Extensions
The Joomla! content management system lets you create webpages of various types using extensions. There are 5 basic types of extensions: components, modules, templates, languages, and plugins. Your website includes the extensions you need to create a basic website in English, but thousands of additional extensions of all types are available. The Joomla! Extensions Directory is the largest directory of Joomla extensions.
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All components are also used in the administrator area of your website. In addition to the ones listed here, there are components in the administrator that do not have direct front end displays, but do help shape your site. The most important ones for most users are
- Media Manager
- Extensions Manager
- Menu Manager
- Global Configuration
- Banners
- Redirect
Media Manager
The media manager component lets you upload and insert images into content throughout your site. Optionally, you can enable the flash uploader which will allow you to to upload multiple images. Help
Extensions Manager
The extensions manager lets you install, update, uninstall and manage all of your extensions. The extensions manager has been extensively redesigned, although the core install and uninstall functionality remains the same as in Joomla! 1.5. Help
Menu Manager
The menu manager lets you create the menus you see displayed on your site. It also allows you to assign modules and template styles to specific menu links. Help
Global Configuration
The global configuration is where the site administrator configures things such as whether search engine friendly urls are enabled, the site meta data (descriptive text used by search engines and indexers) and other functions. For many beginning users simply leaving the settings on default is a good way to begin, although when your site is ready for the public you will want to change the meta data to match its content. Help
Banners
The banners component provides a simple way to display a rotating image in a module and, if you wish to have advertising, a way to track the number of times an image is viewed and clicked. Help
Redirect
The redirect component is used to manage broken links that produce Page Not Found (404) errors. If enabled it will allow you to redirect broken links to specific pages. It can also be used to manage migration related URL changes. Help
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This module shows a list of the calendar months containing archived articles. After you have changed the status of an article to archived, this list will be automatically generated. Help
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The authentication plugins operate when users login to your site or administrator. The Joomla! authentication plugin is in operation by default but you can enable Gmail or LDAP or install a plugin for a different system. An example is included that may be used to create a new authentication plugin.
Default on:
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The banner module is used to display the banners that are managed by the banners component in the site administrator. Help.
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The Captcha plugins are used to prevent spam submissions on your forms such as registration, contact and login. You basic installation of Joomla includes one Captcha plugin which leverages the ReCaptcha® service but you may install other plugins connecting to different Captcha systems.
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- ReCaptcha help
Note: ReCaptcha is a the trademark of Google Inc. and is an independent product not associated with or endorsed by the Joomla Project. You will need to register and agree to the Terms of Service at Recaptcha.net to use this plugin. Complete instructions are available if you edit the ReCaptcha plugin in the Plugin Manager.
Subcategories
Components
Components are larger extensions that produce the major content for your site. Each component has one or more "views" that control how content is displayed. In the Joomla administrator there are additional extensions such as Menus, Redirection, and the extension managers.
Modules
Modules are small blocks of content that can be displayed in positions on a web page. The menus on this site are displayed in modules. The core of Joomla! includes 24 separate modules ranging from login to search to random images. Each module has a name that starts mod_ but when it displays it has a title. In the descriptions in this section, the titles are the same as the names.
Content Modules
Content modules display article and other information from the content component.
User Modules
User modules interact with the user system, allowing users to login, show who is logged-in, and showing the most recently registered users.
Display Modules
These modules display information from components other than content and user. These include weblinks, news feeds and the media manager.
Utility Modules
Utility modules provide useful functionality such as search, syndication and statistics.
Navigation Modules
Navigation modules help your visitors move through your site and find what they need.
Menus provide your site with structure and help your visitors navigate your site. Although they are all based on the same menu module, the variety of ways menus are used in the sample data show how flexible this module is.
A menu can range from extremely simple (for example the top menu or the menu for the Australian Parks sample site) to extremely complex (for example the About Joomla! menu with its many levels). They can also be used for other types of presentation such as the site map linked from the "This Site" menu.
Breadcrumbs provide users with information about where they are in a site.
Templates give your site its look and feel. They determine layout, colours, typefaces, graphics and other aspects of design that make your site unique. Your installation of Joomla comes prepackaged with three front end templates and two backend templates. 
Plugins are small task oriented extensions that enhance the Joomla! framework. Some are associated with particular extensions and others, such as editors, are used across all of Joomla. Most beginning users do not need to change any of the plugins that install with Joomla.