Using Joomla!

Using Joomla!

Joomla! is a popular content management system. It provides features such as RSS feeds, polls, news and blog formats and searching capabilities. It can format printable versions of pages, and supports internationalization.

Security warning!

Like hundreds of other free software packages on our servers, Joomla! is available and officially supported, but this should not be taken as an endorsement. Many third-party PHP scripts lack in proper maintainership and have poor track records with respect to security. We work diligently to keep all preinstalled software packages up-to-date and we can only guarantee that security fixes will be applied as soon as they are released.

Installing the software

Two maintained, preinstalled versions of Joomla! are available our servers. In order to use them, you need to run the install.sh script in /var/www/joomla15 (for 1.5 series), or /var/www/joomla10 (for 1.0 series), from the ~/www/ directory of your choice:

  $ cd ~/www/mydomain.ext
  $ sh /var/www/joomla15/install.sh myjoomla

Database setup

Joomla! uses MySQL as its database backend so before proceeding further, you need to create a database and a MySQL user. You can do this from the Databases section of the web interface, or alternatively from the shell interface:

  csoftadm> db mysql add myjoomladb
  csoftadm> db mysql useradd myjoomlauser
  csoftadm> db mysql grant myjoomladb myjoomlauser all

If you wish to reuse a database from a previous Joomla! installation, assuming mydump.txt was previously generated by mysqldump, you would use:

  $ cat mydump.txt | mysql -u myjoomlauser -p myjoomladb

Using the web installer

Point your browser to the new URL (http://mydomain.ext/myjoomla) and follow the steps. Step 1 asks your preferred language, Step 2 performs pre-installation checks and Step 3 is the GPL license agreement.

At Step 4 (Database), select mysqli as the Database Type. Enter localhost in Host Name.

At Step 5 (FTP Configuration), select No to disable the "FTP file system layer". This feature is irrelevant since on our servers, your PHP scripts are executed securely.

Step 6 (Configuration) asks for your site name, the administrator e-mail address and password, and provides you with the option to migrate backed-up content generated by Joomla 1.0.x. Click on Install Default Sample Data to install sample data (recommended for beginners).

Finishing the installation

It is necessary to remove the installation directory after the installer is done:

  $ rm -fR ~/www/mydomain.ext/myjoomla/installation

The Joomla! installation is now complete. You should be able to browse to http://mydomain.ext/myjoomla and login as admin. For better security, consider using a secure URL (https:// URL). If you don't have an official SSL certificate, it is possible to generate one yourself.

Links

Home of Joomla!