A Guided Tour of Joomla's Configuration.php File

7/16/15, 4:54 AMA Guided Tour of Joomla's configuration.php File

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! By Ed Andrea " 25

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A Guided Tour ofJoomla'sconguration.php File

In our forum we are often asked to help with problems with paths,

passwords, data base connections and other basic conguration

issues. This is especially true after a migration or move of a site.

Most of the xes for these problems can be made in your

conguration.php le. We're going to help you get to know it this very

important le.

In this lesson, were going to tell you:

Where you can locate your conguration.php le.

What each line aects and common settings.

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This is not a comprehensive coding guide, but is a general reference to

help you understand this le.

Location of the conguration.php le

Here's a picture of the location using Filezilla. This installation is in a

sub directory called "joomla" .

Your conguration.php le is located in the root of your joomla

installation. If it's in the main directory the path to it would look

something like this:

/home/username/public_html/conguration.php

In a sub directory or sub domain:

/home/username/public_html/subdirectory/conguration.php

On your computer (using XAMPP as an example)

C:\Documents and Settings\Ed\My

Documents\xampp\htdocs\J17\conguration.php

I shouldn't have to say this, but I will. Make a backup of your current

le before you do anything to it. Use a test site or play with it in a text

editor oine for practice. Don't make changes without a backup. Make

a backup before you move a le to a dierent server or directory.

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We'll go through the le line-by-line and create a quick reference for

each line, with some notes where further explanation might be

needed.

Site Settings

$oine : When set to "0" the site is online. Set to "1" the site is

oine

$oine_message : You can write any text message on this line.

$sitename : The name of the site as it appears in headings

$editor : The editor that is chosen as default in global conguration

$list_limit :The length of lists in the Control Panel for all Users. By

default, this is set to 20.

$access : The default access level to the site. "1" is public access; "2"

is registered; "3" is special

Debug Settings

$debug : "0" is o. "1" is on.

$debug_lang : "0" is o. "1" is on.

Notes:

$debug : This will turn on the debugging system of Joomla!. When set

to Yes, this tool will provide diagnostic information, language

translations, and SQL errors. If any such issues or errors occur, they

will be displayed at the bottom of each page, in both the front-end and

back-end.

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$debug_lang : This will turn on the debugging indicators (*...*) or (?...?)

for the Joomla! Language les. Debug Language will work without the

Debug System tool set to on. But it will not provide additional detailed

references which would help in correcting any errors.

Database Settings

$dbtype : "mysqli" or "mysql"

$host : "localhost" on many servers, not all.

$user : The name of the data base user that has access to the data

base.

$password : The password associated with the data base user. Not

your admin password or FTP password.

$db : The data base name created when you created the data base.

$dbprex : At least three characters ending in an underscore. (Set

when you installed joomla)

Notes

You need this information when you install the site. Forgetting to

change this is often the cause of problems when moving a site. Before

moving any site, make a backup copy of conguration.php so you can

refer to the original settings if you need them.

$dbtype : only change this if you have changed servers and using a

dierent type.

$host : most servers this is localhost. Godaddy and a some others

have dierent names. Check with your hosting company if you're not

sure.

$user : On shared cPanel servers it is often prexed with the user

name - for example edandrea_ed. On your local machine there will not

be a prex unless you created one. It shouldn't be root in any case. If

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you create a site on your local server and don't specify password when

you create a data base, you will be able to access the data without a

password. This is not secure when you move to web server online.

$db : On shared cPanel servers this is usually prexed with a

username - for example edandrea_jml1. On your local machine there

will not be a prex unless you created one. On Godaddy servers this

name is generated by their service and you will not be able to create

your own, see their documentation if you need it.

$dbprex : You cannot create a new one here. This must be the one

that was used when the data base was created, or that is actually used

by the database. If you have more than one data base prex, you can

change this, but you can't create a new one.

Assorted extra features

$live_site : The actual URL of the site for example -

http://yourdomain.com (unless your site is in a subdirectory)

$secret: : DO NOT CHANGE

$gzip : "0" is o; "1" is on.

$error_reporting : "-1" is the appropriate level.

$helpurl : default is joomla help. Can be set to your own help pages.

Notes

$live_site : In the newest versions this should not have a value. There

may be times you do need to ll in a value. If you are redirecting a url

you need to put the actual url to the live site on this line. Or if you are

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creating a copy of a site for testing and modication. For example, I

have a test site at http://dashhelp.com/joomla17 which is a copy of my

main site. had to change this to line in the conguratiion.php le on

the copy. You will get a page not found error if this is not set to

'http://yourdomain.com/directory" or in the case of a subdomain

"http://subdomain.yourdomain.com" Joomla uses this url to create

relative paths. Essential to check this on test sites.

$secret : This is generated when Joomla! is rst installed and is not

changeable. It is used internally by Joomla! for security purposes.

