A Guided Tour of Joomla's configuration.

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A Guided Tour of
Joomla's
conguration.php File
! By Ed Andrea
January 2012

" 25

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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.

https://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/guided-tour-your-joomla-configurationphp-file/

Page 1 of 17

A Guided Tour of Joomla's configuration.php File

This is not a comprehensive coding guide, but is a general reference to

help you understand this le.

Location of the conguration.php le

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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.

https://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/guided-tour-your-joomla-configurationphp-file/

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Page 2 of 17

A Guided Tour of Joomla's configuration.php File

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

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$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.

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$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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Page 3 of 17

A Guided Tour of Joomla's configuration.php File

$debug_lang : This will turn on the debugging indicators (*...*) or (?...?)

for the Joomla! Language les. Debug Language will work without the

7/16/15, 4:54 AM

Joomla
Tutorials

Debug System tool set to on. But it will not provide additional detailed
references which would help in correcting any errors.

Database Settings

Coding
Tutorials
Ghost
Tutorials
How Tos
Webdesign
Tutorials

$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

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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

Education
General
Podcasting
Comeback
Cities

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.

License

$dbtype : only change this if you have changed servers and using a

All of our

dierent type.

tutorials

$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

are
published
under the
Creative
Commons Attribution-

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
https://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/guided-tour-your-joomla-configurationphp-file/

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A Guided Tour of Joomla's configuration.php File

7/16/15, 4:54 AM

you create a site on your local server and don't specify password when

NonCommercial

you create a data base, you will be able to access the data without a

license. This

password. This is not secure when you move to web server online.

means:

$db : On shared cPanel servers this is usually prexed with a

You

username - for example edandrea_jml1. On your local machine there

can

will not be a prex unless you created one. On Godaddy servers this

re-

name is generated by their service and you will not be able to create

use

your own, see their documentation if you need it.

these

$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.

tutorials.
You
can
modify
these
tutorials.
You

Assorted extra features

must
link
back
to
our
original
tutorial.
You
can't

$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.

use
these
tutorials
commercially.

$error_reporting : "-1" is the appropriate level.

Click to

$helpurl : default is joomla help. Can be set to your own help pages.

read the
license.

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
https://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/guided-tour-your-joomla-configurationphp-file/

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A Guided Tour of Joomla's configuration.php File

7/16/15, 4:54 AM

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.

https://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/guided-tour-your-joomla-configurationphp-file/

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A Guided Tour of Joomla's configuration.php File

7/16/15, 4:54 AM

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
https://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/guided-tour-your-joomla-configurationphp-file/

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A Guided Tour of Joomla's configuration.php File

7/16/15, 4:54 AM

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

https://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/guided-tour-your-joomla-configurationphp-file/

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A Guided Tour of Joomla's configuration.php File

7/16/15, 4:54 AM

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 Engine

Optimization)

https://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/guided-tour-your-joomla-configurationphp-file/

Page 9 of 17

A Guided Tour of Joomla's configuration.php File

7/16/15, 4:54 AM

$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"

https://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/guided-tour-your-joomla-configurationphp-file/

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A Guided Tour of Joomla's configuration.php File

7/16/15, 4:54 AM

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

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Rouven

3 years ago

Nice overview. There are actually give a few more cache

(and session) handlers available but they depend on
other software installed on your server. The global
configuration will tell you which are available on your
server.

Reply Share

Nick Savov > Rouven

3 years ago

Thanks for the info, Rouven! We'll have to have

you do a guest post sometime :)
Kind regards,
Nick

Reply Share

Laura at Aliate

3 years ago

It is great to come across someone who knows how

these things work. I am useless whtn it comes to Joomla,
so you really helped me out!

Reply Share

Nick Savov > Laura at Affiliate

3 years ago

Hi Laura,
https://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/guided-tour-your-joomla-configurationphp-file/

Page 11 of 17

A Guided Tour of Joomla's configuration.php File

7/16/15, 4:54 AM

Hi Laura,
In that case you should check out online class
(http://www.ostraining.com/onli.... It should help
you to grasp the concepts and to give you the
guidance needed to get a firm foundation on
Joomla :)
Kind regards,
Nick

Chas Burdick

Reply Share

3 years ago

Thank you for the line by line, that is very helpful, hope to
see more tutorials like this.

