Joomla

Joomla ( [ ʤu mlə ː ], proper spelling Joomla!) Is a popular free content management system (CMS ) for creating websites.

Joomla is licensed under the GNU General Public License. It is written in PHP 5 and MySQL database used. Along with WordPress, Typo3, Drupal and Contao it is one of the best known and most widely used open -source content management systems. Historically, Joomla has emerged from the Mambo Open Source project.

• 4.2.1 Selected Properties

Nature and purpose of the collation

Joomla is primarily the creation of websites with varying, ie dynamic content that can be edited by multiple people without in-depth knowledge of web page creation. This is a strict distinction within Joomla between three levels: the functional structure, the actual page content and layout.

The establishment of the functional structure, often referred to by the English term management is complex and requires in-depth knowledge. Therefore, it is often in the hands of a suitably trained individual, which is referred to as the administrator. This needs to install Joomla on a web server, usually an Apache web server, also you will need a MySQL database server. Usually a finished packet is like xampp downloaded and installed on a local computer, a virtual Web server. Can then be downloaded and offline made ​​to run the desired Joomla package. Only the finished decorated website is then uploaded to a web server.

The site content, content in English, can be maintained by an arbitrarily large number of authors on an easy to use editor like TinyMCE from now on. The editor can be invoked by a browser, so that the authors can enter their content from any location with Internet access. Through user management can be here by the administrator for each author and determine any individual content access and write rights. Thereby, it is possible that some authors, for example, only the content, others can influence the underlying functional structure. To determine the identity of the authors, the access is protected by a password. The authors have to - unlike the creation of static web pages - any languages ​​such as HTML and CSS control. Through the use of JavaScript to see the posts as you create almost exactly like later in the visitor's browser ( WYSIWYG ).

From the two English terms, the usual name for such software content management system (CMS ) is derived.

The layout is designed by so-called templates, which provide the website, regardless of the structure and content of a uniform visual appearance. The templates can easily be replaced by the administrator, resulting in the appearance of the web page with the same content will change fundamentally. Since the production of templates is relatively complex, they are made usually by third parties. There are a number of free templates that can be customized in their color to the needs of the user, yet the appearances of these pages in the result can be seen similarly. There are also commercial manufacturers of templates, the more individual products but - in contrast to Joomla - are chargeable.

For small and manageable websites with few pages and largely fixed contents, which are also serviced by a single person, content management systems are unsuitable because of their complexity and the increasing demands on server hardware. For such tasks, a website builder, or a simple CMS such as moziloCMS is more appropriate. A scaled-down and therefore clearer version of Joomla is neither available nor planned nor adjustable within the program.

Advantages of Joomla are:

• User-friendly operation
• Easily expandable by various components, modules and plugins
• Flexible and thus easy modernisierbares Design
• Valid HTML and CSS ( at least in the default templates )

History

After considerable differences with the Australian company Miro, who owned the naming rights to Mambo, adopted on 17 August 2005, the majority of the time involved in the Mambo developers Mambo. In order to still be able to develop the system, the code of Mambo was taken over by the name Joomla 4.5.2.3 into a new project and developed into Joomla 1.0.x (Stable ).

The development team created a page called Open Source Matters, to supply the users, developers, web designers and the community with information. The team leader at the time, Andrew " Master Chief " Eddie, who left the project for a short time and returned 15 August 2007, wrote an open letter to the community, which has also been published in the public forum on mamboserver.com.

On 1 September 2005 under the new name Joomla! a new Mambo version announced. Joomla is the English spelling of the Swahili word jumla, which means as much as, all together 'or' as a whole '.

Joomla 1.0.0 corresponds to Mambo that was only supplemented by some extensions. In the course of 2005, it was agreed to divest itself of the Mambo roots completely and to develop an entirely separate and new CMS.

The development of the new version that is versioned 1.5, lasted more than two years. In the meantime, the version 1.0 has been developed. On 22 January 2008 the first stable version of Joomla 1.5 was officially released after a few RC releases.

