# Global Configuration

Global Configuration controls Joomla's operational settings. Changes made on this screen will update the configuration.php file. This file needs to be writable in order for you to be able to edit your configuration.
To the right of the write status of configuration.php is a check box labeled "Make unwritable after saving." Checking this box will change the file permissions of configuration.php to unwritable once you have applied your changes. When your site is configured, it is a good idea to make configuration.php unwritable for security reasons.
Site Tab:
Site Offline - With this you can effectively switch on and off your web site 'Front-end'. Use this option if you are updating modules or data, and do not wish to have your visitors view the site until you are finished. Remember to reset the "Site offline" option to "No" once you're done.

Offline Message - When the Site Offline switch is in the â€˜Yesâ€™ position, this default message will display on the 'Front-end' for your visitors to see. "This site is down for maintenance. Please check back again soon."
You can change this text to whatever message you would like.

System Error Message - This message will display if the initial database connection fails. You can type anything you like in this box. We suggest something friendly and apologetic, stating that your site will be available again as soon as possible. You can use standard HTML code in this box also, for instance, <br /> to return a line. You might also consider adding an email address, so that your visitors can contact your System Administrator or the Webmaster.

Site Name - This option allows you to set the content of the title bar for your site. It can also be displayed in your template by inserting the following code statement into your template file [Joomla_root/templates/template name/index.php] where you wish your Site Name to appear:

%%<?php echo $_CONFIG->SITENAME; ?>%%

Show Unauthorised Links - With this option turned on, all visitors will see content to which they would not otherwise have access, (that is, content given an Access Level of 'Registered' or 'Special'). With this option off they will only see content with an Access Level of 'Public'. The access level for Content is selected under the Publishing tab in the Edit Content screen.

Allow User Registration - This option allows you to globally set whether visitors to your site can register for a user account. If the "Yes" radio button is chosen, the Login Form will include the prompt â€œNo account yet? Create oneâ€?. If the "No" radio button is chosen, they will not be presented with an option to register.

Use New Account Activation - If the "Yes" radio button is chosen, an activation link will be sent to user's e-mail address. Users can not login until he has clicked on the activation link. If the "No" radio button is chosen, Users will be able to login right away without activation.

Email New User Password - With this option set to 'Yes', the new user will receive an email with a password generated by Joomla. If it is set to 'No', new Users will select their own password.

Require Unique Email - Select whether you want to prevent registration with duplicate e-mail addresses. In combination with user activation this option prevents users to sign up several times using the same e-mail address.

Debug Site - This option allows you to view the error messages that are created by your site's php installation. It can be a handy tool for debugging if you are having problems and for reporting errors to your System Administrator or Web host. The levels of error reporting can be set under the Global Configuration>Server tab, and are as follows:
System Default, None, Simple and Maximum.

WYSIWYG Editor - Choose which of the installed Text Editors you want to use to edit Content Items.
List Length - Choose a default length for lists in the Administrator (Back-end). Please NOTE that if you have previously visited a page with a list, changing this setting in Global Configuration will not be immediately visible. However, the setting you specify will be honoured as a default upon your next login.
Favourites Site Icon - This sets the icon that appears in some browsers next to the name and/or address of your site. By default this is the Joomla flower. If you want another icon to show up, you must upload another icon to replace the Joomla flower. Then type in the address of the image in this field.
Locale Tab:
Language - Choose the default language used on your site. If it is another language other than English, you must install the language files first using the Installer menu in the Back-end.

Time Offset - This option sets the time offset in hours between your server location and GMT (Greenwich Mean Time - UK). Select the offset time from the dropdown menu.

Country Locale - Type the location of your Web site. For instance en_GB would be the setting for the UK.

Content Tab:
Linked Titles - Select 'Yes', if you want the title of a content item to be hyper-linked. Select 'No', and a 'Read On...' link will appear below the introduction text.
Read More Link - Select "Show" to display the text "Read more" at the end of your "Intro Text" of your content items.
Item Rating / Voting - This option allows the rating of content items. Choose 'Yes', and a 'Star Bar' will be shown on each content item, as well as a form for submitting your rating. NOTE: The rating form is not shown for articles in 'Blog' lists, and the Star Bar is only shown for those items with Intro text.

Author Names - Choose the radio button "Show", to allow the Author's name to be shown when a Content Item is displayed.

Created Date and Time - Choose the radio button "Show", to allow the creation date and time to be shown when a content item is displayed.

Modified Date and Time - Choose the radio button "Show", to allow the last modified date and time to be shown when a content item is displayed.
Hits - Choose the radio button "Show", to display the number of hits an article/content has had.
PDF Icon - Choose the radio button "Show", to show the PDF maker icon on Content Items while viewing in the Front-end.
NOTE: This will not display at all if your media directory is not writable.

Print Icon - Choose the radio button "Show", to show the Printer Friendly Version icon on Content Items while viewing in the Front-end.

Email Icon - Choose the radio button "Show", to show the Email Page to Friend icon on Content Items while viewing in the Front-end.
Icons - Choose the radio button "Show", when you want the hidden links to Email/Print/PDF to be icons rather than text.

Table of Contents on multi-page items - Choose the radio button "Show", to show the Table of Content navigation index boxes for multi-page Content Items. To create page breaks in your Content Item, you must insert a page break Mambot, {mospagebreak} using the editor where ever you want the page breakes to occur.

Back Button - Choose the radio button "Show", to allow you to show navigational back buttons on each page to make it easier for users to navigate your site.

Content Item Navigation - Choose the radio button "Show", to publish 'Next' and 'Previous' links when viewing Content Items in a category or to change pages within the same article.
Multi Lingual content support - This allows the site to utilise the MambelFish component. The MambelFish component must be installed for this to work.

