Install Joomla centrally or on multiple users

The Apache web server is already installed on our lserver virtual machine among other services, without any content yet.

Joomla CMS is among the most popular for site creation, and we can easily install its latest version through LServerAdmin application.

Mass Joomla installation for multiple users saves us a lot of time, as database preparation per user, manual installation and setup would require, e.g. for 20 users, several hours. With LServerAdmin application it will take no more than 1 minute per user and everything will be done automatically.

We have 2 possible installations of Joomla

1. To serve as a main site for the lab or school needs.
   • The main site can be accessed from our internal network as http://lserver and through Internet from our public Internet ip e.g http://myinternetaddress.com
2. To serve as a personal site for multiple users e.g. of a class division, for the needs of a lesson.
   • Τhe sites can be accessed from our internal network as http://lserver/~username ¹⁾ and through Internet from our public Internet ip e.g. http://myinternetaddress.com/~username

To install Joomal we do the following

1. We start LServerAdmin application
2. From main menu we select Services / Other Services - Applications / Apache - Web Server
3. We go to Configure / Site Administration / Install
4. We select the Joomla version we want to install.
5. We select the kind of site we want as we described above
   1. If we want central Joomla installation we select Main site
      1. We select the main site administrator from the Teachers group.
      2. We select the Joomla installation folder. Folder /mnt/data/public_html contents are shown on our local network in address http://lserver. If we create a subfolder named joomla inside, the site will be shown as http://lserver/joomla
      3. On the database name field we can leave the default one or change it if we want.
   2. If we want multiple users installation, we select Personal site
      1. We select the users to whom we will install personal sites e.g. all users of a class division.
      2. Installation is done inside each user's personal folder public_html/www. We leave the default folder joomla or change its name. The site will show on our internal network on address http://lserver/~username/joomla to allow the student to learn Joomla on his personal site. We can also install 2nd site on the same user on a different folder.
      3. On the database name field we can change the last part after the username_ prefix. We leave it as joomla or change it e.g. to project if the installation folder is also project.
6. We can see a summary of our configuration on the next dialog and press Yes to proceed with the Joomla installation.
7. Last version of Joomla will be downloaded and installed.

1. On Site Administration menu we go to Site list to view all existing Joomla installations.
2. Main site :
   • If our site is on http://lserver, administration is on http://lserver/administrator. We connect we the administrator user we have selected during the setup of this site using his account password.
3. Personal site
   • If our site is on http://lserver/~username, administration is on http://lserver/~username/administrator. We connect with user account username using his account password.

All sites can be accessed also through the Internet from our public ip e.g. http://myinternetaddress.com/~username/joomla, so we and our students can work also from home.

We can uninstall multiple Joomla installations from menu Uninstall. All files and corresponding databases will be removed.

Personal Joomla installations with their corresponding databases are also automatically deleted in case the user is deleted.

A teacher may need to login to a student's Joomla site to do some configurations or actions. If we are a teacher, we can add ourself to a student's Joomla site as follows.

1. From menu Edit we select Add users
2. We select the site we want to add the user
3. We select the user to add
4. We select the permission's group e.g. Super Users for full administrative permissions.

With a similar way we can add e.g. on the main site the students of a class division or even all students with restricted permissions e.g. Registered. This would be useful for example if we add a forum to our main site.