$error_reporting : This sets the appropriate level of reporting. The

default setting is System Default. Errors can occur that don't have any

eect on the site. You don't need to log all errors unless you're doing

some detailed debugging work. Your logs will just eat up your disk

space otherwise.

$helpurl : The place Joomla! looks for help information when you click

the Help button (visible in many screens and options of the

administration panel). By default, it uses Joomla!'s main help site, but

you could create your own help site, or link people to your ticket

system for help.

$ftp_host: : "127.0.0.1" is the default IP for localhost. Your server may

be dierent.

$ftp_port : "21" is normal default. Check with your host if you are

having problems. Not all servers are the same.

$ftp_user : your FTP user name

$ftp_pass : your FTP password

$ftp_root: : usually a path like /home/username/public_html (no

trailing slash)

$ftp_enable : This setting tells Joomla! to use it's built-in FTP function

instead of the process used by PHP.



Time Zone Settings

$oset : default is UTC

$oset_user : default is UTC

Notes

$oset. This tool sets the current date and time. The set time should

be where the site's server is located. The default setting is (UTC 00:00)

Western Europe Time, London, Lisbon, Casablanca.

Here's an example of the oset if the server is in California - US Pacic

time $oset = 'America/Los_Angeles';

Email Settings

$mailer : "mail" uses the PHP mail function; "sendmail" uses SMTP

mail on the server.

$mailfrom : From E-mail. The email address used by Joomla! to send

site email.

$sendmail : The path where the Sendmail program is located. This

path is only used if Mailer is set to Sendmail.

$smtpauth : If the SMTP server requires authentication to send mail,

set this to Yes. Otherwise leave it at No. This is only used if Mailer is set

to Sendmail.

$smtpuser : The username to use for access to the SMTP host. This is

only used if Mailer is set to Sendmail.

$smtppass: The password to use for access to the SMTP host. This is



only used if Mailer is set to Sendmail.

$smtphost : SMTP Host. The SMTP address to use when sending mail.

This is only used if Mailer is set to Sendmail.

$smtpsecure : Select the security model your SMTP server uses -

Default is None. Options are SSL and TTL.

$smtpport : SMTP Port. Most unsecured servers use port 25 and most

secure servers use port 465. Check with your host.

Log Settings

$log_path : '//home/username/public_html/j/logs';

$tmp_path : :'//home/username\public_html/tmp';

Notes

$log_path : The path where the logs should be stored. The Joomla!

installer should automatically ll in this folder. It's not critical to the

operation of the site, so if it's wrong you will only know it if you try to

check the logs.

$tmp_path : This is an important setting and should be lled in

properly. Many problems found when moving sites are caused

because joomla is looking for the old tmp folder. If you get any errors

regarding the tmp folder check this path and make sure it's correct..

Cache Settings

$caching : "0" is o; "1" Conservative setting; "2" Progressive Setting

$cache_handler : "le" full cacheing ; "cachelite" lite cacheing



Notes

$caching : This setting sets the maximum length of time (in minutes)

for a cache le to be stored before it is refreshed. The default setting is

15 minutes.

$cache_handler : This setting sets how the cache operates. There is

only one caching mechanism which is le-based.

Cachelite is an alternative to full caching.

Metadata Settings

$MetaDesc : Create a text description for SEO.

$MetaKeys : Insert keywords separated by a comma.

$MetaAuthor : "0" is no; "1" is yes.

Notes

$MetaDesc : This is the Site Meta Description. This is the description of

the site which is indexed by search engine spiders.

$MetaKeys : These are Site Meta Keywords. These keywords describe

the site and are the basis for improving the ability of search engine

spiders ability to index the site.

$MetaAuthor : This shows Author Meta Tag. It shows the Author Meta

information for articles and is used by search engine spiders when

indexing the site.

SEO Settings (Search EngineOptimization)



$sef : "0: is no; "1" is yes

$sef_rewrite : "0" is no; "1" is yes

$sef_sux : "0" is no; "1" is yes

$unicodeslugs : "0" is no; "1" is yes

$feed_limit : default is 10 - any integer can be used

Notes

$sef : This controls Search Engine Friendly URLs. When set to Yes, URLs

are rewritten to be more friendly for search engine spiders. For

example, the URL: www.example.com/index.php?

option=com_content&view=etc..., would turn into:

www.example.com/alias. Most of the items created in Joomla! have an

Alias box where a search engine friendly URL can be inserted. The

default setting is No.

$sef_rewrite : When set to Yes, Joomla! will use the mod_rewrite

settings of Apache when creating search engine friendly URLs. Please

note: it is advised that you do not modify any .htaccess le without an

understanding of how it works. You must use the .htaccess le

provided with Joomla! in order to use this setting. To use this le,

rename the htaccess.txt le (found in the root directory) to .htaccess.

