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Your going to need a web server, MySQL, graphics editor, text editor and Joomla CMS. Sounds like a lot but there are stand alone programs that will take care of the server end for us, free graphics and text editors. Thankful Joomla CMS is also free. The hardest part is getting it all installed and running... and thats not very hard. Click on the read more link or the title and lets get started.
First thing we need to know is weather you have a PC or a MAC, chances are you already know, so I will just seperate the steps baised on the different operating systems.
Development Enviroment
The first thing we need to get and install is development enviroment or web and database server.
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MAC |
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For the PC we need a program called WAMP.
This is about 16MB in size.
Click on the link for WAMP to start the download.
Once the file is downloaded you will need double click on the installer, select the location of the files, go with the default options.
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For the Mac we need a program called MAMP.
OK it's 130MB so its a little large.
Click on the link for MAMP to start the download. You don't need MAMP Pro.
Once the file is downloaded you will need to go though the normal installation method. Open the DMG image, selcet the instaltion drive, enter your account password.
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Now that we have our development enviroment, we can get the rest of the tools we need. We will configure everything in at the end.
Graphics editor
If you don't already have a copy of PhotoShop, CorelDraw or some other graphics editor we are going to need one. Thankful there is an excellent free graphics editor called GNU Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP for sort. You can think of it as the free version of Adobe PhotoShop, as it can do almost as much as PhotoShop.
| PC |
MAC |
| For Windows goto the GIMP download page, Download and install the program via the normal installation process. |
For Mac goto the GIMP download page,
Download and install following the instructions on the website.
If you have not enabled the root password on your system, this article will tell you how.
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Now that we can work with our graphics lets get a good text editor
Text editor
Now Windows and Mac os's come with their own text editors, but they are not really good for working with php, html or sql files. The reason is that they will insert extra carectors in line spaces, ie. when you are done editing a file, chances are it will not work correctly or error out. Not that I plan on covering to much in this regard but you will want them on hand.
| PC |
Mac |
| Download and install Crimson Editor, again nothing complicated with this one. |
Download and install Smultron, nothing complicated with this one ;) |
There we go, all the major software that we need to build a website of any size is now downloaded and installed. Now we need our CMS software.
Joomla! Content Management Software (CMS)
Both PC and Mac users can download the Joomla! package from HERE. You want Joomla version 1.5, the current version at the time of this article is Joomla 1.5.10.
Now that you have WAMP / MAMP, GIMP, Simltron / Crimson and Joomla you are all set to start your Development Enviroment. Our next article "Setting up your personal web server" will go over this process.
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