What is Joomla!

Joomla! is a system of scripts written in PHP and JavaScript. These scripts provide the basic functionality that most websites need. For example there is a sub-system for user management, a sub-system for articles and content, a sub-system for banners etc.

Joomla! runs on web servers like Apache and IIS. It requires a database that in most cases is MySQL.

How does Joomla! work

Joomla! is based on a main script that does a particular job. In the Joomla! world the main script is called a component, and there are components that offer many different functionalities. For example there is a component that shows articles, a component that shows news feeds, a component that manages the search facility. There are thousands of components written by many different programmers that do almost anything you might need.

The main script, or component, appears on a page that is managed by a template. Templates are independent sub-systems and they control the layout and the styling of the page.

Templates are responsible for showing the main content of the component and they usually have space for additional scripts that in the Joomla! world we call them modules. Modules can show additional information for the component, or provide completely independent functionality. For example there is the Login module, the Menu module, a Who is online module, a Weather module etc. The web master can add or remove modules on the entire website or in specific parts of it.

The space that modules appear into, is called a template position. Positions are identified by a simple name like "top", "bottom", "left", "right". Web masters can assign unlimited modules into each position. Every template has a layout that provides positions in its own way. That means that a position that can be found in one template may not be in another template.

In Joomla! web masters can organize the content in an unlimited number of ways. One of the most useful feature of Joomla! is the sub-system that keeps the content organized in a hierarchical way. This sub-system is called a menu. From your experience with desktop applications you know that menus can have sub-menus. You can apply the same to Joomla!. Joomla! allows you to create as many menus as you want, structure them the way that the websites's concept requires and show them through the use of an appropriate module. Menus serve other purposes as well, like help you specify the menu items you want modules to appear.

If you find it hard to understand menus, one way of explaining them is to use the example of the contents of a book. Books can have chapters with text, figures and images. Almost on every book has a table of contents that is a structured index of the contents of the book. Some books also have a table of figures and a table of images. Menus work in a similar way. There can be many menus that keep a structure with the parts of your website.

Content in Joomla! is something that first time users find a little confusing. By saying content we usually refer to the sub-system that controls articles. In Joomla! there is a provision for articles organized in Sections and Categories. But, if you are thinking of content that is something different than articles you are then referring to components.