What is Joomla?
Joomla! is an award-winning Content Management System (CMS) that will help you build websites and other powerful online applications. Best of all, Joomla! is an open source solution that is freely available to everybody.
>> Presently I am doing my project on Joomla. Firstly I tried installing it but couldn't do it my own, actually what happened really is I decided that I will read its installation manual and will install it side by side then I started reading installation manual given with its setup first ten or fifteen lines were easy to understand but suddenly as I faced the line that an apache and mysql server were needed to run Joomla, I stopped reading it further as I read that damn word apache which I had never heard before in my life.
With my senior's help I somehow managed to install and run Joomla. It was not so easy even after installation. I faced lot of difficulties further. Finally after installing Joomla for more then five times , I decided to help my fellow brethren in quest to master Joomla (installation guaranteed only [;)] ).
I will be writing here about the steps that you need to follow for installing Joomla.
Installing Joomla
1) Download the latest package from the official Joomla site.
2) unzip the package and rename the folder to joomla .
3) As I stated earlier you need an apache and mysql server for running Joomla you can use separate softwares for running apache and mysql server or you can use XAMPP software with which you can run all these servers at the same time.
XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use.
4) After installing XAMPP you will get a folder named htdocs in its installation directory. Copy the extraced Joomla folder in this folder.
5) Run the XAMPP software and start the mysql and apache server.
This is how the XAMPP software looks while it is running.
6) Open this link - http://localhost/xampp in your web browser and select your preferred language.
7) On the left hand side menu on your browser select the phpmyadmin option. Then select the privileges option and create a new user granting him all privileges.
8) You will also need to create a new database for your site.
9) Now you are all set to begin the joomla installation. Open the link - http://localhost/joomla in your web browser and follow the instructions. you will be asked for database somewhere in between the installation, enter the name of the previously created username and database in their respective fields.
10) You will be asked to setup an administrator account for Joomla. You can set the username and password as you please but don't forget the details as you will be changing and updating your site with this account.
11) Once Joomla is installed you get a message asking too change the name of the installation directory. You can not run Joomla until you rename the installation directory. You can find the installation directory in your C:/Program Files/xampp/htdocs/joomla folder.
12) To login to Joomla and start exploring it open this link in your browser- http://localhost//joomla/administrator/index.php?mosmsg=You%20need%20to%20login
Joomla login page
Joomla control panel
What to do after installing Joomla ??
I really don't know what to write here as I exploring it too till now. You can expect to see some content here in a month or two as I am hoping I would have completed my project by then and would have learn little about Joomla [:P]
