SiteGround Tutorials

Joomla Tutorial

NEW! We are happy to introduce to your our new Joomla 1.5 tutorial! SiteGround is the first host to offer free Joomla 1.5 installation with its Joomla hosting package.

Joomla CMS is a multi functional Open Source application for creating websites. It is free to use and has a great community support. With SiteGround hosting you can use all Joomla features.

Joomla! main benefits:

Multiuser and Multilevel environment: many users can interact and contribute to the development of the Joomla-based site. Users can be assigned to different groups with different privileges;
WYSIWYG editor - the intuitive What You See Is What You Get editor allows for easy editing of the content online;
Additional components / modules - the Joomla system can be easily enhanced with additional functionalities from integrating a forum to installing an E-commerce solution;
Templates - there are numerous free Joomla templates on the net and Siteground is proud to offer some of the best ones!

SiteGround has been supporting and hosting Joomla sites from the very start of Joomla! back in 2005. Through the years we have proven to be the best Joomla host, providing unmet elsewhere features such as free Joomla installation, Joomla-optimized servers, free templates, fast and efficient support. Based on our experience we are offering you this tutorial.

Joomla tutorial includes:

How to install Joomla CMS on your hosting account: installation with Fantastico and manual installation;
How to change/install Joomla templates and links to FREE for download Joomla templates;
How to add new languages to Joomla;
How to administer your Joomla system - how to set meta info, manage emails, stats, and use search engine friendly URLs;
How to manage your content in Joomla - how to create new categories and how to add new articles;
How to manage banner ads;
How to add VirtueMart shopping cart to Joomla;
How to have Joomla and SMF forum;
How to add a Calendar module to Joomla;
More information, download links and how to install instructions for the most popular Joomla components, modules and mambots;
How to use Google AdSense with Joomla;
How to backup your Joomla site;
How to upgrade your Joomla system;
NEW: Visit our Joomla FAQ for more answers about managing your Joomla.

All our resources are being constantly updated and improved to make sure SiteGround continues to offer the best Joomla hosting package with the richest set of features for every Joomla-powered website.

You may use this tutorial for your own use. You may not distribute it in any form without the express permission of the publisher. You may provide a link to the publisher's web site, where this tutorial can be used from. This tutorial is provided free of charge and without any warranty of any kind.

Joomla Installation

Get a FREE Joomla installation with SiteGround Joomla hosting Package!

There are two ways to install Joomla on a SiteGround hosting account. The easiest and preferred method is through Fantastico. Its benefits are:

No technical knowledge is needed. In just a few clicks you will have your Joomla site all set.
Easy and reliable updates. Fantastico will notify you when there are updates and install them for you.

In just a few mouse clicks you will have it installed and configured, ready for you to begin building your site. Furthermore Fantastico allows easy and reliable updates when there are new versions.

On the other hand you can install Joomla manually. This method is preferred by advanced users who want to follow closely the installation process and make any customizations right away. If you feel comfortable with FTP, and have basic understanding of file permissions, databases and web technologies as a whole, go for this method.

How to install Joomla CMS with Fantastico

In order to install Joomla CMS with Fantastico, please log into your cPanel and click on the blue smiley icon () at the bottom of the page.

Please, select ‘Joomla’ from the menu list on the left-hand side

and click on New Installation.

You will be presented with a form that asks for all necessary information about your future Joomla website.

Form explanation:

Install in Directory - this determines the address where your Joomla installation will be accessible at. If you want to use Joomla for your home page, just leave this field blank.
Admin access data - the username and password for accessing the administration panel of your Joomla installation.
Base Configuration Admin e-mail - your e-mail address
Admin full name - your full name
Site Name - the name of your website that will be displayed on the front page

Once you have filled in the form, please proceed by clicking on the "Install Joomla" button. You will be asked to confirm the installation on the next page. Finally, you get a page that informs you of a successful installation. You should bookmark the address of the administrator panel (yourdomain.com/administrator), and note your login credentials.

Well done! You are now ready to log in and start building your website!

