How to securely test your Joomla! website

When it comes to developing and testing your Joomla! website, experienced Joomla! developers have some suggestions that will help you keep your development environment secure.

Develop and test locally

You can install Joomla! on your local computer and use that installation for developing and testing your site. Working locally allows you to securely experiment and perfect your site before putting it online for public access. For more information, see Installing Joomla! locally in the official Joomla! documentation.

Use an IDE

An integrated development environment (IDE) is a suite of tools that developers use to write and test software. An IDE typically includes a test editor, a compiler, and a debugger, along with other tools. Source code analysis tools included in an IDE allow developers to find and fix bugs while still in the coding and testing phases.

Many Joomla! developers use the Java-based Eclipse IDE, which can be installed on Windows, Mac, or Linux workstations. For more information, see Configuring Eclipse for Joomla! development.

Use a version control system

Version control, also called source control or versioning, systems keep track of every change made in an application’s source code. This allows developers to roll back changes and to find and fix errors by comparing different versions of the code. Version control is especially valuable if you have more than one person working on your site, preventing conflicts and ensuring that files are opened by only one person at a time. Popular version control systems include CVS, Git, and Subversion. For more information about using version control with an IDE, see Working with Git and Eclipse.

Create and use a backup routine

Possibly the most important and effective thing you can do to maintain your Joomla! website’s security and availability is to maintain a backup routine. If your site becomes unreachable because of a faulty upgrade or change, a security breach, or hardware failure, having a recent full backup may be the only way to recover it. For more information about backing up and restoring your Joomla! site, see Backup basics for a Joomla! website.

More information

For more information about Joomla!, see Joomla! in the HostPapa knowledge base.

If you have any questions or need help, you can always contact HostPapa Support by opening a support ticket. Details about how to open a support ticket are here.

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