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In this tutorial we will be exploring the Joomla global configuration
Begin by navigating to Site >> Global Configuration
Site Offline - This setting turns your site offline so users can't access your main site. This is useful if you are doing any major maintenance on your site.
Offline Message - If your site is set to offline, this is the message that will be shown.
Default WYSIWYG Editor - This is the default editor that is used whenever an editor area is loaded. This can also be controlled at the user level.
Site Name - This is used in the tag for your site as well as in all communications.
Feed Length - This controls the number of items that are included in RSS feeds.
List Length- This is used to control the number of items you can see at one time when viewing things like article lists. This can also be controlled while viewing the lists.
Global Site Meta Description - This is used as the global site description in your meta data. This can be modified at the article level as well.
Global Site Meta Keywords - This is used as the global site keywords in your meta data. This can be modified at the article level as well.
Show Title Meta Tag - This controls showing the tag using the title from your article. This does not control adding the article title to your site's tag.
Show Author Meta Tag - This controls showing thetag using the author's name for your article.
tag using the title from your article. This does not control adding the article title to your site's tag. Show Author Meta Tag - This controls showing the tag using the author's name for your article. " />
Search Engine Friendly URLs - This changes your URLs from /index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=4&Itemid=37 to /index.php/more-about-joomla
Use Apache mod_rewrite - If you are on an Apache server, you will want to change this to yes and setup your .htaccess file. If you are not on Apache, set this to no.
Add suffix to URLs- This will add ".html" to the URLs that are generated
Let's move on to the System tab
Path to Log Folder - The path to the folder where Joomla logging data is stored
Enable Web Services - This enables RPC communications on your site. Many third party extensions require this to be enabled to work properly.
Help Server - This is the server where your help data is loaded from.
Allow User Registration - All users to sign up on your site
New User Account Activation - You can require new users to activate their account before they login. This is suggested to cut down on fraud/spam on your site
New User Registration Type - You can change the group that new users are automatically added to
Front-end User Parameters- This allows you to control is users can control their parameters from the frontend.
Illegal MIME Types - This controls file MIME types that can't be uploaded. This helps prevent malicious files from being uploaded to your site.
Legal MIME Types - This controls MIME types that can be uploaded. This helps prevent malicious files from being uploaded to your site.
Legal Image Extensions - This allows youto control the extensions that can legally be used for images.
Ignored Extensions - This controls file extensions that are ignored during MIME type and other restriction checks
Check MIME Types - This allows you to control if Joomla should check the MIME types of files uploaded via the media manager
Restrict Uploads - Do you want to restrict your uploads via the media manager. This is highly recommended to prevent malicious files from being uploaded
Path to Image Folder - This lets you set the folder where your images are stored
Path to File Folder - This lets you set the folder where your files are stored
Maximum Size - This allows you to set a maximum size for uploads. PHP also has it's own setting for the maximum size.
Legal Extensions- This allows you to control the extensions of files that can be uploaded via the media manager. This can help from having harmful files uploaded to your site
Debug System - This controls whether or not to display system debug messages
Debug Language - This controls whether or not to display language debug messages
Cache - This enables the cache. The cache can help cut down on the number of queries to make to the database.
Cache Time - This allows you to control how long to cache pages. The time is in seconds.
Cache Handler - This allows you to control how the caching files are stored.
Session Lifetime - This allows you to control how long sessions last. After this period of time users are logged out.
Session Handler- This allows you to control where session data is stored.
Let's move on to the Server tab
Path to Temp-folder - The temp folder is used to store temporary files that Joomla may need to create. This folder needs to be writable, but does not need to be directly web accessible.
GZIP Page Compression - GZIP can reduce the time it takes pages to download by compressing the output before it's downloaded. At the same time, it can increase the load your site generates by needing to compress data on every page load.
Error Reporting - You can change the amount of error reporting that Joomla does. In production sites, it's highly recommended to have it as low as possible. Crackers can use the information produced by errors to find holes into your site.
FTP Settings - If your host has safe_mode enabled, you can use ftp mode to install new extensions. Enter your FTP login details.
Time Zone- You can change the default timezone for your site.
Database Settings - You should not need to change these unless you move your site, but if you do you can change them here.
Mail Settings- Joomla gives you 3 ways to send emails from your system. PHP Mail is the most simple, SMTP is the most secure. If you choose Sendmail, you need to make sure your Sendmail path is correct. If you choose SMTP you will need to enter your SMTP login details.