FAQs about Joomla Website Design.

What is an Extension?

An extension is anything that extends the functionality of your Joomla site. It is usually a software package you can install directly to your site using the Administrator Extension Manager tool. This could be anything that is not included in the core Joomla platform. Templates, modules, plugins, and other components fall under this definition.

What is a Module?

Modules are extensions often used to enhance or otherwise add features and functionality to the frontend and/or backend of your site. They are used for page rendering, and are often represented as areas of a page intended to perform a specific function or duty.

A login module may allow users to access their account within your Joomla site while a weather module displays the weather in the reader's area as a value-add to the page itself. Modules can take virtually any number of shapes and sizes, but they are typically placed within a specific position in the site's template.

Modules can range from simple blocks of text to complex site components that display content from multiple sources and/or offer some level of control over the user experience to the visitor. You can assign modules to specific pages, or restrict their ability to display in various circumstances. They are flexible by nature and make up a key part of almost any Joomla site.

Templates typically have module positions assigned in order to make assigning a specific module to a particular area of the page easier on the user. For example, assigning a module to position Header-a will place it in the upper-left area of the page, depending on the layout permitted by the theme. If you want to move the module to the bottom-right area of the page, you can assign it to a position that is located in that area.

The Gantry framework provides some added control over the positioning of modules within a Gantry-supported template. You can get Joomla template development support here.

What is a Template?

A template is an extension, much like a module, which has the greatest impact on how your site looks. It sets the font, color, background, layout, and just about any other major visual aspect of your site's design.

There are frontend and backend templates available. The frontend template affects the portion of your site visitors see, while the backend template changes the Administrator area. Joomla comes with several templates for both the visitor and Administrator areas of your site, though you can also build your own, or download a template from a third-party.

What is a Plugin?

A plugin is a type of Joomla extension which adds functions associated with trigger events. When a trigger event occurs, any active plugins associated with that event fire, allowing you to further extend the functionality of your site. There are many trigger events included with Joomla, though an extension can add custom events of its own.

The majority of the plugins available impact behind-the-scenes activity to Joomla and are virtually invisible to the user. Google Analytics scripting is a popular example of a useful plugin. By installing a plugin to add the Google Analytics code to every page as it loads, you do not have to edit the template source files to do so.

You can find out more about installing and managing plugins here.