In order to take advantage of the full range of features that Joomla! can offer, you will at some stage need to install extensions to your Joomla! package. Installing extensions for Joomla! is an easy task, thanks to the design of extensions, and the Extension Manager tool that is included in Joomla!:
Note
Please make sure that you take a backup of your files and database before installing any third-party extensions into your Joomla! site.
The term Extension is a generic term used to describe five main categories of "extendable elements" for your Joomla! site. These are:
Plugins are powerful extensions that add additional functionality to your website. Plugins can work on different levels, for example, the content, the search, or system-wide levels:
An example of a plugin may be to add an easy tag into your Content Article which will embed a movie easily with no extensive HTML code, or to enhance the Joomla! search system to also search an included extension.
You can manage your plugins from the Extension Manager|Plugin Manager menu link.
A Component can add completely new features to your Joomla! website and they can often be classed as mini-applications in themselves:
Components add great features such as "shopping carts" and "directory listings" to your site, and once installed they can be located under the Components menu. Components usually have various elements to them and contain additional sub-menu links to configuration and management screens.
Modules are extensions that help to deliver information on a page to the end user:
They can display information from simple HTML output to complex information delivered by the system, and they show this on your site pages. Modules are often associated with components as they provide information to the web page. An example of a module could be a simple weather report, a poll question, or a listing of events that is generated by an Events component.
Modules are managed in the Extensions|Module Manager area.
A Joomla! Template influences the entire design and structure of your web pages:
You can easily create a completely different style for your database-driven website by using a Joomla! Template. Templates contain module positions which help to organize and provide structure to your published modules.
Templates often contain numerous parameters for adjustments, and these are available as template options within the Template Manager in the Joomla! Administration.