How to install Joomla CMS manually

Get a FREE Joomla installation with SiteGround Joomla hosting Package!

You can follow these instructions if you need to manually perform a Joomla installation for your web site. Note that you should skip this step if you have already completed the automated installation.

Pre-installation Steps

Step 1: Database setup

In order to use Joomla, you would need to create a MySQL database and a user with all necessary priviledges to access the database. Please, check here how to create MySQL database and user. It is adviseable to create the database and the username with the same name in order to avoid any confusion in the future (for example you can choose username_joomla for both).

Step 2: Upload the installation files

You have to upload the Joomla installation files to your web hosting account. You can download the latest release from the official Joomla web site.

The downloaded archive should be extracted locally on your computer. Once this is completed, the files should be uploaded to your web hosting account. In order to do so you can use an FTP client. You can find a detailed tutorial how to use an FTP here.

Please note that if you would like the Joomla installation performed for your domain name thus making it accessible at http://www.your-domain.com, the installation files should be uploaded directly under the public_html folder for your account. If you would like the installation perfromed in a sub-folder or for a sub-domain name the files should be uploaded in the corresponding directory located under the public_html folder. For example if you would like the installation performed for: http://www.your-domain.com/joomla, the installation files should be uploaded under public_html/joomla.

Installation

Pre-installation checks:

In this step the Joomla installer checks the server configuration and verifies all the settings needed for the installation. Generally on all Joomla-optimized servers all the checks should be passed without any troubles and the status will be marked in green.

If any custom settings are enabled for your account this might interfere with the Joomla installation. In such case the pre-installation check will notify you exactly which requirement is not met, the status will be marked in red and if available more information will be displayed. If so the issue must be resolved and the check run again.

Once all checks are successfully passed you can proceed with the installation by clicking the [Next] button.

GNU/GPL License agreement.

Please go through the Joomla GNU/GPL License. Any terms, conditions and rules for using a Joomla installation are listed there. After you have checked it you can continue to the installation by clicking the [Next] button.

Step 1: MySQL database configuration

You should have already created the needed MySQL database and username added to it in Step 1 of the pre-installation instructions. The details should be entered in the corresponding boxes.

Note, that the names of the database and the user are prefixed with "username_" where username is your cPanel login name.

Do not forget to type in the password of the MySQL user and note that it is case-sensitive.

For Host Name you should use localhost. All other check-boxes and fields can be left to the default ones. Click on [Next] and a popup will appear, asking you to confirm that the information you entered is correct. If you made a mistake, you will be taken back to this page to correct it.

Step 2: Site Name.

In this step you should choose the desired name for your web site. It will be displayed on the top of the web browser when your web site is accessed and will be used in e-mail messages sent from your Joomla installation. Note that this can be alterred later from the administrator back-end.

Step 3: Confirm the site URL, path, admin e-mail and file/directory chmods

This is an important part of the installation, where you are asked to confirm the URL and system path to the files as well as the permissions you would like set for them. It is highly adviseable not to change the options that were automatically generated and leave them as they are. Also it will be best to supply a valid email address. Of course the administrative password can be changed to a desired one.

Step 4: Completing the installation

Before you can access it, you have to delete the directory called "installation" that is located inside the Joomla directory. This can be done using either an FTP client or cPanel's File Manager.

You will be provided with the administrative login details for your Joomla installation in this screen. You will be able to click the [View Site] button to access your new Joomla site or [Administration] to take you to administrator login.

Well done! You have successfully installed the Joomla! system on your website!

Joomla Templates

SiteGround web hosting has released great-looking Joomla templates for personal and business sites, which you can download and use FREE of charge! Get FREE installation of Joomla templates with the SiteGround Joomla hosting package!

How to install and change Joomla Templates?

Installing a template on Joomla is an easy task. The first thing you have to do is to find the template of your choice and download it. SiteGround FREE Joomla Templates Gallery is a great place to look at. The template file is a zip archive (a.k.a. package file) containing everything needed for its installation. To install it, please, log in to your Joomla administrator panel and go to Installers -> Templates – Site.

