For Morph and the Configurator component to work correctly there are some minimum system requirements. If you have Joomla installed and running correctly, Morph and Configurator will most likely work without any hiccups. The following minimum requirements will ensure that everything works smoothly and that you don’t lose any of the functionality.

Joomla Requirements

Joomla 1.5.13 is the minimum package that we have tested Morph and Configurator with but we do recommend that you use the latest stable version of Joomla 1.5. To make it easier for you however, we have created a Quick Installer which comes packaged with the latest version of Joomla 1.5 and some modules and components, as well as some custom sample data. This has been built with Morph and Configurator in mind and we recommend that you use this installer as a base point.

Server Requirements

• Apache 2
• PHP 5.2 (PHP 5.3 is recommended)
• MySQL 5.x (recommended) or MySQLi

Due to PHP having many different options and configurations, and certain shared hosts limiting certain features, we have compiled a list of the most common PHP extensions and functions that need to be available.

Required PHP Extensions

• ZLIB
• MySQL
• XML
• ZIP

Allowed PHP System Functions and Required Configurations

ini_set() and ini_get()
This is required to set the memory limit when installing Morph and Configurator - if this option is not available, a minimum memory limit of 64M is required - newer versions of PHP have this set to default at 128M.

Folder and File Permissions

For Morph and Configurator to work 100% the following folder and file permissions are required:

• Folders - CHMOD 0755
• Files - CHMOD 0644

Browser Requirements

Both Morph and Configurator have been stress tested to work with all standards based browsers including the non-standards compliant Internet Explorer 6, with the exception of Configurator which has a minimum requirement of Internet Explorer 7. The only strict requirements for any browsers to ensure perfect operation are that both cookies and javascript be enabled. This is especially important when using the Configurator component.

Morph Browser Requirements

• Internet Explorer 6+
• Firefox 3+
• Opera 9+
• Safari 4+
• Google Chrome 2+

Configurator Browser Requirements

• Internet Explorer 7+
• Firefox 3+
• Opera 9+
• Safari 4+
• Google Chrome 2+

Development Requirements

While the above system and server requirements are the same for local development (localhost) as opposed to developing on a live domain (whether it be a live site, subdomain or password protected folder) there are some differences when using packaged versions of Apache/MySQL/PHP on your local machine, whether it be Windows, Linux or Mac OS X. These differences are based on the package creators preferences and most often then not, do not mirror that of a real hosting servers setup.

We have tested the following WAMP/MAMP packages and should you wish to rather test on a local development server that you use the latest versions of these.

Windows

• WampServer
• XAMPP
• Custom WAMP setup (using the individual installers available from Apache, PHP and MySQL)

Please bear in mind that while the above packages should work 100%, Apache and PHP were built with a UNIX based Operating System (Linux or OS X) in mind and certain features are not available to these packages.

Mac OS X

• Standard Apache and PHP installed by default (You will need to compile and install MySQL and PHP’s MySQL support)
• MAMP
• MAMP Pro
• ZendServer CE (Community Edition)

Linux

Most Linux distributions come prepackaged with Apache/PHP/MySQL support out of the box but they may need to be installed or activated.

See the following Wikipedia Articles for more information on Local Development Server packages and how to install them:

• List of AMP packages
• LAMP Software Bundle