The popularity of Joomla! and its utility over the past 10 years show that Joomla! is considered to be one of the top open-source CMSs in the world currently. Since its beginnings as the Mambo CMS in the past 10 years or so, it has seen improvements to the point that it’s no wonder there are a lot of awards in its portfolio already, and it’s not stopping.
In particular, if you’re involved in web development, regardless of the technology you’re working with, it’s difficult to move away from Joomla! If that’s the case, I’m certain you’re in a different world!
It could sound daunting, but I can guarantee you that it’s worth looking into if you haven’t looked it up yet when you are looking for the next CMS. Actually, it’s more than a CMS. We’ll talk about later in the article the capabilities of Joomla! And what all it can do.
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This article will in-depth go over the basics of Joomla! And we’ll discuss how the software can be beneficial for web-based applications. Beginning with a look at the basics of the CMS and then we’ll look at the functions of Joomla! Throughout the section, and in the final section, we’ll provide you with some helpful tips, helping you in decision making.
What Is a CMS?
A content management system, often commonly referred to as CMS, or CMS, is software that lets you manage information efficiently and effectively. It can be anything, be it an article of a basic nature or complicated management of media.
CMS aims to create an efficient workflow that reflects the precise situation of an organization at any moment in time. Simply put, it permits information to go through various stages, such as editing, reviewing, drafting, and then publishing.
Particularly, non-technical users would love having such an application that allows them to organize their content quickly and makes the entire process more enjoyable than stressful.
In every web-based application, there are three main procedures that, the majority of the time, administrators are able to perform for any particular entity: edit, add and delete. That’s exactly the purpose of CMS. If it lets you accomplish this by offering the WYSIWYG editor as well as inline editing or other fancy features, it’s the goal to make the entire process easy.
It’s not just about the organization and administration of the content; however, how effective it can be at providing an extensive access control system to various categories of users. This is thought to be one of the top attributes offered by any CMS.
It’s clear that you’d prefer to divide the duties among different roles, such as editors, authors, and publishers. The concept of content versions is something that you’d like to be aware of as it lets you take back your articles in case circumstances don’t go according to plan.
A word about the common process of any CMS
In its simplest structure, the common process of any CMS might be similar to:
- The writer begins a conversation by writing an article and the default state of the document is currently draft time. The article should pass through several cycles to change from draft status to reviewing status.
- The reviewer has the right to read all articles that are in review. This requires an effort on the reviewer’s part to review the article and then forward it to editors when they comply with the essential guidelines to move an article from editing status to review. Then, naturally, the Editor can return them to draft status, leaving the appropriate feedback if the author anticipates the improvement.
- The process of going through the entire article that is in editing and then enhancing the final edits is a requirement for the Editor during their daily routine. They are also responsible for transferring articles from editing to the queue for publication.
- The editor’s responsibility is to ensure that the content in the publish queue receives the appropriate treatment by scheduling their publication in the front-end.
In general, the above scenario is among the most straightforward and efficient use-cases you can use. And, of course, in the real world, you’ll see more complex workflows that include advanced features such as tags or social sharing and commenting, just to name some.
That’s a short and hopefully helpful introduction to a CMS system’s potential might appear to be. In the next section, we’ll be focusing on the central topic of this article: Joomla!, which is something I said we’d look into throughout the article.
Joomla!–an Award-Winning (and Heart-Winning) CMS
Since its launch in 2005, Joomla! It truly has changed over the years and is now among the top efficient and robust CMSs downloaded by millions of customers. According to the saying, it’s an entirely community-based CMS operated by the community! For any open source project like Joomla!, the support from the community is crucial to the sustainability and longevity of Joomla!
Joomla! is built on the most popular web technologies, including MySQL, Apache, and PHP. However, it’s not limited to just the above-mentioned technologies; it also integrates with other popular databases and servers. For example, you can choose between SQL Server or PostgreSQL instead of MySQL database engine if you want to choose that option. However, Microsoft IIS and NGINX are viable options for web servers along with Apache.