Click on the [Browse...] button, select the .zip file of the template you downloaded and click on [Upload file & Install]

The upload should complete in few seconds. Then click on Continiue...

You are now taken to the Template Manager section of the Joomla administration panel. We assume you'd like to have the newly installed template set as default for your site. To make this happen select the radio button just in front of its name and click on the [Default] button, at the top bar of the page.

Your site now uses the newly installed template. Go to your site and enjoy it :)

Joomla Languages

How to install additional languages to Joomla?

When you enter the administration panel, you will first see the index page with all management options.

If you'd like to add a new language pack to your Joomla installation, please, visit the Joomla Extentions - Languages page and download the language pack of your choice. Then, please go to the Installers menu and select Languages.

Press the [Browse] button to locate the installation pack for your language...

...and then select the [Upload File & Install].

Wait for the confirmation and press the Continue.. link. From the listed languages select the new one and then click the [Publish] icon.

Now you have successfully installed a new language pack on your Joomla system.

Next we will set it as default. For this purpose please go to Joomla's admin panel: Global Configuration -> Site, the Locale tab. In the Language option choose the newly installed one and this will automatically set it as default for your site.

Well done! You have successfully changed the language the default language of your Joomla!

Joomla Administration - Global Configuration

Site, Locale, Content

Now we can proceed to tuning your Joomla, including changing the default language. In your administrator's panel visit Site - > Global Configuration.

In the first Site tab you can:

make your website unavailable to the public while it is still in development
change the offline message;
choose a Site Name (Company Name) for your website - that would be the <title> tag of your website;
change the default HTML editor, and
the number of items in each list.

The Locale tab allows you to:

specify locale different from the default one;
change the TimeZone settings. Siteground's servers are set in CDT (Central Daylight Time) and you might wish to adjust it to yours.
select the language that the site will display - it can be picked up amongst the ones already installed and published language packs on your Joomla system.

In the Content tab you can choose whether to display the printer-friendly version link in your content.

For those of the options that sound unfamiliar to you, additional information can be obtained when hovering with the mouse pointer over the blue 'i' circle at the end of each row.

If you have to change the database setting, you can do this in the Database tab. The server, database name, user and password can be edited from that tab.

Please, find below information about the other options in the Global configuration tab:

We do not recommend changing the default Database, Server, and Cache tabs, unless you know what you are doing. Any incorrect setting in these sections could render your Joomla-powered website to be inaccessible.

Joomla Administration - Global Configuration

Meta data, Mail, Statistics

The Metadata tab allows you to add meta description for your website as well as keywords - this information will allow search engines to easily index your website in their search results. Please, make sure to add meta information relevant to the content of your webpage.

The Mail tab contains settings for Joomla mass mailing function. It allows you to send newsletters to all your users. The default settings are correct and tested on the SiteGround servers - the only thing you may decide to change is the sender's e-mail address.

Changing the settings in the Cache tab may lead to security issues with user accounts (especially on publicly accessible computers) and are not recommendable.

The Statistics tab has three options. The most useful is the first "Statistics" and you can turn it to "Yes". The rest will collect large amounts of data which may slow down your site.

Please, find below information about the other options in the Global configuration tab:

Joomla Administration - Global Configuration

SEO - How to enable Search engine friendly URLs to Joomla?

Enabling "Search engine friendly URL's" in your Joomla system would allow some search engines to better index your site. In order to do that please follow these steps:

Step 1: Enable SEO

Navigate to: Site -> Global Configuration -> SEO.

Then change Search Engine Friendly URL: to be Yes.

Please, [Save] the settings now.

Step 2: Enable mod_rewrite / Rename htaccess.txt file

If you want to use SEF for your Joomla installation you will have to enable Mod_Rewrite. Mod rewrite is installed on SiteGround's severs and you can enable it for your account. In order to enable the rewrite rules for your SEO you will need to rename the htaccess.txt file in your Joomla installation directory to .htaccess. You can do this by using an FTP client or your cPanel -> File Manager section as shown on the image below:

Please, navigate to the folder of your account where the Joomla is installed and click the file name htaccess.txt. Then select "Rename" from the menu on the right, and rename it to .htaccess.