Joomla is an open source available. The Joomla developers is this development philosophy is very important, which is why the official slogan " ... because open source matters " will be used. Meanwhile, Joomla is used worldwide for tens of thousands of websites of various kinds. Among other well-known CMS such as WordPress, Drupal, Mambo and Joomla TYPO3 is with almost 11 % market share - by WordPress with approximately 55 % market share - one of the most used CMS world. Joomla has a strong online community that actively supports its members. There is also the German-speaking companies that offer commercial support and development operate professionally.

Joomla has the English Packt Publishing Open Source Content Management System Award in 2006 in the category ' Overall Winner won ' and in the category, Best PHP Open Source Content Management System 2007 '.

Important versions

( a) Dates for PST / PDT

Versions

Version 1.0.x

• On 19 September 2005, version 1.0.0 was released. Features are: Cleanup of errors and vulnerabilities
• Support for MySQL 4.1

Basic operation

The basic version of Joomla 1.0 is first primarily an editing system that allows one or more authors, texts and images using the upload and editing tools to put online. The entered data is initially stored in a database and assembled dynamically when a page view using the PHP scripting language. About the statement < php mosMainBody ();? > A script is invoked while in the template that initiates the output from user entered content to a single, defined site on the web, the main content area.

Moreover, even in the basic version of a series of so-called modules are provided by which the user automatically by the system data, such as overviews of the last selected item, can be generated on the website. These modules will be bound by PHP scripts of the type mosLoadModules. The information collected by the modules data can be output to different predetermined by the position of the script statements in the template sites on the web.

With so-called components, such as those contained in the basic component contacts, input data, however, be requested when calling a corresponding page in the browser, the script mosMainBody and displayed in the main content area. Can on the presentation of these data, however, this only partly due to manipulation of the output controlling application scripts can be influenced.

Version 1.5.x

On 22 January 2008, the first stable release of Joomla 1.5 on the official project page was published. The publication has the version number 1.5.0 and the code name Khepri, after the namesake ancient Egyptian deity who embodies the sunrise.

Version 1.5 provides for the CMS Joomla a development leap forward based of the source code of the 1.0x series still on Mambo, is it the Version 1.5 in principle to a new CMS.

Due to the novel design of version 1.5 is often a so-called framework. The code has been designed fully object-oriented and the components follow the Model-View- Controller design principle. Accordingly, component developers, a new API to develop your own extensions for Joomla. Although the framework has been written in the object -oriented version of PHP 5, Joomla 1.5 is also for version 4 partially backward compatible. However, PHP 5 is recommended for operation since Joomla 1.5 with this version runs significantly faster and more stable.

Selected Properties

• Strict separation of layout / design and functional source code with the Model-View - Controller design principle
• SEO - Joomla can generate human - and machine-readable URLs (for example, for search engines)
• Built-in full-text search
• Built-in caching mechanisms provide better performance
• Numerous templates allow extensive customization of the layout
• Language settings (also multilingual sites ) with the help of location data
• Connection to LDAP server / authentication
• Access to OpenID server / authentication

Version 1.6

Joomla 1.6 version was published on 10 January 2011.

Joomla 1.6 provides support for PHP 4, a final, so that the system requirements on PHP 5.2 and were raised higher. One of the main new features in version 1.6 is a comprehensive system of rights, based on an Access Control List. In addition, an unlimited hierarchical categorization was introduced and the simplified layout of Joomla 1.5 is replaced in areas and categories thereby. The category depth can be expanded and articles classified as structured.

With Joomla 1.6, the version 1.5 adds a number of new features. Since the partially rewritten Framework version 1.6 is not completely based on the Joomla 1.5, an update from version 1.5 to 1.6 is not recommended. Many components are not " prepared" for 1.6. Updates of components, modules and plugins will fail due to altered installation conditions. Joomla pages with added components / modules / plugins should be checked before going on an update to 1.6 if there are updates to the components / modules / plugins on 1.6. An update of the older version 1.0 to the new version 1.6 is not supported due to the many changes since the introduction of Joomla 1.5.