For developers, Joomla! is built on an MVC style pattern. It is a widely used pattern in lots of other frameworks. A discussion of using the MVC structure pattern might be beyond what is covered in this tutorial. But I do provide the ability to detach from concerns and allow the developer to focus on developing; instead of thinking about how the framework will appear on the front-end.
It’s no surprise that Joomla! ‘s most recent version is mobile-first and responsive right out of the box because it’s hard to overlook this, and it’s expensive in case a framework doesn’t do such a thing.
At the time of writing, Joomla! 3.4.x is compatible with PHP 5.5+ but is not PHP 7. However, it is expected that the long-awaited version of Joomla! 3.5 is coming up and will be compatible with PHP 7, which will provide a significant performance boost.
If that’s an overview of the basics of what Joomla! is about, the list below gives a look at some of the more concrete features you’ve been waiting to see and are part of the Joomla! Core.
- A content organization using nested levels of categories
- RSS Feeds
- Content versioning and tagging
- The powerful and efficient powerful ACL (Access Control Lists) system
- Media management
- Intelligent search feature to facilitate all-encompassing search on the internet.
- User management
- Multilingual features
- Out-of-the-box features for managing content
- Mobile-friendly and responsive interface
Of course, it’s not easy to go through each aspect in-depth in one piece; therefore, those who are interested need to surf the web a bit to find deeper answers.
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Joomla!–Beyond the CMS World
You’re not on the right side of the table if you think that Joomla is only suitable for managing content, and it will shock you that there are over 77,000 extensions through the JED (Joomla Extensions Directory) site.
They offer functions that range from an easy gallery application to a complete reservation and booking system. So actually, there’s the chance your extension that you’re trying to build independently is already on the JED!
Joomla!’s extensible design makes custom extension development a breeze. Searching for an online platform that functions as a website? Perhaps your business requires creating a brand new YouTube kind of system, or you’re trying to create your next Facebook! The JED has extensions to meet each of these specifications.
Let’s look at the luxurious possibilities you’ll have in the event that you choose Joomla! as your solution:
- Solutions for e-commerce
- Calendar of events and RSVP kinds of systems
- Portals that offer community features such as commenting, social sharing tags, and so on.
- Classifieds solutions
- Online reservations and reservation systems for online reservations and booking
- Business directories
- Educational and government sites
- A full-featured system for managing media
- portfolio systems
It’s only some since it’s challenging to mention every possible scenario. According to the saying, the only limit is your imagination. This is certainly the case with Joomla!
Joomla! is a Web Framework
In day-to-day Joomla Development, there will be times when you realize that you’d prefer to use a specific component from the platform, such as the routing API, for instance, instead of a collection of CMS features that are no longer relevant for the particular application.
If you are developing a simple PHP-based app, it’s nice to use the features of this framework that are the most suitable for your particular application rather than a full CMS.
As an example, let’s say you’re planning to create an application that can expose Joomla! Information to a mobile app. In order to achieve this, it is perfectly acceptable to develop a custom extension that provides the functionality you want. Still, it’s a burden because of the unneeded CMS features you’re using.
What you should have done is pick the APIs that you require and not use all the other options, and the final product will be a lightweight web-based application.
This is the reason behind Joomla!’s creation! Its framework allows you to create applications with an API set that is familiar to you in case you’re new to Joomla! CMS background.
It offers a standard set of APIs and various PHP frameworks, which allows you to concentrate on particular features of your application rather than making up new features such as input handling, an abstraction layer for databases, routing, etc.
It’s not meant to be confused with Joomla! CMS because there’s an entirely separate section of software development that is available for both software pieces. The primary goal is to break up the software programs into distinct modules rather than binding them together into a single program and allowing them to develop independently.
Actually, you can consider Joomla! CMS as a blend of Joomla! Framework and its CMS modules.
