There is no doubt that Joomla! is a very powerful CMS. It has an object-oriented, modular architecture with lots of extensibility features. Joomla! is feature-rich and useful for almost all types of websites. You can build almost any kind of website using Joomla!. It has a strong security, authentication and authorization framework, content management framework, and templating system. The look and feel of a Joomla! website can largely be customized through its templates. There are thousands of templates available for Joomla!, many of which are very visually pleasing.
In addition to templates, there are also thousands of Joomla! components, modules, and plugins. Components, modules, and plugins are ways to extend Joomla!'s functionality. A component for Joomla! can be compared to an application for Joomla!. For example, if you want to add a photo gallery, there are several components that provide this functionality. You may choose any of the Joomla! components and extend the functionality of your Joomla! website. If you want to build an e-commerce site, then you can add an e-commerce component, such as the VirtueMart, and add that functionality to your Joomla!-based website. Similarly, modules are extensions to display the data on Joomla!-based websites. Plugins are also extensions for performing specials tasks, such as pre- and post-filtering of contents, for Joomla!-based websites.
With all these features of Joomla!, ease of administration and options for customization, sometimes you may think of integrating other technologies such as Flash into it. This is because Flash provides great features for animation, which are otherwise not possible using only Joomla!, HTML, or JavaScript. Flash is unique in creating animated objects, and this adds an extra flavor to your Joomla!-based website. For example, suppose you have to create an attractive site for kids. The site aims to provide interactive games, videos, and animations for the kids. It is an edutainment site and should be attractive enough to hold its audience. In addition to stunning graphics, design, and layout, Flash can definitely add value to the website. Some of the features such as animations, small videos, and interactive games, can only be possible through Flash.
Using Flash with Joomla! can benefit you in the following ways:
You can add streaming videos, animations, and more of such interactive objects inside Joomla! contents or articles. Adding graphical and multimedia objects like these provides a better user experience.
Besides using the default menu system of Joomla! and some other extensions for making the Joomla! menus more attractive, you can use Flash menus to give the users a better visual experience.
Joomla! has many components for showing photo galleries. It is widely accepted that Flash-based photo galleries are visually richer than normal galleries built upon HTML, PHP, CSS, and JavaScript. You can add Flash photo galleries to a Joomla! website and make your photo galleries visually rich.
Besides menus, photo galleries, and videos, you can also use Flash-based charts, graphs, and maps with your Joomla! articles.
For improving the overall design and the look and feel of your site, you can use Flash headers, banners, templates, and tickers in Joomla!.
Later in this book, we will learn to add these functionalities and make our site look stunning, visually rich, and interactive.