How to create forum in joomla website?

This tutorial is mainly about how to set up a forum with Joomla. Joomla is a free open source CMS for publishing the web content. At present, it has been downloaded over 35 million times and has become the second most used CMS on the Internet.

In fact, in order to run a Joomla powered forum, you need to, at first, install the Joomla either manually or through 1- click installer. In this article, we have shown you both of the 2 methods.

Installation Preparation

Before downloading the Joomla, you have to do one thing in the very first beginning – choose a reliable web hosting company. Here, our experienced editors have already done this for you, so you don’t need to read so many hosting reviews and compare the hosting companies one by one. After reviewed hundreds of Joomla hosting companies in the market, we highly recommend HostGator because this company:

• Meets and even far exceeds the technical requirements of running Joomla – PHP 5.3+, MySQL 5.0+, and Apache with mod_mysql, mod_xml,and mod_zlib. And runs PHP as suPHP for increased Joomla security.
• Guarantees the fast page loading speed averages less than 338ms, and at least 99.99% uptime.
• Offers a group of professional support team which is available 24/7 via phone, e-mail, and live chat.
• Provides an automatic 1-click Joomla installer called QuickInstall, as well as the most popular cPanel control panel.

Joomla Installation

• Install Joomla Manually
  1. Download the Joomla with your preferred version and package at Joomla.org only, because you may face a risk of malicious code in the setup files if your download Joomla in any non-official websites.
  2. Locate the Joomla package which is generally named as Joomla-Stable-Full_Package.zip, and unpack It to the root of your site.
  3. Upload the extracted files to your web server via the FTP (File Transfer Program). If you don’t know which FTP program should you use, simply try CuteFTP – a free program that has done a good job on transferring files.
  4. Create a MySQL database, and copy down the database name, database username and password in case you might forget what you have created.
  5. Open your browser and type your domain name into the address bar.
  6. Add the necessary information in the Joomla Web Installer page, including the site name, a description about your site, a valid admin email, a unique admin username ( to avoid potential hacker attacks), admin password, site offline selection. Click on the Next button.
  7. Add the necessary information for your MySQL database, including database type (MySQL by default), hostname (usually localhost), username, password, database name, and table prefix (choose the randomly generated one). Then click the Next button.
  8. Click the Install button after choosing install sample data in the last page of the installation process.
• Install Joomla Through 1-click Installer

  In fact, there a lot of 1-click installers, such as SimpleScripts, Fantastico, QuickInstall, Softaculous, etc. Here, we’d like to take QuickInstall as an example.

  1. Login to the control panel by entering your domain name plus a flash and cpanel in the address bar of your browser, then type your username and password in the next page.
  2. Once you have logged in, then scroll down to the Software and Services section and click on the QuickInstall icon.
  3. Click the Joomla icon in the left side of next page, and then click Continue button.
  4. Complete the necessary information including application URL, admin e-mail, Joomla version, site name, update automation, and sample content installation.
  5. Finish the installing process by clicking the Install Now button.

Installing Forum Extension

There are so many forum extensions available for Joomla enabling you to choose your favorite one in http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/communication/forum. Here, we highly recommend Agora, which is an easy to install and configure forum extension for Joomla, and provides a group of add-ons that allow users to customize the forum to match their needs, such as board announcements, post attachments, new post notifications, feedback section, private messaging and social bookmarks.

1. Download the latest version of Agora and then unzip the content of the file.
2. Login to your Joomla admin dashboard, click on Extension button, and then Install/Uninstall button.
3. Choose your unzipped Agora file in the “Install from Directory” and then click Install.
4. Once you see the “Install Component Success” message, you will automatically be led to the Extension Manager page. Now, click the Component button on the top of the page, and then Agora Forum button.
5. Click on the Add Forum button and in the Forum Settings, and enter the name and description for the forum, and finally click on Save.

Summary

To be frank, setting up a forum site with Joomla is quite simple. You only need to follow the above mentioned steps, then you are able to have a Joomla powered forum within minutes.