Joomla! CMS Extensions

Out of the box, Joomla! CMS does a great job of managing the content needed to make your Web site sing. But, for many people the true power of Joomla! CMS is in the application framework that makes it possible for developers all around the world to create powerful add-ons that are called Extensions. An Extension is used to add capabilities to Joomla! CMS that does not exist in the base core code. Here are just some examples of the hundreds of available Extensions:

• Dynamic form builders
• Business or organisational directories
• Document management
• Image and multimedia galleries
• E-commerce and shopping cart engines
• Forums and chat software
• Calendars
• E-mail newsletters
• Data collection and reporting tools
• Banner advertising systems
• Paid subscription services
• and many, many, more

You can find more examples over at our ever growing Joomla! Extensions Directory.

Types of Extensions

There are five types of extensions:

• Components
• Modules
• Templates
• Plugins
• Languages

You can read more about the specifics of these using the links in the Article Index - a Table of Contents (yet another useful feature of Joomla! CMS) - at the top right or by clicking on the Next link below.