Installing & Testing Joomla On Your PC

My friend Yashvin started a post on how to install and use wordpress on your own pc some days ago. I was thinking since some days to write a tutorial about installing and using JOOMLA on your own pc. I got a mail from a friend yesterday and asking me how to install joomla on pc and use it. So I say lets write this tutorial.

Many people don't know about joomla. Joomla is the latest trend and is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet. It is used all over the world for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. Joomla! is easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable. For more info about joomla...click here.

So how to install it on your own pc for testing and learning to use it?

Step 1

First you need a local web server on your pc which support php! Easy PHP is the hero in this movie! You must download and install a copy of easyphp! Click here to download one now...or if the link don't work...just google it and download a copy from anywhere else.

Step 2

Now you need to install the EASYPHP you just downloaded! I don't need to tell you how to install i hope?? :-)

Step 3

Okies buddy...you got a web server on your pc now...so what next?? RUN IT NOW! Start the easy php.

Important: If everything works fine then you should see this...

Picture from blog.yashvin.net

If you see something like the picture above then everything is fine. Minimise it and move to step 5!!!

Else if you get the error as shown below...

Then you need to make some modifications! Normally you will get this error if there is another web server on your pc which is using the default port 80. For example on many computer there is IIS which is another web server most comonly used for ASP pages. If IIS is installed then it is already using the port 80.

So the ti fix this problem, you just have to allocate another port to Easyphp Apache server. Follow the next step to fix the problem.

Step 4

To fix the port problem you have to change the port of easyphp to 8086 or anyother free port. But in this example we will use port 8086.

1. Click on the E icon shown below.

2. Now an option list appear...click on CONFIGURATION....then select APACHE and click.
3. The file "httpd.conf" will open in notepad or wordpad.
4. On the notepad file httpd.conf... Select EDIT and click FIND
5. A small box will appear as shown below. In the "Find What" text field enter 80 and click FIND NEXT.

6. In the httpd.conf file all 80 will now be highlighted. Replace all 80 by 8086. Click FIND NEXT again in the box to find the other 80 and replace them with 8086 till you get the message "Cannot Find Next".

7. Now close the box above. And go to httpd.conf and SAVE the file. Click SAVE!!! Dnt use SAVE AS!

8. Now close httpd.conf - Close the Easy php Small box too and restart Easyphp. It will now start and work fine.

Thats it...so now easyphp is working and you have a web server to run JOOMLA.

Step 5

Its time to download JOOMLA! Click here or go directly to Joomla"s official site to download it.

Step 6

Now go to the folder where you install easyphp. Normally it should be C:\Program Files\EasyPHP1-8\www but it may varies among computers. Go into the www folder of easyphp and paste the JOOMLA zip file you just downloaded there!

Extract the files using winzip or winrar. Thats it...Joomla in now on your pc!!! But how to run and set it up??? Continue reading...

Step 7

Now that Joomla is on your pc...its time to activate it. Remember that easyphp must be running for the server to work or you will get message "Unable to connect"! If you have at any time close the easyphp...then click and start easy php.

Open your web browser. In the address bar type: http://localhost:8086/

A list of folders in the www folder will appear in your web browser. Click on the folder for joomla!

You will now go to the pre-installation page of JOOMLA!

Click on NEXT as shown above. You will then go to the license page. Click on NEXT again.

Now you will go to the mysql database configuration page. Stay on hold here...dnt enter anything for now.

Open a new window and enter the address http://localhost:8086/mysql/

The mysql database manager will open. See the picture below for an example! Type JOOMLA....in capitals at the field for database name...mark with a red arrow below!

Now click CREATE...marked with a blue arrow above! And your database is created!!! You can now close this window.

Return to the Joomla set up window now! Fill all the fields.

Hostname enter: localhost
Mysql user name enter: root
Mysql password...leave it blank!!
Database name enter: JOOMLA

Now click NEXT ABOVE!!

Now step 2 of Joomla's set up will appear...and enter a name for the website then click NEXT.

Complete step 3 by entering your email address at the email field and change the password to one of your wish! Click NEXT.

Here is it...you are at Joomla final installation page! But don't click on anything yet!

Step 8

Now go to the Joomla Folder inside easy php! Delete the folder called "installation"!!! This is for your security reason!

Now return to your web browser and click View Site! You will be transported to your own joomla on your own pc!!! Thats it.

Now how to use Joomla??? Well thats a book i will have to write on lol. Go to joomla website for all the tutorials on how it can be use and add ons etc...

Now i would advise you to rename the folder where joomla's files are to another easy name such as "myjoomla".

And to access the website through your browser you will then have to type the address http://localhost:8086/myjoomla/

Hope the tutorial was useful for those who were looking for it.

Next post will be on????hmmm....KFC in Mauritius lol!!! Am hungry.

Paid by Skylightads.com!!!