Step 3: Test the SEO functionality

Your Search Engine Friendly URL's should be enabled now. You can go to your site and try browsing through the menu links. Your URLs should now look like this:

http://yourdomain.com/section/category/article_name.html

instead of

http://yourdomain.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=26

Congratulations! You have successfully enabled the Search Engine Optmization module in Joomla!

Please, find below information about the other options in the Global configuration tab:

How to use Joomla Media Manager?

In order to fully utilize the multimedia capabilities of Joomla, you can start using the Media Manager utility. You can find that in the SiteDirectory drop-down menu.

Under the file and folder list, you will be able to see three input boxes:

[Upload] allows you to select file and upload it to the image library (using the [Browse] button and then clicking the [Upload] icon in the top right corner).

The Code box displays the HTML code that allows you to link to the image from the library you have clicked on.

Through the Create Directory box you can create a new folder to which you are able to upload files. Type in the name of the directory and then click the Create icon at the top right corner menu.

In order to be able to upload to a certain directory, please click the folder image, under which the specific name appears:

the page will be refreshed and you will be able to upload directly to the respective folder.

If you'd like to delete a file or an empty folder, you can click the Trash can image below the item you wish to delete. You will be prompted to confirm deletion.

Please note that in case the directory you are trying to delete is not empty you will be unable to remove it.

Joomla Content

Joomla Content Structure

Now it is time to add some content to your website! In order to create the desired hierarchy, you need first to gain understanding of the classes of content that are included in Joomla. Those are sections, categories and content items.

The highest level in the hierarchy is represented by the Sections. These can be managed through the Section Manager of the Content menu. Imagine the Sections as the drawers in a cupboard that contain the folders (categories), filled with articles (content items). If you are having a Joomla website about cars, you will have the sections 'Ford', 'Chevy' and 'Dodge'. The 'Ford' section will have categories 'Mustang', 'Thunderbird' and 'Taurus'. The 'Mustang' category will have content items 'V6GT', 'Steeda Q' and 'Shelby Cobra GT500'. The entire structure is much like a tree:

Joomla Content Structure - Sections, Categories, Content items

Please, find below information about the different content structures in Joomla:

Joomla Content

How to manage Joomla Sections?

Let us first start with creating a section. To do that, please go to the Content menu and select the Section Manager option.

Once in there, you will see the list of existing sections. Click the New icon in order to create your own section.

In the fields that appear, fill in the details of the section: title, description, etc. When done, please click the Save icon at the top right.

You will be taken back to the section list, which will now include the section you have just created. In order to link it to a menu you will need to click on its name and edit the linking properties (those preferences determine where in the menus should the section appear in the menus of your website).

Joomla Content

How to manage Joomla Categories?

Next step in organizing the content in your website is creating the categories. To do that you need to go to the Category manager through the Content menu:

There you will be able to see the existing categories, edit and manage those and create new ones. Click on the New icon to start the creation process and fill in the details required for the new category.

It is important to select the parent Section for the new category, in order to have the proper content organization (or at least the one that you desire).

Again, you can set the menu linking details after saving the category.

Please note that an empty Section or an empty Category will not show up in the menu. Each of these must have at least a single Content item created and published.

Joomla Content

How to manage Joomla content items?

In order to create and publish a Content Item, please go to the Content menu and select All Content Items.

All the items that have been included in Joomla article list up to date will be displayed. You will be able to manage existing ones or create new by clicking the respective icon:

The process of creating a new article is very similar to the one through which the Sections and the Categories are being created. This time around you will need to select both the parenting Section and Category, in order to create an article.

In this case instead of a description you will be able to enter a short introductory text. It will appear in the main Section / Category page ending with a link to continue reading further the rest of the article. This short introduction may also show on your frontpage if you have published it there. There are other options, such as: where the item will appear in menus, to add pictures, manage the authorship and publishing date, etc.

