Joomla! Documentation™

The "J1.5" namespace is an archived namespace. This page contains information for a Joomla! version which is no longer supported. It exists only as a historical reference, it will not be improved and its content may be incomplete and/or contain broken links.

It may seem a little weird to run a website on a computer by itself which is not seen over the internet. It is, however, very useful to be able to learn and experiment on your own machine - not least because you can view the backend and also the files.

Background

Experience needed

Not everyone using this Manual will have enough experience to feel comfortable doing this. You need to know a little about computing, for example:-

• Know where to find files on your computer and be able to create folders
• You can download something from a website and save it in an appropriate place
• You will not panic if you do not understand a concept!

Experienced developers and people with programming experience will be fine. If in doubt - follow the instructions and try it!

Links to Joomla!'s Quick Start Guide and an introduction to the sample data

The instructions here make use of the very useful Quick Start Guide. Make sure you look at this as well as this tutorial.

http://help.joomla.org/ghop/feb2008/task048/joomla_15_quickstart.pdf This has help with installation and creating your own content.

and

http://community.joomla.org/august-2008/article/522-introductory-learning-joomla-using-sample-data.html This has details about the sample data and what you can learn from it.

Summary

There are three basic stages in doing this:-

1. Downloading and installing some software that Joomla! needs to use to run locally. This is a web server called Apache, a database called mySQL and a scripting language called PHP. There are a few other things as well - which are downloaded together as one package called XAMPP.
2. Downloading and installing Joomla!
3. Configuring Joomla!

Download and install XAMPP

To run Joomla! on a Windows desktop or laptop you need to download and install some software. This includes a web server called Apache, a database called mySQL and a scripting language called PHP. The point of this to to configure your own machine to behave as if it were a server with the difference being that the result is not visible over the internet and is thus confined to your own computer. This is very useful for learning new things and even developing a new web site.

Download sites for using a Mac or Linux with documentation.

Warning: If you are not familiar with downloading software - don't be put off by unfamiliar vocabulary on the download website!

Before download

Make sure you have a separate folder for the download.

Use Windows Explorer

1. Create a folder (called something meaningful like Downloads) beneath the top level of the directory. (Depending on how your computer is set up - this will be C:\Downloads)
2. Create a new folder at the top level called XAMPP - this is where the software will eventually be installed. (Depending on how your computer is set up - this will be C:\XAMPP)

The download

The site for Windows download with some helpful documentation.

Find the heading - Jump-off point

This is a page with links to downloads as well as instructions for installation.

Under Download - Click on XAMPP

Choose the Self-extracting RAR archive option (unless you absolutely know what to do with a ZIP download!)

Configure Joomla! and install the example data

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--Lorna Scammell December 2010