I have finally been paid by Skylightads.com!! Let me say some words on this. I registered with skylightads in May and got two ads space sold on my blogs within 3 days only!

Both ads were on a 1 month contract and the contract ended on 13 of June. And today 2 July I got paid $27! Got these in only 2 months! At first I doubt about the professionalism of skylightads but I can now say that skylightads is NOT A SCAM! Its a new advertising company but really has a very user friendly interface and the admin replies to all your queries personally!

So if you have a blog and wanna earn some money...then go to skylightads! If you want to advertise and get lots of visitors to your website or blog...then click here!

Below are the screenshot proof of being paid by skylightads.com!

Blogger Versus Wordpress!

Did you ever try to see the differences between Wordpress and Blogger?

Everyone want a blog. The 3 most popular are Blogger, Wordpress and Live Journal. Someone special to me says that she don't like Blogger because blogger sucks! But then I say that Wordpress sucks! Yea you see "sucks" but this depend from the perspective you are seing it.

I won't cover about Live Journal here as I never used it. If you use Live Journal then feel free to post your review in the comment section of this post.

Now about the remaining...Blogger is my favorite! Why? Well I like Wordpress too but let me explain where and how you should be choosing between wordpress and blogger.

I tried to search about Blogger versus Wordpress on google and did not really find a very updated post so I am writing this one for all you people who will soon be looking to compare.

Now I know that many of you who blogs will tell me that Wordpress i better. Well I don't have any enmity with Wordpress but you should know where and how to use it. If you want a blog to just express your thoughts occasionally...then wordpress is ok for you. Here I am talking about wordpress on the free account...that the type sitename.wordpress.com!

Why I prefer blogger?

If you want a blog...i mean a professional blog and you want to place your adsense ads and other stuffs on the blog then you will be disappointed if you use wordpress!!! I was editing the wordpress of my girlfriend some weeks ago and wanted to add some cool stuffs such as adsense, statcounter, visitors feeds ands shoutbox from cbox.ws...and to my great surprise wordpress would modify those codes and would let them function properly!!!!

So if you only want a personal diary with the stupid gadgets of wordpress free account...then go for wordpress!

I used to use wordpress before but later switch to blogger. Why blogger? Simple coz blogger is by the respected Google. Blogger allow me to add my adsense codes and many other html codes. I can even create a small page in html and then add the codes to my blogger and display what i want. Almost everything I tried worked well on blogger.

Now blogger too have its disadvantage...the adsense codes...Yea you cannot really customize it to the max as you would do on a website. For example if I wanna set very rounded corners...I don't have any idea how to do it! If you know how to do it please let me know. I tried to get the codes directly from the adsense website and then paste it in the HTML widget of blogger but it did not work.

But why I choosed blogger? Nice question! Simply because blogger if free! It host my blog for free! Wordpress too is free but on the free account of wordpress there are MANY limitations! And on blogger's free account i don't have these limitations.

Now concerning the beautiful templates of wordpress...yea I heard many people saying that wordpress is more professional than blogger!! But this is UNTRUE!! The professionalism of your blog does not depend on your blog host! It depends on you!

I can give someone a wordpress yea but if he is a total loss who don't even know how to write...while on the other hand I give someone a blogger blog and he write good stuffs..arrange his ads and widgets in proper positions and use a good matching template...then you can guess who is more professional????

Many people also say that wordpress is easier to use! Well thats partially true as blogger has recently just updated and has become much fun and user friendly as wordpress!

My Personal Use:

I do use both wordpress and blogger! The blog http://onlinemoneyagents.blogspot.com is on blogger and http://www.onlinemoneytricks.com is on Wordpress!

As you will see on http://www.onlinemoneytricks.com I have place many widgets and also been able to place adsense codes!! How???

Simple! Wordpress does not allow to use adsense and other cool stuffs if you are on its free account. That is if your blog has the word wordpress.com in the url! However if you pay a hosting...then you can transfer your blog wordpress to the paid hosting. Then you are completely free to do anything with your blog! All limitations are removed. My wordpress blog is hosted by a paid server and not on wordpress itself! This is why I am free to add anything I want to it.

My wordpress is hosted at HostGator. I don't really pay for the hosting myself as the blog is sponsored by another company and that company pay for my domain name and hosting! But.....

Last week I got a nice idea...thats is of proposing my own free hosting for wordpress blogs!!! Yea...I was working on that since last weeks and my new hosting company is finally online! I am providing free PHP hosting with 250 MB storage and 10 GB bandwidth Free!!! My hosting company site is at http://maurihost.co.cc

Try it. I did that specially for all my friends who want to have their own wordpress on a private server but now I am extending the service to the whole world free of course! I will be coming about more details about how to get your free wordpress on my free hosting server in the next post.

You can still have a look or register your's at http://maurihost.co.cc

Till then am gonna have a hot coffee and gonna get to work in a few hours. A +