Technical requirements of Solidres for Joomla

Solidres 4 is a Joomla 6 extension, so a server that runs Joomla 6 runs Solidres. This page lists what Solidres 4 needs, which is Joomla's own technical requirements plus a few things a booking site depends on. Most hosting plans that offer Joomla 6 have them all.

Software

Solidres refuses to install on an older Joomla or PHP, and says which one it needs. An older Solidres runs on an older Joomla: see Which Solidres runs on which Joomla.

PHP

• Extensions Joomla needs: json, simplexml, dom, zlib, gd, and mysqlnd or pdo_mysql. Solidres uses gd for the thumbnails of property and room type photos.
• curl: payment gateways, the Channel Manager, currency exchange rates and Joomla's updates connect to other servers through it.
• mbstring: Joomla recommends it, and Solidres needs it for PDF invoices and vouchers, which it makes with the Dompdf library.
• openssl: for secure connections to payment providers and other services. Almost every host has it.
• Memory: a memory_limit of at least 256 MB.
• Uploads: the Solidres Core Package is about 5 MB. To install it by uploading the file, upload_max_filesize and post_max_size must be at least 8 MB. Updates from System → Update download the file on the server and need no upload.

Database

• MySQL or MariaDB, with InnoDB. Solidres does not run on PostgreSQL, although Joomla does.
• One Solidres site per database. Install each Joomla site with Solidres in a database of its own. Two Solidres sites cannot share a database, even with different table prefixes: the second install stops with a database error.

Web server and hosting

• HTTPS: a valid SSL certificate on the site. Payment gateways need it, and guests enter their details on the booking form.
• Search engine friendly URLs: on Apache, mod_rewrite and Joomla's .htaccess; on IIS, the URL Rewrite module. Optional, but Solidres's property and room type addresses read better with them.
• Nginx: Nginx ignores the .htaccess files Solidres uses to close folders to the web, so deny web access to them in the server's configuration. They hold invoices, vouchers and the files attached to reservations:
  • media/com_solidres/invoices/
  • media/com_solidres/notes/
  • media/com_solidres/pdfAttachment/
  • media/com_solidres/assets/files/
  • media/plg_solidres_experienceinvoice/invoices/ and voucher/, with Experience

  For example, in the site's server block:

  location ~ ^/media/(com_solidres/(invoices|notes|pdfAttachment|assets/files)|plg_solidres_experienceinvoice/(invoices|voucher))/ {
      deny all;
  }

• Cron: iCal sync, the Channel Manager, exchange rates and invoice reminders run as Joomla scheduled tasks. On a site with few visits, run them from a server cron job: see How to set up Joomla CRON for the Task Scheduler.
• Email: Solidres emails guests and staff about every booking. Set Joomla's Global Configuration to send through your mail provider's SMTP server, so that the emails arrive and do not land in spam.