Joomla Spots ~ Joomla Websites Directory and Resource Library

Hosting a Joomla website is not the hardest to do IF you find the right web hosting company to work with.
Many of us are looking for the cheapest hosting solution in order to save money but we shouldn't forget how much money and time will be lost if the only advantage of the hosting company we choose is just being cheap.

Server downtime and incompatibility with Joomla CMS are the top 2 reasons dropping our hosting provider and looking for a another one more reliable and joomla friendly.

Moving websites from one hosting provider to another is not the easiest thing to do, no matter if you are a Joomla Pro that develops Joomla websites for his clients or just a webmaster.

Search engines and visitors hate downtimes and dns changes in a short period time so be careful and judge your future hosting provider not only by his price but also by his Joomla friendly hosting features.

To help you out I m going to post server features that can classify them as Joomla friendly for both Joomla 1.6.x/1.7.x and Joomla 1.5.x versions.

Joomla 1.6.x and 1.7.x server requirements:

PHP
- Recommended: 5.3+
- Minimum: 5.2.4+

MySQL
- Recommended: 5.0.4+
- Minimum: 5.0.4+

Apache(mod_mysql, mod_xml,and mod_zlib installed)
- Recommended: 2.x+
- Minimum: 2.x+

Joomla 1.5.x server requirements:

PHP
- Recommended: 5.2+
- Minimum: 4.3.10

MySQL
- Recommended: 4.1.x+
- Minimum: 3.23

Apache(mod_mysql, mod_xml,and mod_zlib installed)
- Recommended: 2.x+
- Minimum: 1.3

I ve already built my own list of Joomla Hosting providers that can host your joomla websites, check it out and bookmark it because I m going to post more of them as soon as possible.

BRIEF INTRO ABOUT JOOMLA MODULE CLASS SUFFIXES

Module Class Suffix can be used to style differently your modules, for example if you take a look at JoomlaSpots.com frontpage left modules, you can see that each module has a different color background used.
This was achieved using module class suffix for modules, for example "Main" menu module is using suffix dark, see screenshot below for more:

How to Backup your Joomla Website

Many of the most frequently visited websites in the world take advantage of the open source content management and web hosting offered by Joomla and thousands of people take advantage of the open source nature of Joomla to create their own online identity. Because of its formation, Joomla is composed of disparate parts which can be used as individual sites see fit, with new plugins and components adding in powerful functionality and unique content opportunities. If you have your own Joomla website and you are concerned about the integrity of all of your articles, content and components, you will probably be interested in find out how to backup your site within minimal hassle. This guide represents a broad tutorial on how this can be performed, though there are a huge number of alternative techniques and products that you can try out to achieve the same effect.

The easiest and quickest way to backup all of your site`s data in order to restore it in the event of data loss or other afflictions is to take advantage of the PhpMyAdmin service. You can simply choose the export option from the properties menu related to your particular database and this will allow you to dump the contents to a local storage space, allowing for resurrection of your site if the worst happens. Compression of the dumped data is sometimes possible, though your own PHP settings will determine whether this is available before the transfer commences. If you choose save as, you will have access to a file in the SQL format that contains all of the data necessary to restore your site at any point.

There are certain third party components that allow for Joomla users to create backups of their site that can be modified in customizable ways and used with greater flexibility, though checking on the suitability of such components is always sensible before you commit your data to them. The JoomlaCloner component is one such example, allowing site admins to share backup files with their users and taking advantage of ftp functions to help clone and restore sites as required. Restoration scripts are created for automatic, instant resurrection of corrupted or hacked sites. Alternatives to this include the open source JoomlaPack, which allows for any server that is compatible with Joomla sites to host a secondary backup version of your site for emergencies. Further automated backup components include LazyBackup 2, which can be set to send a zip file containing your site data to your inbox at customisable intervals multiple times a day if required.

Restoring your Joomla site is often dependant on what type of component you have relied on to provide you with the backup in the first place. If you have used the basic backup provided by the PhpMyAdmin then the process will require just a few steps. Some third party components provide automatic restoration at the click of a button, so even if you are using a mobile broadband or a wireless broadband connection you should be able to minimize downtime and reinstate your site with no loss of data.

Joomla websites in order to work as expected need to be hosted on Joomla friendly hosting servers. Even though Joomla can be installed in most of the available hosting solutions, only few of them are have a joomla friendly environment that will help you build your Joomla website without any problems.

Joomla friendly hosting server is one of the most serious decisions you may have to take before publishing your website on the web. Below we are going to list some of the requirements a hosting server should have in order to be tagged as "Joomla Friendly Hosting". Joomla is build mostly for Linux hosting servers so the following requirements refer to that specific hosting solution.

Currently we have tested and approved the above hosting solutions as Joomla Friendly:

- on!SPOT

- HostGator

Requirements for tagging a hosting server as "Joomla Friendly":

- PHP Version: 5.2+ (Minimum 4.3.10).

- MySQL Version: 4.1.x+ (3.23).

- Apache Version: 2.x+ (1.3).