When done, please click the [Save] icon to complete the creation process. You will be able to see the new item listed in the Content Items Manager.

The last thing to do in order to have the item online is to publish it - just click on the red X and that will publish the article.

You can also change the order in which the articles appear through clicking the up- and down-pointed triangles respectively. That can be also done through changing the number in the Order box that you see on the same line and then pressing the Enter key on your keyboard. The smaller the number in the box, the higher the article appears. The changes will be automatically applied and you will see the changes when the screen refreshes.

Banner ads in Joomla

How to manage banner ads from Joomla?

Joomla allows you to easily remove or change the banner ads that are part of the default installation, or add and manage new ones. That can be done through the Components menu - Manage Banners tab and from the expended menu select Manage banners.

How to remove banner ads?

In the banner list check the boxes in front of the two default banners and then click the Unpublish or the Delete icon at the top right...

That's it :-)

How to add banner ads?

In order to add a new banner, please click the "New" button and fill in the required info. Please, use the "Upload" button to add new banner image.

How to manage clients?

You can also add or remove clients from the Components menu - Manage Clients tab, just below the Manage Banners one.

How to use Joomla Polls?

When installed, Joomla includes a built-in poll option. The Poll manager is what allows you to create, edit and remove polls from your website. Results are being automatically calculated and displayed on a separate page.

In order to manage your polls, you have to go to the Poll manager. You can do that by clicking on the Polls link in the Components menu:

If you have made no changes you will be taken to a page with the default poll.

Clicking on the poll name will allow you to edit the questions and answers.

You can replace those with your own and then [Save] the survey.

In case you don't want to have a poll on your website (at least for now) you can remove it by selecting the respective survey and click the [Unpublish] icon.

The poll will be immediately removed from the website but not deleted. Thus you can take it back any time you want. To permanently remove a poll from your Joomla, please use the [Delete] icon.

Joomla Extensions

How to add Components, Modules and Mambots to Joomla?

Installing components, modules or mambots on Joomla is not a hard task. Most of Joomla extensions come along with installation insctructions. However, it is always adviseable to backup your current installation prior importing additional fnctionality. You can check here how to backup your Joomla installation.

Once the backup is complete you can proceed with the desired installation.

First of all, you need to download the desired component, module or mambot to your local computer. Generally they come as archives with the appropriate prefix according to their functionality: com_ - for component, mod_ - for module and mos or bot added in the file name for a mambot.

Once you have downloaded the file, please login to your Joomla administrator backend and click on the Installers menu from the main menu.

Now, please select the appropriate choice for the installation (component, module or mambot) and click the [Browse...] button, find the extension file you have downloaded and click [Upload File and Install]. If all is fine, you will be redirected to a screen stating Upload component - Success.

That is it. You can now use the newly installed addon. You will be able to see it in the corresponding menu in your admin backend - Components, Modules or Mambots.

Please, bear in mind that some addons might require additional configuration. In such case, this will be explicitly stated in the instructions added to the installation package.

Well done! You can now successfully install extensions to your Joomla!

Joomla and Virtuemart

How to install Virtuemart component and module on your Joomla website

To install VirtueMart on an existing Joomla website, you need to install the core Virtuemart component and module. The installation steps are easy and intuitive.

First please, go to www.virtuemart.net and download the complete package of the shopping cart, called VirtueMart_x.x_COMPLETE_PACKAGE.zip.

Next please, extract this file on your local hard drive, to find the actual components and modules. Then go to your Joomla Administrator panel and navigate to Installers -> Components.

The first thing to be installed is the com_virtuemart.x.x.tar.gz file. Click on the [Browse...] button, select the file and hit [Upload File & Install].

The installation of the core element of VirtueMart is now complete.

Now, a module has to be installed, to make the functionality of VirtueMart accessible on your site. The procedure is quite similar to the installing of a component, described above. Please, go to Installers -> Modules, browse for the file called mod_virtuemart.x.x.tar.gz and click on [Upload File & Install].