One promising example is Joomla! Framework Issue Tracker, a program part of the Joomla! CMS itself. Similar to that, you can create any website application similar to what you could have created using another PHP framework. So take a look, and we’re sure it will have something to offer to all.
Joomla!–a Quick Glance at the Major Features
In this article, we’ll look at the most important aspects of Joomla! Architecture serves as the fundamental component in every application.
Components
For instance, if you’re planning to create an online business directory, you must be able to add, edit, and remove the entries in the back-end. However, it will display a beautiful listing on the front end, with an advanced search such as pagers, sorting, etc. It’s the component you’d like to create to incorporate the functionality mentioned above.
As a general rule, when you need to develop a new function using Joomla!, it’s the component that comes to your help.
Modules
Before we start to describe what a module is within Joomla!, we’d like to provide you with some examples to help make it easier if you’ve ever visited Joomla! Front-end, you’ll find a lot of blocks such as Login New Articles, News Feeds, Recent Articles, and more.
You’ll be surprised to learn that all these Joomla! Modules are assigned to various locations within the template! A Joomla! module is a moveable block that usually produces output by grabbing the information from the component and then displaying the output.
Plugins
Most of the time, you’ll need to modify the framework’s behavior to satisfy your individual requirements. This is where plugins are in the picture. For example, a Joomla! plugin lets you catch specific system-defined events that allow the personalization of certain crucial workflows.
In this case, for instance, you’d like to inform an external application when there are new registrations on your website. So, naturally, there is an option to change the information that is passed between events.
Templates
As the name implies, it is responsible for the web’s presentation layer and helps to structure your site’s layout. Sometimes, it’s referred to as a Joomla! The theme since it permits users to alter the appearance of your site.
To alter the default design for the Joomla! You have to create a custom theme in line with the Joomla! on the main page. Structure of the theme. This is an issue you’ll frequently encounter when you’re a Joomla! Developer.
Additionally, the most recent Joomla! The version has responsive themes on the front and back end. It’s also something that you can expect from theme creators and also during the process of developing custom themes.
What Is the Joomla! Extensions Directory (JED)?
The JED is something you must become familiar with since you’ll likely spend a significant amount of time looking for an extension to suit your needs. This is the official Joomla! Site with a wide range of extensions available as components, modules, and plugins.
Extensions on JED are available under two licenses, free and commercial. As you might have guessed, commercial extensions are paid for, accessible either on an annual basis or by paying a single fee. As a developer, this is an area you’d want to reap the benefits of through the development of high-quality extensions and then releasing them under a commercial license.
In reality, most of the time, it works in this manner that the free extensions come with basic functions. In contrast, those who purchase that extension are enhanced with powerful features, usually in addition to add-ons, in some situations.
Additionally, the benefits of technical support provided by extension service providers are included with the paid version. Therefore, it’s a thriving and tested business model for many commercial extension companies.
With that said, we won’t take any credit for these extensions of high quality. They deserve this appreciation. Actually, it’s an extensive set of guidelines and guidelines and standards that every extension has to adhere to that makes certain that extensions listed on JED are of the highest high-quality standards.
That’s the JED available to you. Make yourself feel comfortable and be grateful for it.
Where Should I Start?
For new users, it is always advised to download Joomla! Locally on your system. You can then investigate the features available in the back-end and front-end to become familiar with the software.
It’s a vast topic that you’ll be able to find many videos and online tutorials available. The members of Joomla! Community forums are extremely friendly to assist you with any issue.
Conclusion
It was a pleasure to present an extremely well-known open-source CMSs within the world of web development – Joomla! While we’ve only scratched the boundaries of Joomla! World, we’re sure we’ve done justice to the topic.
Beginning with an overview of CMSs, we’ve looked at the various features of Joomla! This was followed by an overview of the most important elements of architecture. Finally, we also examined the JED and included some useful resources in the last part of this article.
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