Ideal Directory :: Installing Ideal Directory

Installing Ideal Directory
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Installing Ideal Directory

Installing Ideal Directory is no different than installing any other Joomla!™ extension on your site. You can read the complete instructions for installing Joomla!™ extensions on the official help page. Throughout this chapter we assume that you are familiar with these instructions and we will try not to duplicate them.

Installing or manually updating the component and language files

Just like with most Joomla!™ extensions there are three ways to install or manually update our extensions on your site:

Install from URL. This works with all paid release versions of our Joomla!™ extensions. It is the easiest and fastest one, if your server supports it. Most servers do support this method.
Upload and install. That's the typical extension installation method for Joomla! extensions. It rarely fails.
Manual installation. This is the hardest, but virtually fail-safe, installation method.

Please note that installing and updating our extensions (and almost all Joomla!™ extensions) is actually the same thing. If you want to update Ideal Directory please remember that you MUST NOT uninstall it before installing the new version! When you uninstall Ideal Directory you will lose all your settings. This is definitely something you do not want to happen! Instead, simply install the new version on top of the old one. Joomla!™ will figure out that you are doing an update and will treat it as such, automatically.

	Tip
If you find that after installing or updating our extension it is missing some features or doesn't work, please try installing the same version a second time, without uninstalling the component. The reason is that very few times the Joomla!™ extensions installer infrastructure gets confused and fails to copy some files or entire folders. By repeating the installation you force it to copy the missing files and folders, solving the problem.

Tip

If you find that after installing or updating our extension it is missing some features or doesn't work, please try installing the same version a second time, without uninstalling the component. The reason is that very few times the Joomla!™ extensions installer infrastructure gets confused and fails to copy some files or entire folders. By repeating the installation you force it to copy the missing files and folders, solving the problem.

Install from URL

The easiest way to install our Ideal Directory is using the Install from URL feature in Joomla!™.

Important

	Important
This Joomla!™ feature requires that your server supports `fopen()` URL wrappers (`allow_url_fopen` is set to `1` in your server's `php.ini` file) or has the PHP cURL extension enabled. Moreover, if your server has a firewall, it has to allow TCP connections over ports 80 and 443 to `joomlafit.com`. If you don't see any updates or if they fail to download please ask your host to check that these conditions are met. If they are met but you still do not see the updates please file a bug report in the official Joomla!™ forum. In the meantime you can use the manual update methods discussed further below this page.

This Joomla!™ feature requires that your server supports fopen() URL wrappers (allow_url_fopen is set to 1 in your server's php.ini file) or has the PHP cURL extension enabled. Moreover, if your server has a firewall, it has to allow TCP connections over ports 80 and 443 to joomlafit.com. If you don't see any updates or if they fail to download please ask your host to check that these conditions are met. If they are met but you still do not see the updates please file a bug report in the official Joomla!™ forum. In the meantime you can use the manual update methods discussed further below this page.

First, go to our site's download page. Make sure you are logged in. If not, log in now. These instructions won't work if you are not logged in! Right click on the Direct Link button of the version you want to install and select Copy link address or whatever your browser calls this. Please note that the latest released version is always listed first on the page.

Now go to your site's administrator page and click on Extensions → Manage → Install. Click on the Install from URL tab. Clear the contents of the Install URL field and paste the URL you copied from our site's download page. Then click on the Install button. Joomla!™ will download and install the Ideal Directory update

Upload and install

You can download the latest installation packages our site's download page. Please note that the latest version is always on top. If you have an older version of Joomla!™ or PHP please please download the release compatible with your Joomla!™ and PHP versions. In either case click on the version you want to download and install.

The download is only available to subscribers, so please make sure that you have logged in first. You should then see an item on this page reading Ideal Directory. If you do not see it, please log out and log back in. Click on the version you are subscribed to in order to download the ZIP installation package.

Ideal Directory Professional installation package contain the component and all of its associated extensions. Installing it will install all of these items automatically. It can also be used to upgrade Ideal Directory; just install it without uninstalling the previous release.

In any case, do not extract the ZIP files yet!

