Joomla Global Configuration

After exploring the Joomla 5 home dashboard, it’s time to dive into the Global Configuration—the main control area for your website’s settings. Think of it as the “Settings” page in WordPress, but with more options to customize any website, from a blog to an e-learning platform, online store, or membership site. In this beginner-friendly tutorial, I’ll introduce what Global Configuration does and explain each tab’s key settings in simple terms, like adjusting your phone’s preferences. Let’s get started!

Accessing Global Settings

To start, log in to your Joomla 5 admin panel: www.yourwebsite.com/administrator
 (Change the "yourwebsite.com" part with your own website's domain.)

Note: One thing you will notice about Joomla is that you can get to an area or setting in more than one way; some easier than others. 

Method 1

When you log into your admin area, you will be on the Home Dashboard, where you will see the common actions in the main window. Click on the Global Configuration button.

Method 2

If you are in another area of your admin, you can access your global configuration by going to:

System > Global Configuration

When you are on the home dashboard screen, I recommend using Method 1 for faster access, unless you are in another area of your admin, then you can use Method 2.

What is Global Configuration?

The Global Configuration in Joomla 5 is where I set the big-picture options for my site, like its name, security, or how it looks in search engines. It’s like the control panel for a car, letting you tweak how the engine runs without touching every part. You’ll find it by expanding the System dropdown in the left-side admin navigation and selecting Global Configuration. This area affects your entire site, so it’s key for building e-learning, e-commerce, or membership sites.

Global Configuration Tabs and Settings

The Global Configuration is split into several tabs, each controlling different parts of your site. Below, I’ve listed each tab and its main settings with simple explanations, like a quick guide to your site’s options. We’ll dive deeper into some of these in later tutorials because some of the settings are more advanced, but let me give you a brief outline for the basic settings, including a screenshot:

1. Site
   • Site Name: Sets your website’s name, like “Learn Joomla!,” shown in browser titles and emails. Similar to WordPress’s “Site Title.”
   • Site Offline: Hides your site from visitors with a custom message, like “Under Construction.” Great for building before going live, like WordPress maintenance plugins.
   • FrontEnd Editing: If you enable this, you can edit select elements on the front of your website to edit directly from that location. I would consider this an advanced tutorial.
   • Default Editor: Chooses the text editor for creating content, like TinyMCE (Don't worry, it's not like the infamous WordPress block editor). I will talk about the Joomla editor in another tutorial.
   • Default List Limit: When you are viewing things like articles and modules in the admin area, you can display how many you want in view. If the list of items exceeds the amount chosen, it gives you a pagination option: Page 1, 2, 3, etc. This lets you choose how many items to show per page.
   • Metadata: I recommend leaving these fields blank, except for setting Robots to Index/Follow and then disabling the Joomla Version as Hide.
   • SEO: The best setting for this is to set the Search Engine Friendly URLs to Yes and Use URL Rewriting as Yes. If you set these as "Yes", you need to rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess by going to where your Joomla website files are and doing it there. You can use your FTP application or your web hosting account's cPanel File Manager.
2. System
   • Debug System: Shows technical info to fix issues, like a diagnostic tool. Leave off unless troubleshooting.
   • Session Lifetime: Sets how long users (like admins) stay logged in before auto-logout, like WordPress’s session timeout.
   • Cache Settings: Speeds up your site by saving pages temporarily, great for complex sites with heavy traffic. Leave off if you plan to use a cache extension/plugin.
3. Server

   This tab has advanced settings, and it's recommended to leave these as-is.

   • Force HTTPS: Makes your site use https:// for security, like WordPress’s SSL settings, crucial for all websites.
   • Server Time Zone: Sets your site’s time zone, like “New York,” for accurate timestamps in emails or posts.
   • Mail Settings: Configures email sending (e.g., SMTP for user registrations), like WP Mail SMTP in WordPress.
   • Database Type: Defines your database (e.g., MySQL), set during installation, rarely changed.
4. Logging
   • Logging: This allows you to create log files, mostly for debugging your website. *Leave this as-is.
   • Custom Logging: Manage the types of logging you want. *Leave this as-is.
5. Text Filters
   • Filter Type: Blocks harmful code in user-submitted content, like comments, for security. *I will talk about this in another tutorial, as this falls into an advanced skill level.
6. Permissions
   • Global Permissions: Controls what user groups (like admins or students) can do, like WordPress’s user roles, but is more comprehensive and flexible. *This also falls into a more advanced tutorial.
   • Component Permissions: Sets specific access for features, like who can edit articles.

For the Text Filters: Only for the Administrator (you), I recommend changing this to No Filtering. This gives you flexibility when creating content in the editor by allowing you to add/paste special things like icons, forms, scripts, etc, without being filtered out. 

IMPORTANT: Make sure that if you set this as No Filtering, you do it only for the Administrator.

Why Global Configuration Matters

The Global Configuration lets you shape your Joomla 5 site to fit your needs, whether it’s a simple blog or a complex website. Compared to WordPress’s Settings, Joomla offers more control, especially for user access and SEO, making it ideal for advanced sites like online stores or membership platforms. Don’t feel pressured to change every setting now—start with the basics, like site name or SEO, and explore others as you grow. Once you get comfortable with the basics, you can opt in for my Advanced Joomla Tutorials membership.

What’s Next?

In my next tutorial, I’ll guide you through creating your first article, like a blog post or course lesson, to start adding content to your site. Need a reliable host to support your site’s settings? Check out my blog post, How to Find the Best Web Host in 2025, for my personal recommendation.

Continue to the Next Tutorial: Creating Your First Joomla 5 Article