Joomla! Documentation™

How to access

Select Help → System Info from the drop-down menu on the Back-end of your Joomla! installation.

Description

The System Info screens provides useful information about your host server environment, including operating system, PHP settings, and directory access settings. You can navigate to five different screens: System Info, PHP Settings, Configuration File, Directory Permissions, and PHP Information. Each screen provides detailed information about that aspect of your Joomla! web site.

This information is very helpful when you are troubleshooting setup problems. Note that none of these settings can be changed from these screens. That must be done in other places, depending on the specific setting. The settings in the Configuration File screen can be changed from the Global Configuration screen. The other settings shown here depend on your host server configuration and cannot be changed from inside Joomla!

Screenshot

System Info

This screen shows information about the operating environment for your Joomla! web site, as follows:

PHP Built on

Provides details of the principle operating system which the web server that Joomla is running on.

Database Version

Provides the current version of the MySQL database being used by the installation of Joomla!.

Database Collation

How the MySQL databased is structured for the information used by Joomla!.

PHP Version

Provides the current version of PHP server side script that is being used for this installation of Joomla!.

Web Server

Provides the current type and version of web server which the installation of Joomla! is running on.

Web Server to PHP interface

The script that permits interaction between the web server (in most cases, Apache) and the PHP scripting language.

Joomla! Version

Provides the current version of Joomla!. It is recommended that it is always to to day and using the current stable release.

User Agent

The summary of the current user's local machine's operating system and browser information which is used to create an unique session ID for access and functionality within the Joomla! web site.

PHP Settings

These screen shows the Relevant PHP Settings information. If any of these is highlighted as incorrect should be taken care of to rectify the situation.

Safe Mode

Recommended setting: ON

Open basedir

Recommended setting: Site dependent

Display Errors

Recommended setting: OFF

Short Open Tags

Recommended setting:

File Uploads

Recommended setting: ON

Magic Quotes

Recommended setting: ON

Register Globals

Recommended setting: OFF

Output Buffering

Recommended setting: OFF

Session Save Path

Recommended setting: Site dependent

Session Auto Start

Recommended setting: OFF

XML Enabled

Recommended setting: ON

Zlib Enabled

Recommended setting: ON

Disabled Functions

Recommended setting: Site dependent

Mbstring Enabled

Recommended setting: ON

Iconv Available

Recommended setting:

WYSIWYG Editor

Recommended setting: Depends on preference

Configuration File

This screen shows the contents of the current Joomla! configuration.php file which is stored under the main joomla_root/ directory. This file is created for you automatically when you first install Joomla! and where most changes of the Global Configuration section of Joomla! are recorded. Please note that none of the settings can be changed from this page. Use the Global Configuration to see more information about these settings and to make changes.

Directory Permissions

This screen shows a list of the directories that the webserver should have write access to. Please note that all directories listed on this page should say Writable. If not, you may need to change the permissions to be able to install and use Joomla! successfully.

PHP Information

This screen displays the full configuration of the PHP server side scripting language that Joomla! runs on, together with all the associated system information that goes towards the creation of the web server. It is the output of an integrated php.info script built into Joomla!.

PHP is installed, and runs on the server (hence the server side above), and therefore all the settings are made on the server. The visitor to the web site does not need to have anything special running on their local machine in order to view or use any of the extra functionality that PHP gives to the web site.

All the settings that are ever likely to be needed are displayed here. Any changes that are required would be made within the php.ini and other configuration files on the web server.

How much control a web site owner has over this information depends on whether they own the server or if the server host is flexible in their customer approach.

It is a good practice to know the limitations of a particular server installation. This screens output is used to find detailed information about how PHP is implemented on the server.

For full details on the information contained within the PHP Info screen visit: http://php.net/phpinfo.

Toolbar

At the top right you will see the toolbar:

• Help. Opens this Help Screen.

Quick Tips

• If you are having problems installing extensions, uploading, or changing configuration options, check the Directory Permissions screen to make sure you have permission to write to files on your web server. The "Status" of the directories should be "Writable". If not, you may be unable to upload or edit files in these directories.
• When you are seeking help with setup problems, for example in a Joomla! web forum, it is very helpful to post specific information about your Joomla! installation. This screen is an easy way to find all of this information in one place.