I was trying to think of something interesting and relevant to blog about today but since all i’ve been doing lately is working away in Joomla sites, that’s about all I’ve got to talk about, heh.
Basically since Joomla is an opensource CMS and very easy for anyone with a hosting plan on a legit hosting server to install (using the 1 click installs they all usually have) anyone could decide to get started with Joomla, use a premade template or have a developer skin the site as they want it, pick and choose from the many, many extensions and additions that can be added for free (though some are commercial and do cost something) and end up with a working site, large and flexible enough to have a shop built in, or a community portal, or many other things.
On the other hand, some extensions are better than others, some are tried and proven and you’ll hear them referenced in tutorials and instructionals all over the web, while others are poorly made, glitchy and can bug up your site so bad you’ll need to do a fresh joomla install .
To get you thinking, here is a list of some of the basic extensions I add to pretty much every site. Of course more complex sites or sites with more unique or difficult features that require more customization and work I would add other extensions to, but these are the most all around reliable, useful and well made ones I’ve personally come across and used.
Akeeba Backup
I put Akeeba backup at the top of this list intentionally as I personally think it’s important enough to install first, or at least almost right away, on any Joomla site. It’s a backup component (or major Joomla extension) that does a good job, is fairly easy to use and is reliable. I know there are other backup extensions out there but this is just one I’m personally comfortable with and have enough first hand experience with to give two thumbs up to.
The trick with this one is to realize that those backup files are in this kinda “weird zip format” and rolling your site back using the backups isn’t immediately obvious, but once you start reading the instructions you realize that it involves uploading a separate little program called “kickstart” to your site and using that to handle the backup files.
More information can be found here.
JSN Epic Template
I love this template. Ever since the company I work for, FDI Creative, has started using this template for all, or at least most, new sites, the sites have become easier to make, easier to edit, less buggy and more flexible.
Basically the way I use this template is i install it and use it as the skeleton of the site. The Joomla CMS is the muscle that makes things move, and the graphics and design I cut up from the design photoshop file is the skin that makes it look just right and holds it all together.
The reason i like this template is that it’s a really good “skeleton.” It’s structure is built in such a way that positions are already created in most location on the page where I would want to place a design element or component. As well it’s already set up to automatically adjust itself to either the presence or absence of modules, right or left columns, etc. by re sizing. Before that had to be done manually in the backend of the code, which is a fun job but time-consuming and as with anything highly detailed, prone to mistakes.
Another reason I like using this template to construct customized Joomla sites is that it has good support, is updated to the latest version of Joomla, has inbuilt, semi-transparent or solid, drop menus, or flat menus or side menus with pull-outs, and getting them to appear that way is clearly spelled out in the documentation.
It’s also well marked up, creats a simple but usable mobile version of most websites (some designs aren’t compatible) automatically and allows you to change the logo without touching code…which is good for the eventual non-developer owner of the site :)
All in all, it’s a great template that I highly recommend
More information can be found here.
Chronoforms
This extension, even though it took me a little while to figure out, is like a little mule that can carry heavy loads, is low to the ground and easy to load up and reliable and sturdy. The default design it creates isn’t all that pretty in my opinion, but then pretty much anything is customization using css/html/php edits and adjustments. I usually use this as my forms software allowing me to create working forms in minutes, and then fix up the design to match the rest of the site layout using css.
More information can be found here.
Phocamaps
I haven’t experimented with other map Joomla extensions so can’t say that this is for sure the best, but I do use it all the time, know it’s reliable and though again it’s a little difficult to figure out, once you do you can make as many google maps as you want to on your site, zoomable, pannable, switchable to different display modes (terrain, road, satelight) and has several options for styling at the click of a button.
More information can be found here.
Auto read more
This is one I ran across more recently. It’s Joomla 1.5 component is free, but 1.6 and 1.7 are commercial (though they don’t cost much). Basically what it does, and why I like it, is take a Joomla article that’s been given a specific category, and the category is referenced in a menu item as a Category Blog (that’s how you make a Joomla blog btw) and automatically adds “readmore” tags after whatever number of characters you specify in the plugin parameters (and you can specify different amounts for the first “leading” article and for all the rest), can pull one or more images out of the body of the post, strip it of all pre-existing formatting, give it a unique css style and bring it to the blog page.
