Neil Bresnan Internet & Network Services Internet ... · Joomla once your Joomla is downloaded...

Neil Bresnan Internet & Network Services

Internet & Network Services

Assessment 1

Ubuntu LAMP Server Running Joomla

Student: Neil Bresnan

First: What is Joomla?

Joomla is a content management system. It is free open source. It is full of features. With its extensive developer community you can do what you want to do with your website. Some of the core features that come with basic joomla include a front end website with a template. It has links etc. Everything is dynamic database driven. It’s not stored on html files. It’s all stored on the database. One of the most useful feature of joomla is the log-in form, it allows users to create an account and admin can manage your users. This is all done using the user manager. When you finish the installation stage and run joomla you have access to the back end administrator section where you can manipulate and change content which will then show in your joomla site.It’s a real gem of an application, seriously one of the best applications ive found on the net. It’s very good for making websites because all you have to do is manipulate the content to suit what website you want to build. No code involved.

Step 1: Run ubuntu server and desktop on your virtual machine.

First you must have VMware virtual machine workstation running on your computer. Next you must download the zipped versions of the free open source ubuntu server 10.10 and ubuntu desktop. You can download them from this URL: http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/down oad

Next you must create a new virtual machine using the zipped iso ubuntu server version 10.10. Do the same with the ubuntu desktop. See below.

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http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download


During the set-up you will be asked for a username and password. I recommend writing them down for further references. They are important for root privileges.

Once set-up is complete, you must start both machines. The server and desktop will now go through the installation stage. This may take a while. Your installation might look something like this:

And

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Step 2: Installing LAMP on the ubuntu server 10.10

When you have the ubuntu server 10.10 installed on your virtual machine, the next step to do is install LAMP on the server. This must be done in roots home directory.

Commands entered during installation:

#sudo su – root privileges, must enter password that you gave during set-up

#apt-get update - To upgrade installed packages to latest versions#apt-get upgrade –show-upgraded

Installing LAMP:

First when i tried to install LAMP using the #tasksel

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Installation failed so I had to install all the components of LAMP individually. Here are the commands I used:

# aptitude install mysql-server mysql-clientIt will ask you to provide/create password for your mysql database

#aptitude install apache2to check is your apache2 working, go to Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop and open web browser, enter web address http://ipaddress/<——– this should come up with message “IT WORKS!” see below:

#aptitude install php5 libapache-mod-php5after your php is installed restart your apache by entering command:

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

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http://youripaddress/


Then enter the following command:

#vi /var/www/info.phpit will open vi editor; inside that editor enter fallowing lines:

<?phpphpinfo();

?>

click ESC and hold Shift+ZZ to save that file

Like this:

Now open a browser and typehttp://ipaddress/info.phpThis should come up:

#aptitude install php5-mysql php5-curl php5-gd php5-idn php-pear

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http://ipaddress/info.php


php5-imagick php5-imap

restart your apache again by entering command:

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

after your apache2 is restarted enter the fallowing command:

#aptitude install phpmyadmin

it will ask you 2 questions:

1 ) Web server to reconfigure automatically: <—— apache2

2) Configure database for phpmyadmin with dbconfig-common? <— NO

Then open web browser and enter web address http://ipaddress/phpmyadmin

if you got your phpmyadmin page then your phpmyadmin is correctly installed.

