Joomla installation is relatively easy for an experienced computer user. This section summarizes the installation steps, so if you haven’t gone through the process, this will familiarize you with the basic features.

Start the installation by downloading the current Joomla image (from www.joomla.org) to a local drive. Expand the archive (either a .zip, .tar.gz and .tar.bz2 file), and place the Joomla files in your Web server directory. In a remote installation, you can use an FTP program such as the free FileZilla to upload the files in the root directory on the Web server.

Before you begin installing on a remote server, you should check to ensure that PHP is functioning properly. You can easily perform this test by creating a file with your text editor (such as Notepad) named test.php and putting in a single line that reads . Save the file and upload it to the remote server. When you access the file (with a URL such as http://www.example.com/test.php), you will be presented with a multipage screen of PHP configuration parameters. If PHP isn’t executing properly, contact your ISP. Be sure to delete this file after it has executed properly because it can reveal a great deal about your Web server to a potential hacker. Additionally, a phpinfo() page is securely included in the Joomla Administrator interface, so you can obtain the information there.

Once the files have been copied on the Web site directory, access the index.php file through your Web browser. You should see the first Joomla installation screen. The first screen holds a list box that shows all the languages available for installation. You can select the desired language and click the Next button to proceed with the installation.

The next screen enables you to do a pre-installation check to ensure that all of the necessary parts of the system work. If any of the parameters are not set as required by Joomla, you can skip to the “Configuring PHP” section for an explanation of the configuration options to make the necessary changes.

The next screen requires you to confirm compliance with the GNU General Public License. Clicking the Next button will take you to the Database configuration screen. This screen will allow you to configure the URL of the MySQL server (often just localhost on a local installation), enter the database login, set the database where the Joomla data will be stored, and select the collation sequence to be used by Joomla. Note that some remote Web providers will not allow a program to create a new database. If this is the case with your ISP, simply create the database yourself and enter the database name on this screen. The Joomla installer will create the necessary tables within it. In the Advanced Settings tab at the bottom of the screen, there are also parameters that let you select whether to back up or drop any existing data.

The Main Configuration screen enables you to define parameters for your site. Here you can set the site name, the administrator password, and choose to install sample data if you wish. Clicking on the Install Sample Data button will write the data into the MySQL database, which provides a good test to ensure that connectivity is working properly with the database server.

The Finish screen tells you that the configuration is complete and provides buttons either to move to the opening page of the Joomla site, or execute the Administrator interface.

If there is an error along the way where the installer just fails, be sure to turn on the error reporting in PHP. Sometimes errors will be generated that the Joomla system doesn’t catch, and only by viewing the PHP errors generated (which are invisible without the proper directive) can you diagnose the problem.