By default, this setting is set to No.

$sef_sux : When set to Yes, Joomla! will add .html to the end of the

URLs. The default setting is No.

$unicodeslugs : Choose between transliteration and unicode aliases.

Transliteration is default. This is an advanced setting and you probably

will not need to change this unless you are and SEO expert.

Session Settings

$lifetime : a whole number indicating minutes.

$session_handler : "database" or "none"



Notes

$lifetime : This setting sets how long a session should last and how

long a user can remain signed in for (before logging them o for being

inactive). The default setting is 15 minutes.

$session_handler : This setting sets how the session should be

handled once a user connects and logs into the site. The default

setting is set to Database.

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Rouven 3 years agoNice overview. There are actually give a few more cache(and session) handlers available but they depend onother software installed on your server. The globalconfiguration will tell you which are available on yourserver.

Reply

Nick Savov 3 years ago> RouvenThanks for the info, Rouven! We'll have to haveyou do a guest post sometime :)

Kind regards,Nick

Reply

Laura at Aliate 3 years agoIt is great to come across someone who knows howthese things work. I am useless whtn it comes to Joomla,so you really helped me out!

Nick Savov 3 years ago> Laura at AffiliateHi Laura,

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Hi Laura,

In that case you should check out online class(http://www.ostraining.com/onli.... It should helpyou to grasp the concepts and to give you theguidance needed to get a firm foundation onJoomla :)

Kind regards,Nick

Reply

Chas Burdick 3 years agoThank you for the line by line, that is very helpful, hope tosee more tutorials like this.

Reply

Nick Savov 3 years ago> Chas BurdickHi Chas,

You're very welcome! We have more planned sostay tuned! :)

Kind regards,Nick

Reply

Glorious Steve 3 years agoExcellent Nick,

I am a beginner. Earlier I was trying out joomla. I begin tounderstand the basics. Thanks a lot!

Reply

Nick Savov 3 years ago> Glorious SteveYou're welcome, Steve!

You should check our Joomla classes(http://www.ostraining.com/onli.... We have aJoomla Beginner class and an Intermediate class,as well as a Joomla template design class.

Kind regards,Nick

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Bob 3 years agoThanks for this line by line explanation. I often havetrouble when I'm moving a site from my localenvironment to the final active server. The confusion isalways with the $secret and $password items.

If I read the explanation above correctly, the $secret datais part of the database and the info should be retainedfrom the development server's config file and written tothe active server's config file. Whereas the $passwordinfo from the development server's config file should bereplaced with the active server's user password.

Thanks!

Reply

Stix 3 years agohi there, great tutorial. Please also cover the steps tohide all the passwords etc?. especially when u want togive the live site for support to troubleshoot certain issueu dont want them to know the sensitive details. thanks

Reply

sohrab 3 years agoHithis was very useful thank youbut i still have a problem with my sitei wanted to ask if i can use ip numbers instead ifaddress? i dont know my address and my host is notgiving me that, i just have this: 67.228.4.124:3306can i change it address?by the way i am using plesk 8 , anybody know how towork with it?

Jos 3 years agoHi,This is a very nice guided tour!!

In my Joomla 2.5 configuration.php there are 3 moresettings I do not find back, though: public $cookie_path = '';public $cookie_path = '';

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public $cookie_path = '';public $language = 'en-GB';Of the latter I wonder what it does, since I want to set upa bilingual site. I do not find that info anywhere, not evenon the ocial Joomla site...Thank you, Jos.

1

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Anusha Isaacraj 3 years agoThank you so much...It helped me a lot !

Reply

Abdullah 2 years agoHi, I missed up my configuration.php. I have several copiesand not sure which one if the correct one. none seems towork I still receive errors

Reply

Harish 2 years agoIf default Text Filter values are changed in GlobalConfiguration they are not getting saved. Can I directlyedit configuration.php file to add a line for the same. Iwant to set "No Filtering" option for Super User.

Reply

Ernie 2 years agoTHANK YOU!This has to be the best overview of the configuration.phpfile on the net

Reply

walt 2 years agoNice overview...

It seems a bit strange that this configuration file storesusernames and passwords in plain text. Seems like thatmight become a security risk, if someone could read thefile (good thing that when correctly configured .php filesare not permitted for direct access).

Site help a year agoCan any please tell me in what way is it possible to

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Can any please tell me in what way is it possible toremove global configuration and super user admin fromjoomla? I have paid someone to do a site for me I believethey have got into the backend somehow and defacedme from changing settings such as the global config. Iam not an expert on the computer but I would appreciatesome help if anyone knows how I can regain access andstop any loophole how they can regain access to thesite.

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surajverma_rv a year agoperfect description... ;) :))))))))))))

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fela 7 months agohow can i have more than one db user inconfiguration.php

Reply

fela 7 months agohow can i add more than one database user toconfiguration.php?

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