Joomla Extensions Guide |
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Joomla Components, Modules, Mambots and Plugins...whats the deal? This short guide will help you understand the various Joomla extensions.
Joomla Extensions
By itself, Jooma is great, when you add extensions to the picture, Joomla becomes virtually unlimited. Anyone can create an extension, in fact - some of the greatest contributions to the Joomla extension library have been developed by third party developers. Just think of an extension as an upgrade, or add-on to Joomla. Joomla Components
Joomla Modules
Mambots - AKA Plugins
One important thing to know about Joomla Mambots and Plugins - they can slow your site down if you use a poorly designed one, or use too many. This is relative to many factors, but generally speaking, you should remain conservative with mambot usage, since unless told otherwise, will run on every page that your visitors load. ConclusionI hope this guide has helped you grasp the often misunderstood concepts of Joomla extensions. If not for these wonderful little programs, Joomla would be nowhere near as powerful as it is today - and with new extensions arriving daily, it only gets better. As our community grows, so will Joomla - gotta love open source!            
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If your reading this guide, chances are, your a little confused - thats ok! I remember being a bit overwhelemed at first, but there is a method to the madness. Joomla offers multiple types of add-ons that extend the core Joomla functionality, read further to get a better understanding of what is what.
Basically, Joomla extensions can be considered any additional code that can be added to the core functionality. Joomla 1.x currently supports three types of extensions; components, modules and mambots. Joomla 1.5 has changed the name of Mambot to Plugin (more on that later). 
Joomla components are the most substantial add-ons. Components typically offer functionality to Joomla that could not be done otherwise, such as a fully functional gallery that allows for images to be uploaded by vistors - or a dynamic application which allows you to easily create, display and manage forms. Most components come with some sort of administrative control since they are typically the most complex of the three Joomla extensions, but this is not always the case...it really depends on the components purpose. Sometimes components are viewable from the front-end (the part of your website that visitors see), sometimes not - once again, it really depends on the purpose of the component. Installing a Joomla component on your Joomla installation is almost like installing a program on your Windows or Apple computer; once its installed, it does its specific job when needed.
Joomla modules are simply small programs that display data - typically in the front-end. Modules must be assigned to module positions on your template in order for them to display. These extensions basically display data (though they often accept user input as well, such as a login module). Modules typically work directly with a component to display a particular type of data - such as a gallery module that automatically displays random images from your gallery component - or a news module which displays your latest stories. So in short, components manipulate and store data - Joomla modules display it.
Joomla mambots are somewhat unique programs which are generally used to manipulate data in real time. A little more on that; mambots/plugins generally stay loaded and do things as they happen, such as pre-format a page while its loadng, or automatically display a social bookmarking link on every page of your site. The word itself Mambot means Mambo-Bot, akin to robot for you non-techies, and just as it sounds...it automates tasks. Excellent examples of mambots are programs that track visitors and record statistics, or a mambot which automatically gathers up all the images on a page, and displays them in slideshow format.
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