Database Tab:
Warning: These are very important settings. If your Joomla Web site has been installed on your behalf do not alter these settings.

Hostname - Type 'localhost'. as this is the typical Host name

My SQL Username - Edit, if needed, the username to access your Joomla database.

My SQL Password - Edit, if needed, the password to access your Joomla database.

My SQL Database - Edit, if needed, the name of the database your Joomla installation uses.

My SQL Database Prefix -Edit, if needed, the prefix used for records in your Joomla database. Typically â€œmos_" by default.
Warning: DO NOT CHANGE UNLESS YOU HAVE A DATABASE BUILT USING TABLES WITH THE PREFIX YOU ARE SETTING!!
Server Tab:
These items are predefined during the installation and are not configurable through this tab.

Absolute Path - This is the directory information used by Joomla on the server that orientates it to it's surrounding system.

Live Site - This is the absolute URL (web address) for your installation of Joomla.

Secret Word - This is the unique word for every Joomla installation. It is used for security functions.

GZIP Page Compression - Choose the radio button "Yes", to allow your web server to send compressed data, if supported by the server, to the client web browser. This could significantly decrease the load time of your site for your visitors.

Login Session Lifetime - Type the number of seconds the Administration session should be allowed to stay live before automatic logout occurs. After automatic logout, the Administrator will be required to login again using the correct username and password.
NOTE: If you are editing a Content Item, but have not saved your work, within the number of seconds choosen, you will be logged out automatically .

Error Reporting - If this option is enabled under the Site tab, then using the drop down box, select the level or reporting required.
Options are System Default, None, Simple and Maximum.

- System Default - This turns Error reporting to the system default according to php.ini on the server.
- None - This turns off error reporting.
- Simple - This turns error reporting to simple options using the following options: error_reporting (E_ERROR|E_WARNING|E_PARSE)
- Maximum - This turns error reporting to the Maximum level using the following options: error_reporting (E_ALL)

File Creation - By default, files created by the installation of components, modules and mambots inherit the server default permissions. By choosing "CHMOD new files", you can over-ride the server permissions.
Directory Creation - As with files, new directories will by default inherit the server default permissions. Choose "CHMOD new directories" to over- ride the server permissions.
Metadata Tab:
Global Site Meta Description - Type a description of your web site used to assist Search Engines. You may want to limit your description to maybe twenty words or so, depending on the Search Engine you are targeting. Make it concise and pertinent to your site's contents. You can include some of your keywords and key phrases here too. As some search engines read more than 20 words you can add one or two sentences. Make sure that the most important part of your description is in the first 20 words.

Global Site Meta Keywords - The optimal number of characters for a keyword description is said to be between 300 and 500. Do not repeat words too often and either separate your keywords with a comma or a space, or group two or three words together. 'Joomla Open Source' would be an example of this.
Show Title Meta Tag - Shows the Title meta tag in the source code when viewing content.
Show Author Meta Tag - Shows the Authors meta tag in the source code when viewing content.

NOTE: The Description and Keyword Meta tags will have a bearing on how Search Engines will index your site. Some Search Engines completely ignore Metadata altogether. You should do some research on Search Engine Optimization if high rankings and Search Engine traffic are important to you.

Mail Tab:
Mailer - Choose which mailer you wish to use: PHP mail function, Sendmail or SMTP Server.

Mail From - Choose which email address will show as the sender.

From Name - Choose what name will show as the sender.

Sendmail Path - This is the directory of the Mail server

SMTP Auth - Choose "Yes" if SMTP Authentication is required by your host.

SMTP User - If authentication is required and set above, type your username.

SMTP Pass - If authentication is required and set above, type your password.

SMTP Host - This is usually set as localhost, but you may need to check this with your host.

Cache Tab:
Caching - Choose "Yes" to allow for caching of certain elements within Joomla. This will generally improve the performance of your site.

Cache Folder - This is the folder or directory to store the cache files. This must be writable for this caching to be successfully implemented. Contact your Web Master if you have any difficulties.

Cache Time - Edit the maximum length of time, in seconds, for a cache file to be stored before it is refreshed.

Statistics Tab:
Statistics - Choose 'Yes', to allow the browser and visitor domain statistics to be collected on the basis of settings in the Content Tab. If this is set to 'No', the browser and visitor statistics will not be collected. If your site experiences a slight 'delay' the first time a user visits the site you should set this to 'No'.

Log Content Hits by Date - Choose "Yes" to enable logging of the hits on Content Items, on a daily basis. There are currently no in-built analysis routines, to complement this logging feature.
Warning: This will tend to collect masses of data over time. Be sure that your server space has the space to to store this information.

Log Search Strings - Choose "Yes" to enable logging of the search text, entered by a user. Such logging facilitates the 'tuning' of your web site, giving you an insight into how your visitors are trying to find the information they seek. Analysis reporting is provided under Site->Statistics->Search Text.

SEO Tab:
Search Engine Friendly URLs: This changes the way site links are presented and optimises them so that search engines can access more of your site. This option is ONLY available to sites hosted on Apache servers. Choose 'Yes' to enable Joomla to output friendly URLs rather than normal database generated URLs. If you use this option you must rename your htaccess.txt file to .htaccess.

Dynamic Page Titles - Choose "Yes" to set the page titles (that appear at the top of a viewers browser) to be the same as the page title they are viewing. Again this helps search engines.

NOTE: You must 'Save' your changes once you have finished, using the 'Save' icon in the tool bar.

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NOTE: If you have suggestions/corrections for this Help Screen, please submit them on the doc forum.
Submit Documentation Suggestions, Modifications and Corrections
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/board,59.0.html
Thank you!
Michelle Bisson
Documentation Team Co-Leader