Installation Manual

Help Us to Help You
A few simple facts to start things off:
• Joomla! is not a commercial business
• there are no paid employees
• everyone within the Core Team gives their time freely and for free
• everyone within the various Work Groups give their time freely and for free
• everyone is a VOLUNTEER;
• everyone involved with the development and support of the Project have real lives, jobs, and families
outside of Joomla!
• to many Joomla! is far more than a just a hobby, it is a passionate extension of and addition to their
normal existence.
• Joomla! is released as Open Source software – this means the code is provided and you can change
it, add to it, copy it, develop it further – and none of this will cost you a penny! We do insist that you
retain the copyright notices within the code and that you abide by the GNU GPL v2.0 license under
which the software is released.
• the essence of Joomla! is the massive Community that has developed in a very short (in relative
terms) period of time be a part of it and help it move forward
• There is a major ethos within the Community which most work to and that is “pay it forward”...what
this means is that where you may have asked for help in the past and been supported by existing
members in the Community, you in turn do the same for others seeking help when you are able to.
If you want to know something check to see whether your question has already been asked and answered in
the forums by doing a search before you ask a new question. The current built-in forum search is known to
be less than effective and we recommend that you run a Google search for "joomla" and then add key words
by using "+" sign ahead of a specific word to find within the results. Alternatively use the Advanced Search
facility of Google.
If, after running a search or two, changing the words or phrases used, you cannot find the answer start a new
topic in the forum.
Use the Forums
Before you post any questions, please:
• 1. Ensure you are in the right Fora. These are for Joomla! 1.5 only.
• 2. Verify you are using the most current version of Joomla! 1.5. Currently this is the RC3 version.
However, as Joomla! 1.5 is still in Development for improvements in code and bug fixing there are,
and will be, many regular changes to this the current Official Release. Please ensure where possible
that you have updated your installation with the latest Nightly Build as a minimum.
• 3. Search for your question. If you do not find it on the first search, search several more times using
different search terms. There are currently some limitations with the Forum Search so ideally use
Google Search/Advanced Search, and you will get better results.
• 4. There is a good chance your question has been asked and answered before, the more common
ones will be found in the the Help Site FAQ Section and the Tips and Hints . Whilst the majority of
this currently refers to Joomla! 1.0 many of the server, security, database, and other non-Joomla!
specific FAQ's are still applicable to Joomla! 1.5.
• 5. Check the Help Site: http://help.joomla.org for the current documentation available.
• 6. Please, do not send a Personal Message to any moderator, or other forum User for support unless
you are asked to. Moderators certainly are not obliged to respond to individual queries submitted this
way.
The Joomla! User Documentation Team 41 The Joomla! v1.5 Installation Manual