Congratulations! You are now ready to use VirtueMart on your Joomla site!

In Joomla Administrator, go to Components -> VirtueMart and click on the [Go directly to Store] button. DO NOT interrupt this step - it may take a while as some time consuming SQL queries have to be executed. Please check the official installation instructions described in the installation.pdf file included in the main package.

There are additional modules and mambots that can enhance the performance and features of your website. These are very well covered in the documentation as well, and are also contained in the complete package archive you have downloaded.

Joomla and SMF Forum

How to install SMF Forum component on your Joomla website

There are several Joomla-SMF integration solutions, integrations independently developed on the net. SiteGround's servers are perfectly set to ensure all of them work properly.

In this tutorial we will cover the most popular one which is distributed by Joomlahacks:

http://www.joomlahacks.com/joomla/components/Joomla-SMF_Forum/

Please follow these steps in order to install the component properly.

Step 1: Download Joomla's configuration.php file via FTP. It can be found in Joomla main directory. Open it with Notepad or another editor. Find and copy the following rows:

$mosConfig_db = 'username_joomla';
$mosConfig_password = 'yours';
$mosConfig_user = 'username_joomla';

The information in the quotes will be different on your site -

$mosConfig_db determines your Joomla database.
$mosConfig_password determines which is the password for your Joomla's database user.
$mosConfig_user determines which is your Joomla's database user.

The above information will be used when installing the SMF forum in the next steps.

Step 2: Follow the tutorial to install manually SMF forum in a subdirectory on your site. In this example we will call it forum, i.e. http://www.yourdomain.tld/forum.

Upload and extract the forum's files
Skip the step for setting up a new database because we will be using Joomla's database
Follow the web installation instructions for specifying the correct details. Make sure to specify the database details from the Joomla file as described in Step 1.

Step 3: Register to Joomlahacks in order to be able to download the Joomla-SMF component.

Step 4: Install the Joomla-SMF component

Please, log in your Joomla admin panel and go to Installers -> Components:

Browse for the com_joomla_smf_forum_x.x.zip file you have previously downloaded and press the [Upload file and Install] button:

Step 5: Joomla-SMF configuration.

All that is left now is to configure the Joomla-SMF component. Please, Go to Components -> Joomla SMF Forum -> Configuration:

This is the most important step of the integration, and is essential that you complete all fields correctly:

Joomla-SMF configuration details:

SMF Absolute Path - the path where you installed SMF. You can use the path to the Joomla installation as reference. In our case it will be forum.
SMF Database Prefix - the default prefix is smf_. This should not be changed by default.

Fill in the above two and click on the [Save] button. Fix the errors, if any, and proceed by clicking on the click to patch links for the index files of Joomla and SMF. Clicking on the [Save] button after each change will help you avoid errors, and make it easier to revert wrong actions.

After completing all steps successfully, the SMF forum should work fine in your Joomla-based website. Well done!

Joomla and Calendar Extension

How to install Events Calendar component and module?

For a Calendar solution, we choose the Events Calendar Joomla addon. To install this addon please follow the instructions below:

Step 1: Download the Calendar Component and Module

The needed packages can be download from:

http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,95/Itemid,35/

You should use the download link than choose the latest versions for com_events and mod_events available on the page.

Step 2: Install Calendar Component (com_)

Install the .zip package of the component from the administrator panel of you Joomla. From the menu, you should choose Installers -> Components

Next, please, click the [Browse] button and navigate to the downloaded .zip archive. Open it and click the [Upload File & Install] button.

Step 3: Install Calendar Module (mod_)

Install the .zip package of the module from the administrator panel of you Joomla. Please, navigate to Installers -> Modules from the top menu.

Then click the [Browse] button and navigate to the downloaded .zip archive. Open it and click the [Upload File & Install] button.

Well done! The calendar module can now be published via Modules -> Site Modules

It will be listed there as Latest Events

Joomla and Google AdSense

How to install Google AdSense module on your Joomla website?