Reply Share

Nick Savov > Chas Burdick

3 years ago

Hi Chas,
You're very welcome! We have more planned so
stay tuned! :)
Kind regards,
Nick

Glorious Steve

Reply Share

3 years ago

Excellent Nick,
I am a beginner. Earlier I was trying out joomla. I begin to
understand the basics. Thanks a lot!

Reply Share

Nick Savov > Glorious Steve

3 years ago

You're welcome, Steve!

You should check our Joomla classes
(http://www.ostraining.com/onli.... We have a
Joomla Beginner class and an Intermediate class,
as well as a Joomla template design class.
Kind regards,
Nick

Reply Share

https://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/guided-tour-your-joomla-configurationphp-file/

Page 12 of 17

A Guided Tour of Joomla's configuration.php File

Bob

7/16/15, 4:54 AM

Reply Share

3 years ago

Thanks for this line by line explanation. I often have

trouble when I'm moving a site from my local
environment to the final active server. The confusion is
always with the $secret and $password items.
If I read the explanation above correctly, the $secret data
is part of the database and the info should be retained
from the development server's config file and written to
the active server's config file. Whereas the $password
info from the development server's config file should be
replaced with the active server's user password.
Thanks!

Stix

Reply Share

3 years ago

hi there, great tutorial. Please also cover the steps to

hide all the passwords etc?. especially when u want to
give the live site for support to troubleshoot certain issue
u dont want them to know the sensitive details. thanks

Reply Share

sohrab

3 years ago

Hi
this was very useful thank you
but i still have a problem with my site
i wanted to ask if i can use ip numbers instead if
address? i dont know my address and my host is not
giving me that, i just have this: 67.228.4.124:3306
can i change it address?
by the way i am using plesk 8 , anybody know how to
work with it?

Jos

Reply Share

3 years ago

Hi,
This is a very nice guided tour!!
In my Joomla 2.5 configuration.php there are 3 more
settings I do not find back, though:
public $cookie_path = '';
public $cookie_path = '';
https://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/guided-tour-your-joomla-configurationphp-file/

Page 13 of 17

A Guided Tour of Joomla's configuration.php File

7/16/15, 4:54 AM

public $cookie_path = '';

public $language = 'en-GB';
Of the latter I wonder what it does, since I want to set up
a bilingual site. I do not find that info anywhere, not even
on the ocial Joomla site...
Thank you, Jos.
1

Reply Share

Anusha Isaacraj

3 years ago

Thank you so much...

It helped me a lot !

Reply Share

Abdullah

2 years ago

Hi,
I missed up my configuration.php. I have several copies
and not sure which one if the correct one. none seems to
work I still receive errors

Reply Share

Harish

2 years ago

If default Text Filter values are changed in Global

Configuration they are not getting saved. Can I directly
edit configuration.php file to add a line for the same. I
want to set "No Filtering" option for Super User.

Reply Share

Ernie

2 years ago

THANK YOU!
This has to be the best overview of the configuration.php
file on the net

walt

Reply Share

2 years ago

Nice overview...
It seems a bit strange that this configuration file stores
usernames and passwords in plain text. Seems like that
might become a security risk, if someone could read the
file (good thing that when correctly configured .php files
are not permitted for direct access).

Reply Share

Site help

a year ago

Can any please tell me in what way is it possible to

https://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/guided-tour-your-joomla-configurationphp-file/

Page 14 of 17

A Guided Tour of Joomla's configuration.php File

7/16/15, 4:54 AM

Can any please tell me in what way is it possible to

remove global configuration and super user admin from
joomla? I have paid someone to do a site for me I believe
they have got into the backend somehow and defaced
me from changing settings such as the global config. I
am not an expert on the computer but I would appreciate
some help if anyone knows how I can regain access and
stop any loophole how they can regain access to the
site.

Reply Share

surajverma_rv

a year ago

perfect description... ;) :))))))))))))

fela

Reply Share

7 months ago

how can i have more than one db user in

configuration.php

fela

Reply Share

7 months ago

how can i add more than one database user to

configuration.php?

Reply Share

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