Joomla/Extensions

Extensions in Joomla
One of the undeniable reasons for Joomla’s popularity is the broad spectrum of avail- able extensions. Joomla’s celebrated extensibility means much more than adding new templates. Through modules, components, and plug-ins, almost any type of web func- tionality can be incorporated into your site. Popular additional features include shopping cart technology, RSS aggregation, shoutbox communication, forums, chat rooms, stock tickers, visitor maps, wiki collab- orative authoring, inventory management, and customer relationship management (CRM) functionality. Essentially, Joomla can be expanded to fulfill nearly any web- related need. You can check out the broad range of extensions listed on the main Joomla site at http://extensions.joomla.org. Almost 80 percent of the extensions available are released for free use, so simply downloading a small extension from the Web can dramatically increase the power and flexibility of your site. The best way to learn about extensions is to examine the ones that come preinstalled with the initial Joomla setup. By learning to administer the existing extensions, you will be able to grasp the workings of most new extensions you might want to use.