Saturday, December 24, 2005

Content Management System

Why do we need a Content Management System ?

Content management System is nothing but Web Operations Management.

I believe the common term is "Subject Matter Expert"

It Provides a easy way of Managing Content and Publishing.

I'm a firm believer in distributed web authoring and all that, but you have to be sure that your subject matter experts are web-ready.

As you review the need for a content management solution consider some of the following questions:

How long does it take your organization to change a design after you realized a change needed to be made? How will the new design impact the words on the site?

If one section of your site is receiving a major overhaul, can key changes you would like to make to another section of the site be made parallel.

Can you determine who made the last of changes in your site.

When was the last time the site and its various sections were updated.

The above questions can be answered by a CMS.

I have just implemented Joomla on a linux server.

What we need to implement this ?

Apache server (Web Server)
Mysql Server(database)
PHP Support

Some of the Features :

Once u login ...

Edit Web page, links, banner updates based on different sections using a login/password.

Online Forums.

Blogging Tools.

News feeds.

You can conduct online polls.

Users can register on your site, send private messages to each other.

Search Engine etc..

Can mail to all users who have registered at one go.


How Installion and configuation of Joomla :

Step 1

Download Joomla stable version from http://www.joomla.org

Step 2

Untar it in your doc root

For eg. I created a folder joomla in /var/www/html/joomla

Now in your browser open the path for installation

http://localhost/joomla/installation/install.php

This will open a Pre-installation check webpage taking you to 4 steps

- 1st will be agreeing gnu licence, say Next on top right hand corner >>

- Now Step 1 will Installing and configuring Database (Supports MySql)


MySQL database configuration:



Host Name -localhost

MySQL User Name - root ( I had given )

MySQL Password - , This is needed for creating database.

MySQL Database Name - joomla ( I had given)

MySQL Table Prefix - jos_ (It was already there)


There are 3 options below (Checkbox)

Drop Existing Tables - untick since we have not created any tables.(default unticked).

Backup Old Tables - default unticked leave it as it is.

Install Sample Data - It is ticked and should be ticked.

Click Next on top >>



Step 2
_______

Enter the name of your Joomla site:
SUCESS ! (Which means the database is created)

Type in the name of Joomla Site. This name isused in email messages so make it
something meaningful.


You need fill the same in the box - I type > The Home of Sriram


eg. Home of Joomla

Step 3
_______


Confirm the site URL, path, admin e-mail and file/directory chmods

URL http://mybox.sriram.com/joomla (was auto filled)

Path /var/www/html/joomla

Your email - sriram@mybox.sriram.com (Super Administrator)

Admin
Password - joomla





Notes that were given in Step 3 are below
__________________________________________


If URL and Path look correct then please do not change them. If you are not sure then please contact your ISP or administrator. Usually the values displayed will work for your site.

Enter your e-mail address, this will be the e-mail address of the site SuperAdministrator.

The permission settings will be used while installing Joomla itself, by the Joomla addon-installers and by the media manager. If you are unsure what flags shall be set, leave the default settings at the moment. You can still change these flags later in the site global configuration.


File Permissions (I left to default )
____________________________________

Dont CHMOD files (use server defaults) - This was checked

CHMOD files to:

Directory Permissions
_____________________

Dont CHMOD directories (use server defaults) - This was checked

CHMOD directories to:



Now I do next >>
_________________



STEP 4

+++++++++


Congratulations! Joomla is installed

Click the "View Site" button to start Joomla site or "Administration" to take you to administrator login.


PLEASE REMEMBER TO COMPLETELY
REMOVE THE INSTALLATION DIRECTORY

Administration Login Details

Username : admin
Password : joomla



Your configuration file or directory is not writeable, or there was a problem creating the configuration file. You'll have to upload the following code by hand. Click in the textarea to highlight all of the code.

I got this php saying I need to manually upload

Please check back again soon.';
$mosConfig_error_message = 'This site is temporarily unavailable.
Please
notify the System Administrator';
$mosConfig_debug = '0';
$mosConfig_lifetime = '900';
$mosConfig_MetaDesc = 'Joomla - the dynamic portal engine and content management system';
$mosConfig_MetaKeys = 'Joomla, joomla';
$mosConfig_MetaTitle = '1';
$mosConfig_MetaAuthor = '1';
$mosConfig_locale = 'en_GB';
$mosConfig_offset = '0';
$mosConfig_offset_user = '0';
$mosConfig_hideAuthor = '0';
$mosConfig_hideCreateDate = '0';
$mosConfig_hideModifyDate = '0';
$mosConfig_hidePdf = '0';
$mosConfig_hidePrint = '0';
$mosConfig_hideEmail = '0';
$mosConfig_enable_log_items = '0';
$mosConfig_enable_log_searches = '0';
$mosConfig_enable_stats = '0';
$mosConfig_sef = '0';
$mosConfig_vote = '0';
$mosConfig_gzip = '0';
$mosConfig_multipage_toc = '1';
$mosConfig_allowUserRegistration = '1';
$mosConfig_link_titles = '0';
$mosConfig_error_reporting = -1;
$mosConfig_list_limit = '30';
$mosConfig_caching = '0';
$mosConfig_cachepath = '/var/www/html/joomla/cache';
$mosConfig_cachetime = '900';
$mosConfig_mailer = 'mail';
$mosConfig_mailfrom = 'jomla@mybox.sriram.com';
$mosConfig_fromname = 'The home of Sriram';
$mosConfig_sendmail = '/usr/sbin/sendmail';
$mosConfig_smtpauth = '0';
$mosConfig_smtpuser = '';
$mosConfig_smtppass = '';
$mosConfig_smtphost = 'localhost';
$mosConfig_back_button = '1';
$mosConfig_item_navigation = '1';
$mosConfig_secret = '2ZcHGz2ULgJLwC4A';
$mosConfig_pagetitles = '1';
$mosConfig_readmore = '1';
$mosConfig_hits = '1';
$mosConfig_icons = '1';
$mosConfig_favicon = 'favicon.ico';
$mosConfig_fileperms = '';
$mosConfig_dirperms = '';
$mosConfig_helpurl = 'http://help.joomla.org';
$mosConfig_mbf_content = '0';
$mosConfig_editor = 'tinymce';
setlocale (LC_TIME, $mosConfig_locale);
?>



Now I created a file configuration.php under /var/www/html/joomla
and pasted the above php code


Now when I do recheck I get a page

Joomla

The home of Sriram
For your security please completely remove the installation directory including all files and sub-folders - then refresh this page



I now rename the installation directory in /var/www/html/joomla to
installation.orignal

Also move INSTALL.ph from /var/www/html/joomla to /var/www/html/installation.orignal


mv INSTALL.php installation.orignal/






Administration Page URL

http://mybox.sriram.com/joomla/administrator/index.php



Administration Login Details

Username : admin
Password : joomla


Faq

After creating the configuration.php and copying the contents

I got errors while openning the url http://mybox.sriram.com/joomla/index.php



Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/html/joomla/configuration.php:70) in /var/www/html/joomla/index.php on line 218

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/html/joomla/configuration.php:70) in /var/www/html/joomla/index.php on line 219

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/html/joomla/configuration.php:70) in /var/www/html/joomla/index.php on line 220

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/html/joomla/configuration.php:70) in /var/www/html/joomla/inde--More--x.php on line 222

I was not even able to login as admin

Solution :
+++++++++++++++++++++

There was space after last line ?> I deleted the last space and saved the configuration file and things started working