What the Heck is Joomla?

Tango, Samba, Joomla; no Joomla isn’t the latest dance craze, is a free, open source content management system.  It is used for publishing anything you like on the Internet. It can also be used by businesses and / or institutions to publish information on their intranet. The beauty of the Joomla system is that it is module based and is a very non-technical way to develop a website. No programming skills are needed. Joomla utilizes page caching which helps improve performance; the web pages are very easily printed, and it has a search feature that works in blogs, polls and general websites. One of its greatest features is that it can be used in a variety of operating systems.

History of Joomla

The first version of Joomla was launched in September 2005, and the latest version (ver. 1.5.1) was released in February of 2008, so you are assured of the very latest technology.  Joomla actually was developed by the creators of the Mambo content management system, which was a very successful program used for the creation of websites.

Joomla Utilizes Modules

Joomla consists of many different parts, all of which have been designed to be modular.  Assembling modules is fairly easy, if you know what you are doing.  One example of a module is the ability to create an extension (also known as a plug in) such as a “WikiBot”.  This allows the creation of “WikiTags” which allows the creation of hyperlinks to articles in Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.  Having these “WikiTags” allows a reader to find additional information about a particular subject on the topic that your article is written.  Plus it allows inline definitions of unfamiliar terms. 

Joomla Extensions

There are over 2,700 of these types of extensions available for Joomla and in order to get a full listing, one can go to the Extensions Directory [the official directory of extensions] on the web site OpenSourceMatters maintains. The directory is quite appropriately called joomla.org.

Joomla Components

In addition to those 2.700 “plug ins” are components.  These are comprehensive extensions that offer many useful features.  Some examples are the ability to easily back up the website, and even translate the website into other languages. One of the biggest problems that companies face is that of spelling errors on their websites. Search engines do not have the ability to spell check, so if a potential visitor makes a spelling error, the search engines may miss what they are looking for.  Joomla can create URL’s that are much easier for Google or Yahoo to find.

Upgrades are a breeze with Joomla.  Since the new release is fairly recent, there are many more extensions available for the original version (ver.1.0) than there are for the current version.  Joomla was designed to be backwards compatible, so the old extensions are still usable in the newest version.

Installing Joomla

Installing Joomla is a breeze and within a short amount of time you can have a website up and running. Another great feature is that it allows multiple people to work on a website at the same time.  Joomla is also a WYSISYG (What you see is what you get) editor, so creating a website is fairly easy.

As with anything else, there are some drawbacks to Joomla, but the advantages far outweigh the drawbacks. The fact that the program is free is a big advantage that will certainly outweigh the negatives.  Download the program from the Joomla website, and give it a try, you have nothing to lose.

About the author

Beverly Saltonstall is an Internet writer who writes on topics of interest to online marketers.  You are invited to visit http://www.easyonlinepublishing for articles, news, podcasts and information about online publishing.  For a in depth look at joomla, visit http://www.easyonlinepublishing.com/joomla.

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