If you would like to use Google AdSense on your Joomla site you would have to add some functionality to your Joomla Administration tool.

First of all you need to download the necessary module. You can find and download Google Adsense Module from here:

Download Google Adsense Module

Please, save it on your local drive, from where you can upload it to your Joomla site later on. As you can see, the application is a Module, so, you need to upload it from your Module menu. Please select Installer -> Modules from your Main Menu.

Browse through your files and find the folder with the Adsense Module and press Upload File and Install.

Now you can see the new Module in your Modules -> Site Modules list. Next, please select Site Modules from your Modules menu:

Find the Google Adsense Module link (please note it could be on your 2nd page) and click it. Here you need to enter you Google AdSense data so that you are able to display Google Ads on your Joomla site.

When you point the mouse cursor over a parameter an Info section pops up and explains the parameter meaning.

Please, take the necessary data from your Google Adsense html code.

Well done! You have successfully installed the Google AdSense Module on your Joomla site.

Joomla and Google AdSense

How to install Google AdSense module on your Joomla website?

If you would like to use Google AdSense on your Joomla site you would have to add some functionality to your Joomla Administration tool.

First of all you need to download the necessary module. You can find and download Google Adsense Module from here:

Download Google Adsense Module

Browse through your files and find the folder with the Adsense Module and press Upload File and Install.

Now you can see the new Module in your Modules -> Site Modules list. Next, please select Site Modules from your Modules menu:

When you point the mouse cursor over a parameter an Info section pops up and explains the parameter meaning.

Please, take the necessary data from your Google Adsense html code.

Well done! You have successfully installed the Google AdSense Module on your Joomla site.

Joomla Backup

How to create a backup of your Joomla system?

To make a back up of your Joomla application you need to download all your Joomla files to your local computer and to export the database that Joomla uses.

How to download your Joomla files?

To back up the Joomla files to your computer please, use an FTP client to connect to your account. Then navigate to your Joomla application folder and download it to your local computer. Here you can learn more about how to configure and use an FTP client.

How to export/backup your Joomla database?

To export/backup your database please check the how to backup/restore MySQL database tutorial.

Well done! You have successfully created a backup copy of your Joomla system!.

Please, find here more about how to create a backup of your site and restore it.

Joomla Upgrade

How to upgrade your Joomla system?

We recommend that you backup your Joomla before starting any upgrading procedures. Please, find here how to backup your Joomla files and database.

If you have used Fantastico for installing your Joomla, you will be able to upgrade it from there too. For this purpose check regularly your Fantastico's page for important notices. It will inform you about the available upgrade and guide you through the simple and intuitive process. SiteGround updates all its Fantastico installations every day to ensure our customers always use the latest application upgrades.

In some cases you will have to upgrade your Joomla manually. This is recommended when you have heavily modified your Joomla system and / or you have not used Fantastico to install it.

Manually upgrading from any version of Joomla 1.0.x to 1.0.XX, simply involves overwriting the outdated Joomla files. For this purpose Joomla provides upgrade patches for all of its previous versions to the latest one. You can find here the patch for your installation and make sure you download the one with .zip extension.

After you have downloaded the Patch Package to your local computer please use the cPanel -> File Manager to upload it to the installation directory of your Joomla. To do so, you need to:

Step 1: Open your cPanel -> File Manager and navigate to the installation folder of your Joomla application. Then click on the [Upload Files] button.

cPanel - File Manager - Upload

Step 2: Then browse trough your files and select the Patch Package from your local computer and click Upload.

Step 3: After this, please click on the Patch Package file in the File Manager. You need to extract the archive file using the Extract function. Please click on it and the files will be extracted upgrading your Joomla to the latest version. The path where the patch should be extracted is the root directory of your Joomla installation.

Well done! Your Joomla is now upgraded!

In some cases the upgrade may corrupt additionally added components and modules on your Joomla. In this case you will have to re-install them.

Please, feel free to contact us if you have any questions or recommendations about this tutorial at: tutorials 'at' siteground.com