Developing extensions for Joomla! requires more than writing code. You must be knowledgeable of the design and processes involved and have an understanding of the overall directory structure.
The following diagrams describe the different folders that are present in a Joomla! installation and their purposes. We will explore some of the folders and their content in greater detail in subsequent chapters.
Note that the root folder contains an administrator folder, which contains most of the files and folders required for backend operations. The remaining folders found under the root folder are generally intended for frontend use. There are exceptions in both cases; the backend application make use of plugins that are only found in the frontend plugin folder, and some frontend code makes use of code located in the backend folders.
We will discuss the content of both frontend and backend folders in greater detail in subsequent chapters. It will be worthwhile to explore the Joomla...