Joomla Resources - A Developers Guide to Documentation, Extensions, and Themes
Published: Jan 15, 2010
Joomla! is a very popular and widely used CMS (content management system) built with the PHP language. Joomla! allows you to build full blown sites with plenty of functionality, while still allowing you full control over your content and data. Though Joomla! does a great job of this, all CMS's need some extra resources and assistance, be it in the form of tutorials, extensions, or themes. Today, we'll go over quite a few excellent Joomla! tutorials/documentation, extensions, and themes.
Documentation and Tutorials
Joomla! Home Page
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The Joomla! home page is the first stop for any developer or persons looking to learn more about Joomla. From documentation to version releases and extensions and themes, the Joomla! home page has almost everything you need to get started.
Absolute Beginners Guide to Joomla!
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There are no prerequisites to this step-by-step course for building a Web site for a fictitious landscaping company. In the first few pages, you will have configured a localhost environment on your computer and installed Joomla!. Following the installation, you quickly learn how to configure all kinds of extensions, including components, modules and plugins. You will even make changes to the default template. The Joomla! v 1.5 Quick Start Guide is strongly recommended for all new Joomla! v 1.5 users. In a very short period of time, you will have learned enough that you can build a simple Joomla! Web site.
Visit Absolute Beginners Guide to Joomla!
Joomla! Community Magazine
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The Joomla! Community Magazine is a wonderful resource for all things Joomla related. The online magazine features many articles by well known members of the Joomla community. You can find plenty of tutorials, books, links, and resources, all at the Joomla Community Magazine.
Visit Joomla! Community Magazine
Getting Started With Joomla!
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Getting started with Joomla is geared towards those new to Joomla. This step by step guide walks you slowly through every resource and article you will need along the way. In addition, it provides tips and article links for those looking to extend or develop for the Joomla! CMS.
Visit Getting Started with Joomla!
Extensions and Components
JoomlaPack
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JoomlaPack is an open-source backup component for the Joomla! CMS, quite a bit different than its competition. Its mission is simple: create a site backup that can be restored on any Joomla!-capable server. Its possibilities: endless It creates a full backup of your site in a single archive. The archive contains all the files, a database snapshot and an installer derived from the standard Joomla! installer. The backup and restore process is AJAX powered to avoid server timeouts, even with huge sites. Alternatively, you can make a backup of only your database. If you want a reliable, easy to use, open source backup solution for your Joomla! site, try it out.
JoomSEO
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JoomSEO is a Search Engine Optimizing(SEO) bot making Joomla content more Search Engine Friendly(SEF). JoomSEO dynamically creates meta keywords, meta descriptions, changes the title on the fly (Adds the sitename for Joomla 1.5), adds heading tags to content titles and more. JoomSEO is highly customizable and saves the hassle and time of manually adjusting these settings, keeping all words and descriptions relevant for the search engines, improving ranking and accessibility. JoomSEO has many options giving you control and flexibility.
!JoomlaComment
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!JoomlaComment (!JoComment, joscomment or josc) is a beautiful and useful comment extension for the Open-Source CMS Joomla. Fast and easy to install and configure, with AJAX functionality, captcha protection, template based design and multiple language support.
Community Builder
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Community Builder suite (CB) extends the Joomla! user management system. Key features: extra fields in profile, enhanced registration workflows, user lists, connection paths between users, admin defined tabs and user profiles, image upload, front-end workflow management, integration with other components, like PMS, Newsletter, Forum, Galleries.
AllVideos
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AllVideos is a media manager extension built for Joomla. You can use the plugin to easily embed videos hosted on popular services like YouTube, Metacafe, Vimeo (and many more) inside your Joomla! articles (content items). Additionally, it allows you to playback almost any video/audio filetype directly from your server or a remote server, giving you the competitive edge when it comes to rich media content.
Contact Enhanced Component
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Contact Enhanced Component is an all in one contact component for Joomla. The contact component is packed with options and features, including custom fields, captcha, and MooTools effects!
Visit Contact Enhanced Component
Joomla! Themes and Skins
Best of Joomla
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The Best of Joomla is a huge Joomla theme resource. Complete with theme directories, most downloaded, recently submitted and a slew of other options. If you're searching for a Joomla theme, don't forget to swing by the Best of Joomla!
Joomla Junkie
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Joomla Junkie is a theme club for Joomla offering very nice themes. In addition, they do also provide and release free Joomla themes, for those of you on a budget. They even have a section of demo templates that you are able to try out yourself!
ThemeForest Joomla Themes
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ThemeForest is a website geared towards themes for all kinds of different content management systems, including Joomla! While not free, the templates are relatively cheap and you pay a one time fee, not monthly. These can be the perfect choice if you're on a budget with a client but still desire a theme with premium features built right in.
Free Theme - DirtyStyle
DirtyStyle is an excellent and free premium Joomla theme. With a grungy but elegant style, and darker colors that are easy on they eyes, it makes a great starting Joomla theme for almost anyone.
Free Theme - MyPortfolio
MyPortfolio is a completely free Joomla theme aimed towards those looking to house their portfolio. You can use this template at widely joomla based site type, for personal portfolio, blog, company etc. Fast, Simple, Professional, Joomla 1.5 compatible, Validates with XHTML, Validates with CSS, Adobe Fireworks source included, PortfolioDesign component and module style included.
Visit MyPortfolio Joomla Theme
Free Theme - ManiFolio Portfolio
ManiFolio as a dark portfolio based layout for Joomla, and it's also completely free. Complete with all source files and four different designs included, this theme shouldn't be overlooked!
Visit ManiFolio Portfolio Theme
Free Theme - Happiness
Happiness is a colorful and fun theme for the Joomla CMS. Happiness is completely free to download, includes a tableless design and layout, a fixed width, and the default Joomla module position.
Joomla is a very popular CMS, with over 200,000 registered members, and to fully take advantage of it we’d recommend you checking our list with the best Joomla web hosting.
Comments
michael
05:07, January 16, 2010
Nice collection of resources! Thanks for that!
Tess
07:12, January 16, 2010
Hi there,
Thank you for including us (Joomlajunkie.com).
I agree with michael: "Nice collection of resources!". Especially the initial Documentation and Tutorials - always useful information, not only for beginners, but for everybody working with Joomla websites.
Take care,
Tess & the Joomlajunkie team
W
03:06, January 18, 2010
Thanks for this article!