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http://youripaddress/phpmyadmin


Step 3: Installing joomla on the ubuntu server 10.10

COMMANDS ENTERED DURING INSTALLATION:

First of all you need to get the network configured with this command:#sudo dhclient eth0

Get the most recent version of Joomla! by entering fallowing commands:#SOURCEPKG=Joomla_1.5.7-Stable-Full_Package.zip

#SOURCEWWW=http://joomlacode.org/gf/download/frsrelease/8376/30993/Joomla_1.5.7-Stable-Full_Package.zip

Download Joomla:#mkdir joomla <—- creates directory called joomla

#cdjoomla <—— transfers you to that directory

#wget$SOURCEWWW <—– this will launch downloading of Joomla

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#apt-get install unzip <——– installs program called ‘unzip’ for unpacking Joomla

once your Joomla is downloaded change the name of full name to whatever you like by typing command: (I will call it joomla.zip)#mv Joomla_1.5.7-Stable-Full_Package.zip joomla.zip

then copy that file to /var/wwwby entering command:#cp joomla.zip /var/www

go to that path by entering command:#cd /var/www

create directory called ‘joomla’ by entering command:#mkdir joomla

copy joomla.zip to this directory:#cp joomla.zip /var/www/joomla

go to that directory:#cd joomla

unpack that installation in this directory by entering command:#unzip joomla.zip

then remove file joomla.zip by entering command:#rm -r joomla.zip

then set permission to writeable by entering command:#sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/joomla8


then handle the file and directory permissions by entering command:#sudo find. -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

and another permission:#sudo find . -type -exec chmod 755 {}\;

once this is done you need to create database by entering command:#mysqladmin – u root -p GiveAnyNameForYourDatabase

then type in command#mysql -u root -p

it will open mysql, create a database inside mysql by entering the following:#myslq> GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, INDEX, ALTER, CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES, LOCK TABLES ON yourdatabasename.* ‘yourusernameformysql’@'localhost’ INDETIFIED BY ‘yourpasswordformysql’;

then enter command:#mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

exit mysql by entering command:#mysql> \q

next you need to restart apache2 by entering command:#sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

once apache2 is restarted, go to your ubuntu desktop web browser and inside 9

mailto:'yourusernameformysql'@'localhost'


where you type in your webpage address enter http://ipaddress/joomlathis will open installation wizard for joomla. The first step of the installation is choosing a language. The default is English. Click next.See below:

Next the wizard will go through the installation pre check. Just continue and click next at the top of the page. See Below:

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http://youripaddress/joomla


Next the wizard will go through the details of the licence. Joomla is a free open source application. You can read it in your own time. Click next on the top of the page. See below:

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Next the wizard will go through the database. You have to give a name for the host name, I gave 'localhost'.

You will also have to provide a username and password for the database. Write both down for future referencing. You will also be prompted to provide a database name. After that click next. See below:

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Next you have to go through the FTP configuration. You can skip that because I am not going to use it. Click next.

Next is the main configuration of joomla. You have to choose the site's name, provide an email address and password. You also have to load sample data. After that click next.

You are now finished the installation process but first joomla warns you to remove the installation directory on the ubuntu server. Use the following command: #rm -rf installation/

You can now go into your joomla site or go into the administrator side to modify your site.

See below:

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Your actual site homepage will look like this:

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You can also go into the administrator section by entering this URL: http://ipaddress/joomla/administrator It will bring you to a log in page like this:

You enter the username and password you gave during the joomla installation. The default username is admin and then the password.

Step 4: How to use Joomla and make basic modifications

Joomla is made up of the front end website and the back end administrator section. You make the modification under the admin section, then it will show the change in the actual website. Once you have made a change, there is a preview option to look at the user’s view of the website. The front end is how users see the site and the back end is how the administrator see the site. First you should look around the front end website, look at the template, the banner, and the menu. You soon will have the knowledge to change the look of these attributes.

Log into the admin back end part of the website. You will see this:

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http://ipaddress/joomla/administrator


Joomla is relatively easy to use. Joomla is broken into five building blocks:1.Section2.Categories3.Modules4.Templates5.Menus

1.Section(1)Sections are the first level of the three level Joomla content hierarchy. Articles belong to categories and categories belong to sections. Joomla does not allow sub-categories or for content to belong to more than one category. It is just a simple 3-level system.

2.Category(1)Categories are the second level of the three level Joomla content hierarchy. Articles belong to categories and categories belong to sections. Joomla does not allow sub-categories or for content to belong to more than one category. It is just a simple 3-level system.

