Ubuntu: installing Joomla development environment

In spite of working mainly with a commercial ECM plataform, sometimes a new corporate site for a small division or department would be better suited with one of the many open source CMS systems available.
For this purpose I chose Joomla and took the time to leave here a pretty straightforward version to set it up on a Ubuntu machine. Having said that, the following technologies will be installed:

• Apache Web server: to serve the web pages to the client browsers;
• PHP: to generate the dynamic content pages and functionalities;
• MySQL: to store all the Joomla related data, such as content and user accounts;
• PHPMyAdmin: A tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the Web.
• Joomla: a free and open source content management framework (CMF) for publishing content on the Web.

 First step was to open a command shell on the target machine. On the prompt, type the following command:
You will be prompted for your password. After a successful execution this takes care of installing the Web server, PHP. database server and PHPMYAdmin management console. On the installation process you will be asked to provide a password for the MySQL administrator account, as well as PHPMyAdmin.
The second step, still on the command shell, is to map the PHPMyAdmin alias on Apache mapping it to the corresponding installation folder. To do this, issue the following commands:

1. sudo chmod 777 /etc/apache2/apache2.conf 
2. sudo gedit /etc/apache2/apache2.conf &

At the end of the apache2.conf file, add the following line:

Save the file and exit the editor. For Apache to read the new configuration, you must restart the service with the following command:


The third step is, of course, to install Joomla. To do so:

1. Donwload the files from the Joomla official site;
2. Unzip them and copy them to the Apache documents root (/var/www)
3. Browse the folder on your web browser (ex: http://localhost/joomla/)

A warning similar to this should appear. This is because the file configuration.php doesn't exist:

To solve this issue, type in the following commands:

1. touch configuration.php  
2. sudo chmod 777 ./configuration.php

Return to the browser, run the check again and it should be all clear. Run the installation wizard to the end. The final step will be to remove all the installation files:


You're all done!