CiviCRM 2.1a3 via JoomlaPack / JoomlaPC - for total dummies like me

[clea023]

I'm breaking this off into it's own topic so that my confusing instructions aren't further confused by any previous discussion.

I'm not officially endorsing JoomlaPack or JoomlaPC in any way, nor offering any support for such, only documenting what worked for me.  I did this on my 6y.o. WinXPSP2 box with an AMD Athlon XP 2200 and only 512MB DDR333 PC2100 RAM.  After trial and many errors (I discovered a whole lot of ways NOT to install CiviCRM), here's the highlights:

BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING -- BACK-UP YOUR JOOMLA DATABASE!  This is important! (saved my butt six times this weekend as I floundered through the world of ineffective search phrases here in the forum and over in the wiki)

In phpMyAdmin, under MySQL runtime info or variables and settings, you should be able to quickly eyeball whether or not your host supports InnoDB type databases.

If you have multiple users already registered -- also back up your jos_users table -- separately to save time.

Make sure that your host's php.ini or .htaccess settings are at least:
max_execution_time 600
max_input_time 60
memory 64M


CiviCRM2.1a - download the latest version from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=177914
unzip this on your own computer.

In civicrm-2.1.alpha3-joomla\com_civicrm\admin\civicrm\sql\civicrm.mysql, at line 1661
FIND:
    ,     UNIQUE INDEX UI_group_path(
        group_name
      , path
  )

CHANGE TO:
    ,     UNIQUE INDEX UI_group_path(
        group_name(100)
      , path(100)
  )

SAVE FILE AND CLOSE.  If you skip this step, you will be missing more than 50 civicrm tables in your database.  This is a foible of JoomlaPC, but you may be able to change it back later, depending on your host.


If your default internet browser has any plug-ins/extensions that regularly talk to their own servers (e.g. Firefox Forecastbar) -- disable those before you proceed.


JOOMLAPACK - download JoomlaPack and Kickstart from http://www.joomlapack.net/ -- these are both in the "Beginners" download (you may need to reinstall this on JoomlaPC, so don't delete the .zip)
Install JoomlaPack at http://[yourdomain.com/Joomla]/administrator/index.php?option=com_installer

In the JoomlaPack control panel, exclude any standalone non-Joomla directories to prevent failures (blogs, BB's, etc).  Create back-up and temp directories somewhere outside of public_html.  If you have failures, start excluding non-essential directories (images, etc.)  Do NOT surf away from the Back-Up page during the operation -- that includes NO surfing on other tabs/windows.  If there is a packing error, the error message will ONLY display DURING the operation, then disappear upon "completion", so set your Joomlapack log to log EVERYTHING.

Once you have a good back-up of your site, DO A SECOND JOOMLA DATABASE BACK-UP! (don't overwrite the previous)

FTP your site back-up to your own computer.

JOOMLAPC - download from http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomlapc/
In JoomlaPC -- JoomlaPC\udrive\usr\local\php
php.ini settings
max_execution_time 6000
max_input_time 600
memory 256M

Run JoomlaPC from JoomlaPC\JoomlaPC\Run Joomla!.bat
Once loaded, there is information about using JoomlaPC on the front page -- read it!
Login to the admin panel at http://localhost/Joomla/administrator -- admin / admin -- everything should be neat and tidy.
go to http://localhost/apanel/phpMyAdmin -- export the users table -- this is ANOTHER "wild hair" just-in-case maneuver that twice saved me a LOT of time and consternation.

Drop your site back-up and the 2 Kickstart files into JoomlaPC\JoomlaPC\udrive\www\Joomla, then surf to http://localhost/Joomla/kickstart.php, choose your file name, and unpack.  Once it is done -- follow the instructions on your screen.  In case you didn't look at the configure.php file PRIOR to kickstart'ing (JoomlaPack docs are missing a LOT of screenshots):
Database name: joomla, Server name: localhost, User: root, Password: root.

If JoomlaPack doesn't show up in your Components Menu on JoomlaPC -- install it.

If you haven't already done so, shut down any extraneous apps.  If you have a RAM defragger -- this is the time to use it.

CiviCRM2.1a
Now you can log-in to the Joomla administrator panel to install CiviCRM.  If the Joomla admin panel doesn't like your password, go back to the phpMyAdmin screen and import the users table you exported earlier.

Follow the instructions here as though you were running this on your host:
http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Install+2.1+for+Joomla
Once it is going, it might take a good while.  Do absolutely nothing else on this computer while it's doing its thing.  People with slower ancient computers (like mine) may want to make some coffee, wash dishes, fold laundry, play a game of croquet, etc.

Once you have the confirmation that CiviCRM installed successfully -- surf through the CiviCRM control panel to make sure everything is there and looking not-broken, then go back to JoomlaPack to create your new back-up.  Exclusions may be necessary again, but it is imperative you keep administrator, components, and media.

Separately, back up the new JoomlaPC database -- http://localhost/apanel/phpMyAdmin -- you may need this if kickstart fails on your production server.  BTDT.

Upload the new back-up .zip and both kickstart files to your host server into the main Joomla directory, unpack the back-up via kickstart.php, follow the directions AGAIN (enter your site's database server info there).  Once that is complete and you verify that the frontend of your site is undisturbed, follow the directions listed at the following link to correct the CiviCRM server settings (JoomlaPack will NOT do this):

http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Moving+an+Existing+Installation+to+a+New+Server+or+Location

-----------------------------

AFTER YOU FOLLOW THOSE DIRECTIONS (for Alpha3 only; according to Lobo: this will be fixed in Alpha4)

1. go to http://<joomla_site>/administrator/index2.php?option=com_civicrm&task=civicrm/admin/setting&reset=1
verify and SAVE your Directories and Resource URL's. (even if these already pulled the correct information -- CLICK SAVE!)

2. in the civicrm_domain table -- set config_backend =NULL

3. via FTP or your file manager delete  http://<joomla_site>/media/civicrm/upload/Config.IDS.ini

After these last three steps, clear your browser cache and refresh.  All of your CiviCRM links should now point to your Joomla website instead of http://localhost/Joomla/...

----------------------------

After all of the various failures -- I did run through this fresh from start-to-finish on one of my testing domains, and it took a little over an hour total on my antique computer.  Yours will probably go faster.

keywords: joomla, joomlapack, joomlapc, installation, migrate, server, testing, production, timeout, 500

[aspagarino]

Thanks for documenting all the back up procedure... this will help a great deal!

Just a quick note about Joomla PC... make sure to configure it for InnoDB, which is required by CiviCRM. Joomla PC runs on Uniserver, and here is the link to make the configuration changes:

http://forum.uniformserver.com/lofiversion/index.php/t387.html

[aspagarino]

Clea,

I just successfully uploaded the latest CiviCRM version (2.1 Beta 4) on an existing JoomlaPC installation and I just realized that I skipped the modification part from \com_civicrm\admin\civicrm\sql\civicrm.mysql

It installed 112 Civic Tables which matches the number of create tables on civiccrm.mysql

In civicrm-2.1.alpha3-joomla\com_civicrm\admin\civicrm\sql\civicrm.mysql, at line 1661

I guess that on Beta 4 we can skip the modification of the this file