FAQ about Joomla

In this FAQ guide, we will introduce you to Joomla and help you get started.

Note: one.com support offers very limited assistance for websites built with Joomla. If you choose Joomla, be prepared to manage most of the setup and troubleshooting yourself or seek help from Joomla’s community and documentation.

• What is Joomla?

  Joomla is a flexible content management system (CMS) that allows you to create and manage professional websites without any coding skills. It offers a user-friendly interface, numerous extensions, and many customisation options, enabling you to tailor your website to your specific needs.

  Joomla is open-source. It is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), allowing anyone to use, modify, and distribute it freely.

• How do I install Joomla?

  1. Start by creating a database. You can follow this guide: How do I manually create a database?
  2. Download the most recent Joomla version from their website here. 
  3. Extract the Joomla files: 
     Find the downloaded file, usually in your Downloads folder. Right-click it, select Extract All, and click Next to start the extraction.

     Note: You can unzip a file on Mac by double-clicking on it or by right-clicking and selecting "Open".

  4. Connect to your web space via SFTP:
     If you don't have an SFTP client yet, we recommend using FileZilla. You can follow our guide: How to connect to an SFTP server using FileZilla
  5. Upload the unzipped Joomla installation files to your web space:
     In the Local site window of your SFTP client, find the Joomla folder (usually in Downloads). Select all files (Ctrl + A on Windows, cmd + A on Mac), right-click, and choose Upload. Once the upload is complete, close FileZilla.
     
     
      
  6. Open the (sub-)domain in your browser to finish the setup: 
     On the first screen, set the language and name of the website. Then click Setup Login Data.
  7. Enter your name, your selected username, password and email address and click Setup Database Connection.
     
     
      
  8. Enter the database connection details:
     - Database type should stay MySQLi
     - Host name should remain localhost
     Click Install Joomla.
  9. That's it! The setup should be completed now.
      

• How can I enable error display in Joomla for debugging?

  Note: Newer versions of Joomla change the file permissions of the configuration.php file for security reasons. It is set to 444 by default, but if you want to edit it via our File Manager, the permissions must first be changed to 644.  

  You can do this using Filezilla by following this guide: How to change file permissions via an SFTP or FTP client

  1. Access the one.com File Manager.
  2. Locate and edit the configuration.php file in the root folder.
  3. Find the locations of the debug settings and the error reporting configuration: 
     - $debug: 1 → debug on, 0 → debug off
     - $error_reporting: Standard level is "default". To enable error reporting, it should be set to “maximum“.

     Error reporting levels:
     "default" → whatever is set on the webspace level
     "none" → none whatsoever
     "simple" → short error message
     "maximum" → this is the max level and includes a stack trace

  4. Save your changes.

• How can I edit my database connection details for Joomla?

  You can use our File Manager to view and edit your database connection details for Joomla.

  1. Access the one.com File Manager.
  2. Open the configuration.php file in the root folder.
  3. To find the Joomla database connection details, please check for the following:

     public $host = 'localhost';
     public $user = 'example_db';
     public $password = 'mySecureP4ssw0rd';
     public $db = 'example_db';
     public $dbprefix = 'tp3cq_';

  4. Remember to click Save if you want to make any changes.

Related articles:

• How do I update a CMS like WordPress or Joomla?
• Using one.com File Manager