Version 1.7

Version of Joomla! 1.7 was released on 19 July 2011. It contains only minor changes and security patches. An update from Joomla! 1.5.x to Joomla! 1.7 is possible ( Joomla! 1.6 can be omitted).

Version 2.5

Version of Joomla! 2.5 is available since 24 January 2012. On 06 March 2014, the update appeared 2.5.19, it fixes some bugs of the CMS.

Version 3.0

The release of version 3.0 was made on September 27, 2012.

Joomla 3.0 has been focusing mainly on the mobile using the CMS as well as the support of the so-called responsive web design. For example, the WYSIWYG editor has been adjusted so that it can be well served also on the small screen of a smartphone. Furthermore, Joomla leads with version 3.0 a new template called Protostar which adapts flexibly to the amount of available screen.

Extensions

Many users have created extensions (modules and components) for Joomla, which they usually free of charge provide the user community - for example, an online store solution with Virtuemart. In this way, Joomla offers a remarkable range of functions that cover virtually all common applications. In addition to advantages, however, have just these extensions in the past repeatedly caused security problems, so that the user should exercise caution ( see Safety section ). In addition to the free extensions there are also some commercial products for Joomla, but which are royalty legally controversial.

The extensions to different plugins, components, modules and templates: plugins change the code of Joomla, components add additional functionalities, modules, data from the Joomla core! , Or other extensions and templates determine the appearance and page structure! .

Joomla User Groups ( JUGs )

The so-called JUGs are local groups of Joomla users and developers who come together regularly to share information about Joomla, to plan projects (eg workshops ) and of course to know each other and thus the social component of open source to maintain software. JUGs there so far ( July 2008) in the cities of Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Nuremberg, Munich, Regensburg, in Fulda, Frankfurt am Main, in the Sauerland region, in Freiburg, Germany, in the Ruhr, Saxony and Schleswig -Holstein and in Switzerland and Austria.

Name and Logo

The name Joomla ( English lute paraphrase ) is derived from the word " Jumla " from Swahili language and originally comes from the Arabic جملة. It means as much as "the whole" or " as a whole ", thus emphasizing the role of the developer community (Community).

The official logo consists of the logo image and the Joomla logo. The logo image represents the union of the Joomla community. It consists of four mutually rotated J. The Joomla logo is not copyright -free and may be used only under certain conditions. A modifying the logos is not permitted in most cases. The logo may then be used in publications, if this keeps to the prescribed Joomla color design.

Security

Due to the popularity and well-known security problems Joomla installations are frequently the target of attacks, especially in the form of so-called defacements. According to an IBM study from the year 2008 the number of vulnerabilities in web applications is, however, generally risen dramatically, so that in principle all systems are affected by this issue.

The development team of Joomla is a special department, which cares only about the location of faults and has the name "Bug ​​Squad". Safety-related cause problems especially the numerous third-party components that are exploited by hackers. Some of these extensions require very extensive rights on the server, which are also usually not explicitly listed. Most users try to rectify arising through the installation error messages by disabling the security settings. Programming -related safety deficiencies are rare and are also usually eliminated pretty quickly. Users can refer to the respective user community help to keep your system up to date.

Another problem is that many individuals neglect the maintenance of a website and the resulting problems are not aware of.

Development cycle

Joomla has adopted a new development strategy with the introduction of 1.6. The basic idea is the more continuous release of Standard Support Release (SSR ). This should user requirements are adopted faster in the Joomla core and stabilized live for the benefit of future releases. The quick change between major releases are critical of many users, particularly when complex applications are designed for a Joomla website and the creator has to update the core to receive the latest security updates.

Community

Joomla has an official and many unofficial communities. The Official Joomla Forum (January 2011) includes more than 527,000 posts with more than 2.25 million posts of more than 443,000 registered members in 42 languages. Unofficial pages are published in many languages ​​, usually with Joomla extensions that are region - specific. Bi -directional text support for Hebrew and Arabic, for example, are often found in community portals third party. Unofficial web developers also writing extensions and templates for commercial distribution and offer customization services on a freelance basis. Usually, a template is published in a zip file that can be installed using the built-in Joomla installation program.