	Warning
Attention Mac OS X users! Safari, the default web server provided to you by Apple, is automatically extracting the ZIP file into a directory and removes the ZIP file. In order to install the extension through Joomla!'s extensions installer you must select that directory, right-click on it and select Compress to get a ZIP file of its contents. This behaviour was changed in Mac OS X Mountain Lion, but people upgrading from older versions of Mac OS X (Mac OS X Lion and earlier) will witness the old, automatic ZIP extraction, behaviour.

Warning

Attention Mac OS X users! Safari, the default web server provided to you by Apple, is automatically extracting the ZIP file into a directory and removes the ZIP file. In order to install the extension through Joomla!'s extensions installer you must select that directory, right-click on it and select Compress to get a ZIP file of its contents. This behaviour was changed in Mac OS X Mountain Lion, but people upgrading from older versions of Mac OS X (Mac OS X Lion and earlier) will witness the old, automatic ZIP extraction, behaviour.

Log in to your site's administrator section. Click on Extensions → Manage link on the top menu. Please click on the Upload Package File tab. Either click on the browse for file button, locate the installation ZIP file you had previously downloaded and select it or drag the file to the large gray area. After a short while, Joomla!™ will tell you that the component has been installed.

Warning

	Warning
Ideal Directory is a big extension (over 2Mb). Some servers do not allow you to upload files that big. If this is the case you can try the Manual installation or ask your host to increase the value for `upload_max_filesize` directive. If you have WAMP or LAMP Server (or any other prepackaged local server), please note that its default configuration does not allow files over 2Mb to be uploaded. To work around that you will need to modify your `php.ini` and restart the server. On WAMP server left-click on the WAMP icon (the green W), click on PHP, `php.ini`. Find the line beginning with `upload_max_filesize`. Change it so that it reads: upload_max_filesize = 6M Save this file. Now, left-click on the WAMP icon, click on Apache, Service, Restart Service and you can now install the component. Editing the `php.ini` file should also work on all other servers, local and live alike.

Ideal Directory is a big extension (over 2Mb). Some servers do not allow you to upload files that big. If this is the case you can try the Manual installation or ask your host to increase the value for upload_max_filesize directive.

If you have WAMP or LAMP Server (or any other prepackaged local server), please note that its default configuration does not allow files over 2Mb to be uploaded. To work around that you will need to modify your php.ini and restart the server. On WAMP server left-click on the WAMP icon (the green W), click on PHP, php.ini. Find the line beginning with upload_max_filesize. Change it so that it reads:

upload_max_filesize = 6M

Save this file. Now, left-click on the WAMP icon, click on Apache, Service, Restart Service and you can now install the component. Editing the php.ini file should also work on all other servers, local and live alike.

If the installation did not work, please try the manual installation described below.

You can download the latest installation packages our site's download page. Please note that the latest version is always on top. If you have an older version of Joomla!™ or PHP please make sure to instal the compatible with your Joomla!™ and PHP versions. In either case click on the version you want to download and install.

Manual installation

Sometimes Joomla!™ is unable to properly extract ZIP archives due to technical limitations on your server. In this case, you can follow a manual installation procedure.

Before doing anything else, you have to extract the installation ZIP file in a subdirectory named joomlafit on your local PC. Then, upload the entire subdirectory inside your site's temporary directory. At this point, there should be a subdirectory named joomlafit inside your site's temporary directory which contains all of the ZIP package's files.

If you are unsure where your site's temporary directory is located, you can look it up by going to the Global Configuration, click on the Server tab and take a look at the Path to Temp-folder setting. The default setting is the tmp directory under your site's root. Rarely, especially on automated installations using Fantastico, this might have been assigned the system-wide /tmp directory. In this case, please consult your host for instructions on how to upload files inside this directory, or about changing your Joomla!™ temporary directory back to the default location and making it writable.

Assuming that you are past this uploading step, click on Extensions, Manage link on the top menu. Please click on the Install from Directory tab. Locate the Install Directory edit box. It is already filled in with the absolute path to your temporary directory, for example /var/www/joomla/tmp. Please append /joomlafit to it. In our example, it should look something like /var/www/joomla/tmp/joomlafit. Then, click on the Install button.

If you still can't install Ideal Directory and you are receiving messages regarding unwritable directories, inability to move files or other similar file system related error messages, these errors come from your site set up and can best be resolved by asking your host for assistance.

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