Getting Started with Joomla

What FTP program should I use?

There are a lot of FTP programs, but let me recommend three to you.
First of all, I use Smart FTP (www.smartftp.com ). It is free for personal use and non-profit use, and I just like it. After 30 days, it does give you a “nag” screen when you start it up, reminding you to register and pay for the program if you are using it in a business setting. It’s very easy to use, and I’ve been quite pleased with it.

Many other people like CuteFTP (www.cuteftp.com ). This is another free program that does a fine job transferring files.

Another very popular program is FileZilla ( filezilla.sourceforge.net). This is an Open Source project, and is also free, and is very popular with many users.

How do you use FTP

Once you have an FTP program and have installed it on your computer, you will need to know the FTP address of your web server, a user name, and a password. You will get this information from your webhost. It’s important information and you need to write it down.

Now, this varies from with different web hosts, but generally your FTP address is ftp.mydomain.com. Not always, but often.

You will also be given a user name. Now, on many hosts, your user name is actually something like: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Again, this information will be provided to you by your web host.

Once you have this information, you are ready to try to access your file via FTP.
Different programs handle this in different ways, but you will create a new “login profile.” This will save your account settings so you don’t have to remember them each time.

Let’s see what that would look like in SmartFTP:

Once you create the login profile with the right settings, you will click the <Connect> button and the FTP program will try to log in to and access the files on your webserver. If you have the settings correct, after a few seconds (depending on the speed of your internet connection), you will see the directory structure of your website load in the “folders” panel of the FTP program.

An internet web server is really just a set of folders and files on a hard disk somethere that is connected to the internet with a special “web server” program that receives requests from the internet, interprets the request, and fetches the data that is requested, and packages it up and sends it back to the other computer in a way that it can then be used by a web browser program. There are more “protocols” available than this, but this is how normal web “surfing” is done.

Your FTP program gives you a way to create, edit, and delete files and folders on your webserver, and to transfer those files back and forth between your computer and the webserver.

So, what will I use FTP for with Joomla?

You will use an FTP program for many tasks in Joomla.

For example, there may be times where you need to manually modify your Joomla configuration file. You can change a lot of Joomla’s configuration items through the Joomla admin interface itself, but there are some things that require manual editing outside of the Joomla system. Joomla’s configuration settings are in a file called “configuration.php” that is located in the “root” folder of your Joomla installation. It is a plain text file and can be edited using a text editor (but NOT a word processor). Windows comes with a basic text editor called Notepad which generally works fine, but if you do this much, you will want to get another, more fully featured text editor to make it easier. I recommend PSPad (www.pspad.com ), a free, open source text editor.

Another task that requires FTP access is the modification of your web site’s htaccess file. The htaccess file is a special text file that contains some commands that control how your web server accesses certain files on your website. Joomla comes with a standard htaccess file with a lot of comments and instructions in it (which can be a bit confusing to the new user).
In order for an htaccess file to be active, it must be named “.htaccess” … beginning with a “dot” or “period.” The file that Joomla supplies is called htaccess.txt, and in order to be active, it simply needs to be renamed “.htaccess”. This can be easily done with your FTP program.

Another common use of an FTP program

Probably the most common use of an FTP program with Joomla is the transfer of graphics files for templates.

Generally, when you install a Joomla template, it will come with a default “logo” or “header” that you will want to customize to meet your own needs. Many times, the easiest way to do this is to download that one graphic to your computer, customize it using some type of graphics editing program, and then uploading the modified graphic back up to your website.

Here is where the FTP program comes in handy … in the “uploading” part. It handles transferring that modified logo graphic file from your computer to the webserver so everyone else can enjoy your work of art!

Another great use of FTP

FTP is also very handy for uploading very large files to your webserver. Let’s say that you have 20 mp3 files that you want to upload to your website for a podcast. Let’s say that each one is 10 megabytes in size. It will take a lot of time to upload these manually through the normal Joomla interface, but you can do all 20 (or 200) files with just a few clicks with FTP, and then go fix a cup of coffee or tea while the software does the hard work for you.

So, let FTP become your friend

The more you use Joomla, and the more you want to do customization of your site, the more you will choose to use an FTP program. So, learn how to use it. It will be your friend.

An FTP alternative

Before I close this article, I need to mention some FTP alternatives.
First of all, most web hosting accounts give you some way of accessing your web files through some type of “file manager.” This offers most of the same tools as an FTP program, but through a browser interface.

Second, you can install into your Joomla administrative control panel an “extension” that will give you many FTP commands from right inside Joomla.
Two of the most popular of these components are <JoomlaExplorer> and

<JoomlaXtplorer>. These are excellent tools to have on your Joomla website (they only appear in the administrative side of Joomla and are restricted to use by “super administrators” because of their power. I generally install one of these on most Joomla websites that I do.