Downloading Mambo
The latest version of Mambo can be downloaded from:
http://mamboxchange.com/frs/?group_id=5
There is a link to this page from the Download Mambo link on the homepage of the mambo website, www.mamboserver.com.
Mambo Lite and Complete
From version 4.6 of Mambo onwards, Mambo comes in two flavors, Complete and Lite. Mambo Complete is the full Mambo package, with all the standard components and templates already included. Mambo Lite is a cut-down version of the full Mambo package, intended for people who don't want all the features of Mambo straightaway. The Lite package lacks a number of the standard components and templates, but still has enough for you to run a functional Mambo site.
Importantly, Mambo Lite contains the Content component, which drives the content management functionality of Mambo, and is the main focus of this book. All the things included in Mambo Complete but not in Mambo Lite can be downloaded and installed from the MamboXchange site. So, you are not cutting yourself off from Mambo's full potential by installing the Lite version, but it does mean you will have to do some more work to get extra parts installed.
If you choose to install and work with the Mambo Lite package, you will find that installation steps are identical.
You will find that you can download each package in a variety of compressed formats, like ZIP (.zip extension), GZIP (.tar.gz extension), etc. We will grab the ZIP file for the Complete package. It is a larger file than the GZIP version.
Extracting Mambo
Once you have downloaded Mambo, extract the contents of the Mambo ZIP archive to the hard drive.
If you don't have a tool for extracting the files, you can download an evaluation edition (or buy a full edition) of WinZip from www.winzip.com.
There are also free and powerful extracting tools such as 7-Zip (http://sourceforge.net/projects/sevenzip/) among others.
In the Mambo folder, you will find a number of subfolders; some of these include:
components: Contains the PHP code for the components that will make up your Mambo site. Components are the essence of Mambo's operation. We will start looking at them once we've got Mambo installed!modules: Contains the PHP code for Mambo's modules. Modules are mini-functionality units and usually provide snippet views of components.mambots: Contains the PHP code for Mambo mambots. Mambots are "little" plugins that hook into various parts of the system, and perform various tasks like filtering or preparing output.language: Contains language files that allow the language of Mambo's interface to be changed.images: Contains images used in the display of the Mambo site. This is where images used in your pieces of content will go.templates: Contains the Mambo templates. The use of templates allows you to completely change the look of a Mambo site with a click of a button. Within eachtemplatefolder is theCSSfor that template, along with images used by it.includes: Contain the core code that powers Mambo.administrator: Contains code to power the administration area of your site.