Joomla! is an open source content management system platform for publishing content on the World Wide Web and intranets as well as a Model–view–controller (MVC) Web application framework. It is written in PHP, stores data in MySQL and includes features such as page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, search, and support for language internationalization. What is a Content Management System (CMS)? A content management system is software that keeps track of every piece of content on your Web site, much like your local public library keeps track of books and stores them. Content can be simple text, photos, music, video, documents, or just about anything you can think of. A major advantage of using a CMS is that it requires almost no technical skill or knowledge to manage. Since the CMS manages all your content, you don't have to. Deployment Joomla can be installed manually from source code on a system running a web server which supports PHP applications. Current Technical Requirements (March 2010) Do not use PHP 4.3.9, 4.4.2 or 5.0.4. These releases have known bugs that will interfere with installation. Zend Optimizer 2.5.10 for PHP 4.4.x also has serious bugs and you should ask your host to upgrade to a newer version. Joomla! versions 1.5.15 + are compatible with PHP 5.3. Note that the OpenID library is not yet compatible with PHP 5.3. Joomla is not yet compatible with MySQL 6.x. In order to use SEO URLs, you will need to have the Apache mod_rewrite extension installed. Joomla is optimized for Apache, but also runs on Microsoft IIS (though not officially supported). Depending on your setup, you may need the following: - PHP 5.2
- MySQL 5.1
- Apache 2.2
- Microsoft URL Rewrite Module - Required for SEO URLs only
- FastCGI
Joomla 1.6 will require PHP 5.2+ and MySQL 5.0.4+. Configuration Options If installing on a local computer, there are a number of packages that will help you get set up quicker than individual installations: | 
