JMonitoring, a permanent eye on your Joomla! sites

Guide

Requirements

Json & Curl

PHP versions above 5.2.0 are required for both Master and Distants websites.

Curl for PHP is required for Master Website.

Joomla !

1.6.x to 1.7.x for Master Website

1.5.x to 1.7.x for Distant Website 

Installation

Master website component for 1.7 - Installation

To install the component on a Master website, follow these steps :

  • Log into the backend
  • Install the .zip file "com_jmonitoringMaster.zip" just as any usual extension
  • The component is ready to use and you can configure it to suit your needs by clicking on the "Options" button :

en_configuration

  • E-mail : allows you to choose an e-mail where will be send the reports (mainly for cron job usage)
  • Park : allows you to choose a name for your monitoring domain which is displayed in reports (useful if you have several JMonitoring systems sending mails to one address.
  • Enable logs : allows you to choose if you want to log the infos and errors generated after the verification.
  • Log only on mail : allows you to choose if you want to write in the log only on mail (mainly for cron job usage). It also avoids writing in the log while running a manual verification.
  • Check files : allows you to choose if you want to check the distant sensitive files (Choose "No" only if you have problems with this function)

Distant Website component for 1.5, 1.6 & 1.7 - Installation

To install the component on a Distant website using Joomla 1.5, 1.6 or 1.7, follow these steps :

  • Log into the backend
  • Install the .zip file "com_jmonitoringSlave15.zip" or "com_jmonitoringSlave17.zip" depending on your Joomla's version just as any usual extension
  • The component is ready to use and there is nothing to configure.

Configuration

Add a new website to monitor

Make sure that at least a JMonitoring Master Website and a Distant Website with the distant component JMonitoring are installed before reading this chapter

Now, your JMonitoring master component needs to know which website to connect. To do this, follow these steps :

  • Log in the backend of your Master Website by specifying your admin username and password
  • Go to Menu->Component->JMonitoring->Categories
  • Create a new category for your websites (usefull if you want to sort your websites)
  • Go to Menu->Component->JMonitoring->Manager
  • Then, click on the button "New" which allows you to define informations for a new Distant Website to control :

en_new_site

  • Now, fill the form. Here is a description of each field :
    • Name : it is the name of the Distant Website, it has no incidence with the connection to the website, so you can write anything
    • Category : choose in which category your site will be displayed
    • URL : it is the URL of you Distant Website
      • If Joomla is installed in a subfolder, add a slash in the end (i.e. : www.mydomain.com/joomla/)
    • Secret word : it's provided by your Distant Website's JMonitoring and it's what establishes the connection
    • Word to check : [Optional] JMonitoring is able to check if a word is detected on the distant homepage which means that if it is not,your distant website may have been hacked
  • Click on the "Save & Close" button
  • Now, you can see your website in the list, but it is neither valid nor published
  • To allow JMonitoring to check this website, publish it by clicking on the red icon in the "Published" column
  • Then, click on the orange mark button "Verify All" or put a tick beside your website and click on "Verify" which checks only the ticked sites
  • Now, you can see in the information box if there were errors or notices on your website.
  • If not, a green mark is now next to your webiste in the "Validity" column

Cronjob

Doing my own command

JMonitoring allows you to do an automatic check by using a cronjob or the windows planned tasks
When you configure your automatic task, you just need to launch this webpage :

  • http://www.mymonitor.com/index.php?option=com_jmonitoring&task=cron

This URL triggers the verification of your websites list on the Master Website without having to register in the backend. If you write it in your navigator, nothing will be displayed : it's only a trigger.

With this URL, you will be able to launch it through a command. For example, use this command :

  • firefox "http://127.0.0.1/index.php?option=com_jmonitoring&task=cron"

Using the JMonitoring Launcher for Windows

If you're using MS Windows, you might want to use the Scheduled Tasks application. To launch it automatically, you will need a silent way to trigger the verification. This is what we have done at inetis : JMonitoring Launcher.

You can download it here.

Once it is downloaded, unzip it where you want and open the jmonitoring.ini file. You have to change this line to suit your Master Website's name :

  • URLCall=http://127.0.0.1/index.php?option=com_jmonitoring&task=cron


Now, if you double click on the jmonitoring.exe icon, it will launch the test method. If it works fine, you can tell your Scheduled Tasks system to open jmonitoring.exe.

We recommend to use it at least 3 times a day.

Sending e-mails

If you want that JMonitoring sends you the notification e-mail after the verification, be sure that :

  • Your e-mail address is specified in the Jmonitoring Master's options
  • Your Joomla website's address is specified in the Global Configuration

JMonitoring ? Why ?

The more websites you have, the more JMonitoring you will need. Checking a list of websites is a complicated task and that is why JMonitoring has been developped.

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