Joomla.org
When installing Joomla it is very easy to make simple mistakes that will haunt you. This guide/tutorial will point out the common pitfalls you might make when installing Joomla.
Why would I want to do a manual install when my web host has this Fantastico thingy that will install Joomla for me?
Good question. This depends upon how experienced you wish to be with Joomla. If it is your first time, and you are trying Joomla out for educational sake, this is a great way to learn more about it. If you are building websites for a living, and or plan on using Joomla a lot, then you really need to start doing your own installs. One click installs tend to assume a variety of things, as well as use some default values. Hackers love defaults, and if your site, as well as 28,00k other sites all use the same login, or database name, the hacker is bound to find a security hole in one of them. Develop your own naming conventions and practices and you will be far more secure.
If you are an experienced parachute jumper, you would pack your own chute right? This is no different.
Now, this guide will have a lot of pictures on it, so let’s get right into it after the jump.
Download
First things first, go grab the latest version of Joomla. Unzip it to a folder on your computer. Name the folder whatever you want. You can use joomla or test or whatever you like. We will use joomla in our examples.
Login
Login to your webspace, ftp, MAMP app, whatever location you are using to do your Joomla install. Upload the folder full of Joomla goodness you just unzipped. Make sure it is web accessible. For example put it in a spot where you know you can get to it by using your browser. http://yoururl.com/joomla/ for example. (You can put all the Joomla files in your web root, but for testing and learning, we may as well keep things tidy and in a folder.)
Start
Bring up your favorite browser. (it should be Firefox for a lot of reasons I will get into in another article.) Navigate to your newly created folder. It should be something like http://yourwebsite.com/joomla. Once there, Joomla will know this is your first visit and start the installation routine.
Language
Your first step will be picking a language.
Requirements
Now Joomla will make sure your webhost meets all the requirements to allow Joomla to function. Ideally, make sure everything is green here. If anything is red, you will invariably have an issue in the future and totally forget about this screen. Figure it out now while you have time.
Requirements
The license agreement.
Database setup
Here you will need to create a database for your Joomla install. This can be done a variety of ways depending upon your web site host. If you are using cPanel, you can do it here.
You will need to make a user, a password for that user, as well as set the permissions for the user. Then you will need a database created as well. The wizard can step you though everything.
cPanel option
Alternately yo can use phpmyadmin to setup your database as well. Find whatever method you prefer. In the beginning database creation and maintenance is intimidating, but after a short while it is easy.
phpmyadmin
Back to Joomla
Now that your database is setup, you can insert it into your Joomla install.
ERROR, ERROR!
Every once in a while you might setup your db wrong, or mistype or mis-enter some data. If you get this, don’t panic, just go back one step and fix your boo-boo.
FTP? What do I do?
After you get past the db setup screen, you will be at the FTP setup screen. While you may be tempted to enter your FTP details, this is not advised. Keep this set to no, and move along. This option is here for improperly setup servers basically, and enabling it will cause you countless issues down the line. You can get a better idea of the pro’s and con’s of the FTP layer here.
Site configuration
This is one of the final steps. Here you need to fill in your details such as the password you wish to use, and your email.
I personally recommend that users install the sample data until they are very, very experienced. I have answered literally thousands of support tickets for users who could have solved the problem themselves if they only had the sample data installed.
Not installing the sampel data isn’t a shortcut. It is typically much easier to change and delete the parts you do not want, then try to recreate it all from scratch for your new site. Feel free to not install it, this is purely my opinion on the matter.
(I have been installing Joomla for 4+ years now and still install it)
Success!
You are all installed, but don’t stop now. You will need to delete the installation folder on your ftp or wherever your /joomla/ folder is you uploaded. Delete the entire /joomla/installation/ folder, and then go to the admin area. It will be at http://yoursite.com/joomla/administrator if you followed this tutorial.
Remove that admin user
Before you do anything, login to your admin area and go to the users section. Find the “Administrator” user and rename it something else. I cannot stress this enough, do not leave it admin. Change it to your name, or something with a letter+number+uppercase letter. Leaving it admin is a huge security risk, and downright amateur.
TA DA!
You are complete. You can now checkout the default Joomla frontend as well as the admin area.
If you follow these simple steps every time and use some sort of naming convention for your databases and users, your site is far more secure then a one-click or easy-breazy installer-matic system. You will also make it much easier to diagnose issues when you understand how Joomla interacts with a database.
Consider yourself on the road to being a Joomla professional.
Do you do things differently?
Can this guide be improved?
Let me know in the comments.
