Login into your CPanel for your domain, usually through www.yourdomain.com/cpanel or https://www.yourdomain.com:2083. You should use https since this protects you from eavesdropping.
In next steps you will:
- create MySQL database
- upload Joomla! installation file
- run installation
- enjoy fresh Joomla!
Create MySQL database first. Click on MySQL Databases icon:
You should see the following screen. In case of new account you should not see any databases or users yet.
Now you need to create new database, create a new user, and add user to the database.
1. Enter new database name, for example just "joomla", and click "Create Database" button. After that click "Go Back" to get back to MySQL Account Maintenance screen, which should now show the new database.
2. Enter new database user, for example just "user1, and the password for him - choose long and complicated one, since you don't have to remember it. It has to be entered during Joomla! installation later, so write it down for a while, or just Ctrl-C.
3. Now in MySQL Account Maintenance screen you should see the database and user you have created:
Instead of those red marks you should see your account name. Since a server with multiple accounts has to recognize the owner of a database or a user, the actual name would be for example: john_joomla for a database, and john_user1 for MySQL user.
Last thing left is to add user to the database - select username and database you just have created, and click "Add User To Database" button. Make sure ALL privileges is selected. That's it!
Now MySQL Account Maintenance screen should look like the one below (without the red marks).
Don't worry about the Connection Strings which showed up there. They are not needed for Joomla!. Now you can proceed to actual Joomla! CMS installation.
Download latest Joomla! from www.joomla.org to your computer. As of April 2007 the latest version is 1.0.12. It is available at Joomlacode.org, choose Joomla_1.0.12-Stable-Full_Package.tar.gz.
In CPanel main page click on File Manager icon.
New window should open up:
Click on the folder icon next to public_html folder to get inside, then click on "Upload file" link. You should be presented with the following screen. Select Joomla! installation file from your disk and click Upload.
After successful upload click on Joomla_1.0.12-Stable-Full_Package.tar.gz filename to get file properties in upper right side of the screen, then click on "Extract File Contents":
New window will pop-up, listing the content of Joomla! installation file, which you can close. Click on public_html on top of the screen to refresh the content of the folder. You should see more folders and files inside your public_html folder. Installation file is not needed anymore, so you can click on .tar.gz file and delete it.
Do not close the File Manager window yet, since after installation you will have to delete installation folder and file.
Open another tab within Firefox browser (you ARE using Firefox, aren't you ?) and go to your domain name: www.yourdomain.com.
You should see first Joomla! installation screen:
Ooops! As we can see there are two settings which are not optimal for security reasons. Hopefully in your server all settings are green.
RG_EMULATION setting can be corrected quickly using File Manager from CPanel: click on globals.php file, then on Edit link:
New window will pop-up, where you can edit the content of the file. Just one thing needs to be changed. In the following line change 1 to 0:
define( 'RG_EMULATION', 1 );
change so it's:
define( 'RG_EMULATION', 0 );
Then click Save at the bottom of the page.
Keep in mind the information above: this setting is set to 1 by default due to backward compatibility. If you are not planning to use old plugins or components on your site, you will be more secure with it set to 0.
With PHP register_globals situation is little harder. Since I have PHPsuexec enabled, I had to use php.ini in each folder to change the value of PHP directive. I used "Create New File" link in File Manager, entered php.ini as new file name, then entered the following line and saved the file:
register_globals = 0
In servers without PHsuexec you should be able to add PHP flag to .htaccess file:
php_flag register_globals off
But hopefully it is already set to off by your hoster. For very good Joomla! security overview refer to: http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,81058.0.html
Let's proceed with Joomla! installation. Click Next. You should see GNU/GPL License page:
Click Next and in the following screen enter the details of MySQL database and MySQL user. Instead of xxxxxx you have to enter your account name. Enter also MySQL password from earlier step.
In the next step enter the name of your site. It can be changed later in site configuration.
Step 3 shows final detail for confirmation. First 2 lines usually don't have to be changed. Enter your email and password for administrator account:
Congratulations! Just delete /installation folder and INSTALL.php file in File Manager and enjoy your fresh, new Joomla! CMS installation.
