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! By Ed Andrea " 25
January 2012TweetTweet 1
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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
NonCommercial
license. This
means:
You
can
re-
use
these
tutorials.
You
can
modify
these
tutorials.
You
must
link
back
to
our
original
tutorial.
You
can't
use
these
tutorials
commercially.
Click to
read the
license.
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
$MetaAuthor : This shows Author Meta Tag. It shows the Author
Meta
information for articles and is used by search engine spiders
when
indexing the site.
SEO Settings (Search EngineOptimization)
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$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"
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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.
Comments Community Login!1
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Join the discussion
Reply
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,
Recommend
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Reply
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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Reply
Reply
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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Reply
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
Reply
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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WordPress MembershipOptions2 comments 2 months ago
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ago
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ALSO ON OSTRAINING
Reply
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.
Reply
surajverma_rv a year agoperfect description... ;)
:))))))))))))
Reply
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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