Trang 8Installation: Getting Joomla! Up and Running
[ 24 ]
Don't worry about the name of the root folder (httpdocs or any of the other names listed above) This name won't show up in the Web address of your site Visitors don't have to type www.example.com/httpdocs, just
www.example.com will take them to your site
If you create a folder within httpdocs, this folder name will show up in your web address So, if you create a folder httpdocs/Joomla! and install
Joomla! in this folder, your site will be accessible only through
www.example.com/Joomla! This means you should only create such a
subfolder if this is what you want (for example, when you're just testing Joomla! and you want to keep using the root directory for your existing site)
3. In your FTP program, select all of the files in the Joomla! folder The list of files should resemble the one in the left half of the screen shown in the following illustration The illustration below shows the FireFTP screen, but if you're using another FTP program this shouldn't look much different
4 On the web server, select the destination folder (httpdocs) Click on the right pointing arrow to upload the Joomla! files to the web server root directory
Download at Wow! eBook
WWW.WOWEBOOK.COM
Trang 9Chapter 2
[ 25 ]
What just happened?
You've just got your FTP program to copy all Joomla! files from your computer to the web server Don't worry if this takes some time, as uploading thousands of Joomla! files can take
10 minutes or more depending on the speed of your Internet connection
Time for action – step 3: Create a database
The next step is creating an empty database for Joomla! If you're new to Joomla!, the concept of a web application using a database may take getting used to The database isn't
a regular file that you can create (or copy, move, or delete) on the web server To create and manage a database, you use special software Most web hosting companies offer you database access through a web interface (usually called a control panel) Popular control panels are Plesk and CPanel You'll find details on the control panel that's available to you in your hosting account information
In the following example, we'll use Plesk to create a new database If your hosting company provides another control panel, the basic procedure won't be very different However, if you're not sure how to access your web server control panel your host should be able to provide you with the details
Sometimes web hosting providers don't allow their users to create their own database Instead, they provide a pre-installed database If this is the case, you can go on to Step 4, running the Joomla! installation wizard You will need some database details for this: the database name, the database user name, and a password for this user Check the account information you received from your host
1. Log in to the Plesk control panel with the account information you have received
from your hosting provider To add a new database, click on Databases and then click on Add New Database.
Download at Wow! eBook
WWW.WOWEBOOK.COM
Trang 10Installation: Getting Joomla! Up and Running
[ 26 ]
2 Enter a name for the new database for example, joomladatabase Click on OK.
3 Create a new user for the database Click on Add New Database User and enter
a login name and password for the new user:
4 Make a note of the information you used to install Joomla! later on: the database name, the database user name, and password
What just happened?
Using a web control panel, you've set up an empty database and created a database user You're almost there; this is the last step in preparing the Joomla! installation