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How to check for system specifications yourself

You can check most of the below requirements by heading to your Joomla backend on Help > System Info > System Information and PHP Information tab. However it is best for you to consult your webhost to have a definite overview of your server configuration.

Basic system requirements

JomSocial is an extension for Joomla. To be able to use JomSocial, you would first need to install Joomla on your web host.

We recommend using the latest stable version of Joomla (currently 2.5) to enjoy its latest features and security improvements. However JomSocial still support the minimum requirement of:

For the server, make sure it has:

JomSocial also requires several PHP extension, which are available in most host:

That's about all you need for most JomSocial basic functionality to work. For more advanced features including faster photo upload, video upload, and Facebook Connect--follow the sections below.

Photo upload requirements

To process image, photo upload relies heavily on GD Library which uses a lot of memory. For a better performance, opt for ImageMagick instead if your server support it.

Video upload requirements

Video linking

Linking from external websites such YouTube, Metacafe and Vimeo only requires cURL to be installed, which is available on most host:

Video upload

Video upload uses FFMPEG to convert videos. Most shared webhost disable this option because it consumes a lot of memory and processing power. Please consult your webhost on the availability of FFMPEG on your server. It is advisable to have at least VPS before you consider allowing video upload.

Unlike other extensions, the path to FFMPEG and FLVTool2 need to be specified on your JomSocial backend. Go to Site > Configuration and look for the "Videos" section. There you will find the fields to set both path.

One last thing that JomSocial needs to process the video is Cronjob (scheduled task). Make sure your cronjob is configured accordingly by referring to this documentation.

Facebook Connect requirements

Before you start implementing Facebook Connect feature in your website, make sure you have read the Facebook Connect Policy.

All of the extensions needed for for Facebook Connect have already been mentioned in the basic requirements, including:

Please also ensure that there are no Javascript or jQuery clash on your site because it will lead to error in executing Facebook Connect mechanism. We recommend you using Firebug (a Firefox addon) to inspect such issues.

Large photo/video upload

When it comes to large photo/video uploads, there are a few server configurations that you can tweak the get the most out of JomSocial:

php.ini

max_execution_time = 9000; Maximum execution time of each script, in seconds
max_input_time = 9000; Maximum amount of time each script may spend parsing request data
memory_limit = 1024M; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume
post_max_size = 1024M; Maximum size of POST data that PHP will accept.
upload_max_filesize = 1024M; Maximum allowed size for uploaded files.

my.cnf

wait_timeout = 120
connect_timeout = 120

Disable safe_mode and open_basedir

Some hosting providers have safe_mode and openbase_dir enabled. In order for the photo/video upload to work, you have to disable them. If your hosting allows you to override the Apache's configuration, you need to override the vhost configuration.

php_admin_flag safe_mode off
php_admin_value open_basedir none

If your webhost allows for .htaccess override, locate your .htaccess file in the root Joomla directory and add these lines into it:

php_admin_flag safe_mode off
php_admin_value open_basedir none

A note on PHP memory requirement

JomSocial is developed to run adequately on system with just 32Mb memory allocated to PHP. However please be informed that the development site uses the default template with no additional third-party modules & plugins enabled. Sites with third-party plugins and modules enabled will consume a lot more memory thus we recommend you to increase your memory limit.

Having said that, any application will run well with more memory. We recommend that you allocate at least 64Mb of memory to PHP. The following task will consume a lot of memory:

• resizing uploaded user avatar
• resizing any photos uploaded by user
• converting uploaded videos to Flash .swf