The previous tutorial has given you the basic foundation on how to build website from scratch. The tutorial involves setting up website using WordPress which can be automatically installed using Softaculous software in cPanel. What if you do not have any automatic software that can do so? For this time, I would like to show how to install Joomla website manually in cPanel.
What is Joomla?
Joomla is an open source Content Management System (CMS) for building website. It is widely used in corporate, organization and alike. However, this platform is not as popular as WordPress. But, don’t you underestimate its capability.
Prerequisite before you install Joomla website manually in cPanel
I will assume that you already have domain name and web hosting which give you access to cPanel. If you don’t have any of these, please check out this company.
Joomla Technical Requirements
At the time of writing, the latest Joomla version is 3.9.20. Find out below recommended version of other software and applications needed in order to have the Joomla setup smoothly:
PHP: 7.3 + //This is programming language which is used to develop Joomla
MySQL: 5.5.3 + //Database
Apache: 2.4 + //Web server
Please be reminded there are also supported database software like Postgre SQL and web server software like Nginx, but I will use the above in this tutorial.
Most of web hosting companies will provide all of these. Therefore, we do not have to worry much. So, let’s start the tutorial.
1. Download Joomla Website .zip file
Go the Joomla official page here and click the orange “Download” button.
Based on the image above, please choose “Download Joomla! 3.9.20” because this will be a fresh and full installation.
Next, go to your cPanel back-end page.
2. Create Your Database using MySQL
Personally, I always like to create database first when I want to install Joomla website manually in cPanel. Some people like to upload the Joomla! files first. But, it is up to you.
At the cPanel homepage, go to the “Databases” section.
For a complete beginner, please choose MySQL Database Wizard. This will give you a step by step actions.
Type in your database name in the field, like in this tutorial, I put joomlatutorial. Make sure that the name does not contain any spaces.
The next step is to create a user that have full rights to the database. In this example, the username is also joomlatutorial. Some goes to the username, no spaces please. Once done with these credential, click “Create User”.
This is the last step in database creation. This time you have to grant all privileges to the user ulatmulo_joomlatutorial you have just created to the database ulatmulo_joomlatutorial. Click the “Make Changes” button and you have done with database.
3. Uploading and Extracting Joomla! File
For this part, you need to go back to the cPanel homepage and head over to Files section.
At the Files section, click the File Manager menu. File Manager is for you to manage your website files and directories, duhhh… Should be something like below image.
Double click on the public_html which is highlighted in yellow. This is the root directory of your Joomla website files.
As you can see in the image above, the directory is still empty and this is where you need to upload your Joomla! website .zip file. Click on the “Upload” menu which is located at the top of the page. See image below on the upload part.
Once the upload process done, click the “Go back to ..” link which is located at the bottom of the page.
Now, select the .zip file and click “Extract” link which is located at the top right corner of the File Manager page. Once done, open a new browser. Type in your domain name. In my case, it is joomlatutorial.ulatmulong.com. This is where the installation begins.
4. Install Joomla! Website Manually
Fill in all the required details. Super User account is the one you will be using as administrator at the Joomla! back-end later on.
The second step of the installation part is to enter all credentials for the database configuration. Remember the credential we use in the database creation? Therefore, the credentials are as follow:
username: ulatmulo_joomlatutorial
Database Name: ulatmulo_joomlatutorial
Please use the password you created during the database creation step.
This is the final step of installing Joomla! website manually in cPanel. In the Overview tab, there is no much thing you need to change. You can take a look at the yellow highlighted components by the system, if you need to. If you are OK, then just proceed to clicking the blue “Install” button.
One final thing is to Remove Installation Folder. This is to prevent unauthorized access to your website.
BAMM!. You now have installed Joomla! website manually in cPanel.
What to do, next?
You can visit your site front-end or login at the administrator page. The link is joomlatutorial.ulatmulong.com/administrator.
Very easy, doesn’t it? Thus, I really hope that this tutorial is laid down systematically and easy to read and refer so that you do not have any difficulties while trying to install Joomla website manually in your cPanel. As usual, if you have any questions or anything to add, feel free to drop a comment down below, so that I can always update the content and tutorial especially on the how-to part.