3. Module(1)A module is a Joomla extension that provides useful information or interactive functions to the site visitors on the frontend. These are similar to “widgets” in some popular blogging platforms. Modules can be positioned anywhere that

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the template allows, making them very flexible elements for your pages.

4. Template(1)Templates are the design or blueprint of a site. Template developers decide on the general appearance of the site, what module positions names are available and where they will appear, as well as control the style or appearance of every other visual element on the site. In Joomla, we can actually assign different templates to different menu items, allowing us much more control over how different parts of the site appears.

Menu(1)A menu is Joomla is the basic building block for designing the user’s view of a site. Menus allow users to find and access content and control what modules appear in what positions for each menu item. Or, to put it another way, menus are the glue that connects all of the pages of a site together, dictate what will be on each page, and much of how it will look. Menus are displayed as modules and may be placed in any module position that a template permits.

Content is the most important part of any website. In joomla content means articles. Articles can be different things like:1.News Stories2.Blog Posts3.Company information4.etc

To make or edit articles we use the article manager, see below:

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In joomla you have complete control of how article appear on your site. Joomla uses section manager and category manager to organise articles. See below:

Post an article on joomla

To post an article on joomla, go to the article manager. In article manager click add new article. This should show:

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Type in your post. Then you must select the section you want the article in. There is a drop down option where you can pick where you want the article to show. Next save and preview. You can see below that my article is now showing on the webpage:

and

How to change the template on joomla

To change the template on your front end website, we use the template manager:

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Here we can change the template of the site to different template with different formats, colouring etc. You just select the template you want to use and click default and then preview. This should change the main template of the site. See below:

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Summary & Conclusion

In summary I thought this assignment was very challenging. I was challenged first with the installation of the ubuntu server and desktop. I didn’t have a full knowledge of the commands to use. I had to research the commands online and also used tutorials. The LAMP server also gave me problems as installation failed after I selected LAMP. I had to install the mysql database and client individually. I also had trouble installing joomla on my server. First I didn’t unzip my file in the correctly directory so my joomla installation page looked like this:

But once I got joomla installed on my computer I started to enjoy the assignment. I enjoyed figuring out how joomla works and how to manipulate the content of your webpage. Looking at joomla also gave me ideas on my third year project and how maybe I could use this application to create a website of my own.

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What you have learned

1.I have learned how to install ubuntu LAMP server. With its mysql database and mysql client, LAMP is a useful tool. I can take pride in saying I installed a fully functioning secure server.2.I have learned how to install phpmyadmin and apache 2 on the ubuntu server.3.Ive learned commands to download zipped files from the net and install them on the server.4.Ive learned how to set up joomla on the server5.Ive learned what joomla is and how to navigate around the administrator back end.6.Ive learned to manipulate site content using joomla.

What you would do differently if you were to start again

Well first I would have started easier because altogether it is a lot of work. With all the installation and then the blog postings and the written report, not to mention the web 2.0 presentation.

Secondly I would have made better recordings of my commands because I found to do the written report and blog posting, you needed all of the commands you used. The first time around I barely recorded my commands so I had no knowledge of what I were doing. I had to re-do my installation again to record my commands.

Thirdly I would have researched the commands for downloading zipped files and extracting them on the ubuntu server. I was struck in a pickle for a while trying to figure out the commands. It looked like there so no end but I read some useful guides that showed me how to do it.

References:

1. Building blocks of joomla, Retrieved 12/03/11 fromhttp://www.startlearningjoomla.com/dl/slj-guide-001/StartLearningJoomla-Guide-001.pdf

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http://www.startlearningjoomla.com/dl/slj-guide-001/StartLearningJoomla-Guide-001.pdf

http://www.startlearningjoomla.com/dl/slj-guide-001/StartLearningJoomla-Guide-001.pdf

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