Extensions and Joomla: A List of Ten Useful Joomla Extensions

Extensions and Joomla: A List of Ten Useful Joomla Extensions
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Joomla is one of the most popular open-source content-management systems. It is widely used in numerous small-to-large websites, and due to its ease of use and extensibility it is only getting more popular every day. By default, Joomla has enough features to satisfy the requirements of any standard website. However, if you need some functionality that Joomla doesn’t provide by default, chances are that there is an extension you can use to add that feature to Joomla.

Joomla has a huge base of extensions and it’s not easy to pick just ten among them. However, in this list of top ten extensions and Joomla solutions, I have tried to pick selections across different categories that solve some common problems. So, here we go.

Joomunity

Joomunity is an extension for Joomla that lets you build dynamic community sites like FaceBook on Joomla. It features necessary functionalities for a community site like user-friendly interface, user-relationship management, photo management, private messaging support, etc.

JCE

JCE is an advanced and highly configurable WYSIWYG editor for Joomla. It is based on another popular editor, TinyMCE, and is very easy to use. JCE includes plug-in support and administration interface for editor configuration.

VirtueMart

Need a shopping cart solution for your Joomla-based website? VirtueMart is an excellent shopping cart solution for Joomla. VirtueMart can be run either in store or catalog mode. Its feature-rich administration tool is powerful enough to handle unlimited number of categories, orders, customers, etc.

Sobi2

Sobi2 is a Content Construction Kit for Joomla that is designed as a business directory and can be used for every kind of directory. Necessary fields can be created with the Fields Manager; you can chose from a number of field types. Depending on the field type, a number of additional settings are also available.

Phoca Gallery

An image gallery solution for Joomla! Phoca Gallery allows users to display image/slideshows or YouTube videos in different ways. It actually includes a component, module, and plug-in and, depending on your requirement, you have to use the one that is required. For example, to display images using the component-only is required; however, to display image slideshow in articles, you need to use the Phoca Gallery slideshow plug-in.

sh404SEF

sh404SEF is a Joomla extension that rewrites Joomla URL to a user-friendly format. But that is not the only thing it does. This is a very important extension for SEO and security if you are using Joomla. It removes duplicate URLs, customizes page titles and description, emphasizes all article titles with heading tags, and follows many other SEO recommendations. sh404SEF also protects your Joomla site from cross-site scripting attacks, malicious page requests, flooding attacks, etc. It also improves site navigation and user experience by turning error pages into articles containing relevant contents, converting table-based output to table less HTML automatically, etc.

Jumi

Jumi is a nice solution for custom codes in contents for your Joomla site. This extension provides you with the ability to include html, php, and javascript codes into articles and category or section descriptions, or any custom-made component pages.

AllVideos

AllVideos is a media management solution extension for Joomla that lets you easily embed videos in your Joomla articles from video hosting sites like YouTube, Vimeo etc. It also allows you to playback any video or audio file type from any source (your server or a remote server).

Agora

Agora is a Joomla forum component that can be easily installed and configured just by setting up a set of categories and forums. The basic configuration can be extended with advanced settings for sub forums, user permissions, etc.

joomlaXplorer

joomlaXplorer is a file and FTP manager bundled together. joomlaXplorer lets you browse, copy, edit, and rename files or directories directly on your server. You can also create new files and directories and change file permissions with it.

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