Installation Manual

MySQL Details
Warning!: Make sure that the database is configured with the UTF-8 MySQL collation and that any changes
you make to files is also saved as UTF-8 No BOM encoding.
● the host name for your database – if you are installing locally or on a dedicated, remote host – this
host name is likely to be localhost. If you are installing remotely to a shared hosting Web server and
database it is likely that your host provider has their own way of identifying a particular customer's
database, and you must make sure you have this information to hand if you are to successfully
complete the installation.
○ Your host name:
● the username and password of the database root user – your access keys to the database. Again if
you are installing locally or to a dedicated remote host these are likely to either be the default
settings or a name and password that you had previously entered during installation of the database
software. The default username is typically root, although you can change this for something else if
you want - just make sure you keep a note of it. See the next section Secure Password Thinking for
some hints.
○ Your username:
○ Your password:
● the database name by which you are identifying the database for this Web site. For a localhost or
dedicated remote server you will be able to set this to what you want but on shared or virtual hosted
servers these may again be set by the host company.
○ Your database name:
Warning! By default the standard installation of MySQL does not use a password - it is blank. This will not be
accepted by Joomla! and it is not a particularly wise security habit to get into in any case. You should ensure
that you have set a password up within the my.ini file which is the configuration file of MySQL.
FTP account details
Joomla!'s new FTP Layer feature has been introduced to overcome perennial problems that have been
experienced by many Linux/Unix host Users in the past where there are file write permission issues with the
Users Host Provider particularly on Shared Hosting servers. This can significantly affect the installation of
new Extensions or writing to the configuration.php file.
Using the FTP layer eliminates the need to make directories and files writable and thus improves overall
security of the installation and server. It also makes the site administrators job a lot easier!
Note: The FTP layer is not required on Windows based host/server services as the file write protection is
handled differently.
Localhost installations do not require the FTP details to be included.
If you do not want, or are unable, to complete these details at this stage they can be added through the
Control Panel->Site Menus->Global Configuration screens at a later time.
It will also be advisable if you are intend using the new FTP layer facility of Joomla! to have your FTP details
available.
These are:
● username – The name you enter to actually access your Joomla! Web site root directory through an
FTP client program. For a Web site on a remote hosting server the host may have provided you with
a specific ID related to your account. This will be for the whole of your Web server and you should
set up a separate FTP account for access to this Joomla! site root directory only.
○ Your FTP username:
The Joomla! User Documentation Team 11 The Joomla! v1.5 Installation Manual