From there you can the thumbnails using that unique class it gave them and in the end, the site owner doesn’t have to do a thing to format his blog properly other than write it.
More information can be found here.
Simple Image Gallery
I’m including this one as I like using it for simple, uncomplicated galleries in Joomla. Its default design is good enough to suit most clean designs with white backgrounds, for anything else some styling is needed but it’s all very doable.
Some things it does well that I appreciate it for are that it uses lightbox to pop up images from the gallery, which looks good, has navigation and instructions included on each thumb telling people how to view the images. It also pulls automatically from specified folders in your site media files, which makes it easy to upload new photos and keep the gallery updated, and all that’s required is the correct parameters to be set in the plugin and a simple string of code to be placed in the body of any article or post.
It’s downside is that it doesn’t, that I’m aware of, allow for individual captions. For that a more customizable plugin would generally be called for.
More information can be found here.
JCE Editor
JCE Editor is basically something I hardly even thing about installing as it’s just so much a part of any site I work with that I actually think Joomla should consider adding some of it’s features to it’s basic install or tinymce editor. What it is is an extension of the wysiwyg editor (or the box you type things in when you’re blogging) that makes it easier to add and edit photos, work with hyperlinks, and much more. It’s also free.
More information can be found here.
J upgrade
This is a new one that I just started using and is particularly relevant to those with older versions of Joomla who may need to migrate to a newer version.
The explanations for the extension were unclear so I actually misunderstood what this does at first, but basically it MIGRATES an entire site…pulling everything you tell it to from your current site, downloading the latest version of Joomla, installing that latest version with a new database in a subdirectory it creates inside your site. When it’s down you actually end up with two sites…your first, older site, and your new site in a separate folder. Usually that will mean your real site is here “www.realsite.com” and this new site “www.realsite.com/newsite”
The reason this is good is because then you or your developer can go to that new site, check it for bugs, fix any errors and get it working just right before moving your old site to an archive folder and moving this new site to your directory root.
One tip is that when you do this with a blank site, you’ll end up with a 404 error on your new home page. The reason is that you need to create a new article, a new menu, assign that new menu as your default menu (your index file, the one you end up on when you first go to your page) by assigning it the star in the toolbar, and then it will start to work…baring other circumstances.
More information can be found here.
Joomshopping and Virtuemart
Joomshopping is a shopping component I’ve been looking into as an alternative to Virtuemart and do find it more easily stylable and flexible than virtuemart. Virtuemart is much larger however and have more free addons and components that others have built over the years, and there’s also a possibility that some of the problems I’ve had with it may be fixed in the recent rebuild…Virtuemart 2.0. So i haven’t quite made up my mind yet on which of these two is better, but I do know that they’re both good, make good catalogs and shopping cart systems, do have a bit of a learning curve but with a little help shouldn’t be too hard to master.
More information can be found here (Joomshopping) and here (VM).
Mod LCA (Blog Archive)
I like this module because I love the way WordPress organizes it’s archives…and this module imitates that method pretty well. Basically it allows you to easily select one or more categories (by category ID) and archive them just like WordPress with those little arrows and collapsing lists.
Highly recommended for good looking blogs.
More information can be found here.
Universal Live Search
Because of it’s easiness to customize (lots of styling options in the module parameters) and simply well presented data in the search fields, I like this search module a lot.
I have’t run across any serious glitches personally or heard of any so this does seem to be a high quality product that’s great for adding extra good looks and functionality to a website.
More information can be found here.
CSVI Virtuemart
This is a very particular and difficult to learn component that has a lot of uses and is very powerful and important. I’ve used it mostly to import/export databases of products to and from virtuemart stores in Joomla.
This component isn’t for the feint of hearted as it will take some time to learn, but one important tip is that it’s a good idea to make a custom import template as what you need to do is specify which fields you want imported in that template, and then only have those fields in the database you want to upload. You might also consider first exporting a database so that you’ll have all the fields spelled out for you.
Something else important is that when you export the csv file you may need to first open it in ms word for example, in order to make sure excel is able to correctly locate the delimiters (which you can specify to be practicably anything, though it’s important that you choose something that isn’t used in your data field.
Important but difficult.
More information can be found here.
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About the Author
P. Renee Wells-Koran, a Houston web developer
Email: info@perlarenee.com
Phone: 832.387.2443
Houston Web Developer – Joomla! Specialist