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Why it is better to build your Joomla site locally

Why it is better to build your Joomla site locally
Developing your Joomla site on your own network is a great way to get things done faster. Building your Joomla site locally is simpler and faster than uploading and waiting for each of your pages to refresh on a remote server. Building your site locally also doubles as a sandbox test environment for when your site gores live, as it is important to refrain from updating or upgrading a live site.

Depending on the Operating System that you are using, you will have 2 main options. But a great suggestion would be to use MAMP.

If you use a Mac, like me, then the best option would be to use MAMP. MAMP has the ability to set up MySQL, Apache and PHP 4/5 in just a few seconds. It is however, not a Joomla-specific product so you will be required to manually install Joomla. But the product is a highly polished one with plenty of useful features and a basic version that is free of charge. The pro version on the other hand, allows you have multiple websites and can integrate with a dynamic DNS service to enable you to host with sites right from your computer. It is great for showing you your client progress for a particular site.

If you have a PC that you use for other purposes but want the same features, then the MAMP is not for you, as it is strictly a Mac application. This is where JSAS comes into play!

JSAS or Joomla Standalone Server is very similar to MAMP but its roots lie with Joomla. Once you install JSAS on to your machine, it will automatically install the Joomla 1.0.xx for you. This will take only about 5 minutes to install. If you want the Joomla 1.5 installed, then there is no problem here as well. JSAS allows you to install multiple websites.

You could use either of these programs and you will find that building websites is a faster and more efficient process than it previously was.

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