WordPress has the volume and Drupal gets the money, but what about Joomla?
The content management system in no way receives the attention that its fellow open source platforms do but that might just be unwarranted - particularly when you check out some of the available extensions. Here are a few of the top Joomla extensions (from various categories) for serious Web professionals.
We've been taking a closer look at Joomla and are getting reacquainted with the powerful platform. If there is an extension/module you think WM editors should know about please comment below and share it with us.
sh404SEF: Yes, that's really the name. This Joomla extension provides URL management and a whole lot more making it one of the most popular available.
Features include the ability to view a Google Analytics dashboard in the backend, the ability to remove duplicate URLs, the ability to develop SEO-friendly URLs, the ability to customize page titles and description and even emphasize article titles with Heading tags. sh404SEF also provides some security benefits, helping protect sites from cross-site scripting attacks, mailicious page requests, flooding attacks and robot spamming.
Page Peel Banner: No longer for the elite designers, the Page Peel extension adds an additional banner format to your pages in the upper right hand corner. The extension supports impression and click statistics via the Core Joomla Banner Component and can display an alternative image and link if it is not published. Other features included support for both JPG and SWF files and the ability to browser target.
Xmap: Sitemaps are an essential component of securing valuable spots on the search results pages. the Xmap site map generate is a component for Joomla that allows you to create a map of a Joomla sute using the structure of your menyus. Features include the ability to create more than one sitemaps, a cahce system to allow for fast sitemap generation, an option to compress the XML sitemap, and thea bility to specify and change the priority of items listed in the sitemap.
Kunena: While weblogs are effective ways to garner some search result page real estate, don't rule out forums as a perfectly legitimate way to dominate the same. The Kunena extension is one of the most popular for Joomla and its new release boasts some great improvements. Kunena now has a centralized template system with installable templates, and an integrated polling feature. Kunena also has several other extensions that work in tandem with the forum extension.
Breezing Forms: You should not have a website without a way for users to get in touch, right? The Breezing Forms extension is one of the best for Joomla and the features might just blow you away - MailChimp newsletter integration, AJAX file uploads with progress bars, pay-to-download ability (with built-in PayPal support), CAPTCHA, the ability to turn fields on/off and three form editors (QuickMode, EasyMode and ClassicMode).
Disqus: You can see Disqus on pretty much every web platform in existence, but that's because it has been well received by users. The extension features threaded comments and comment ratings, moderation and administration tools, automatic connection with the larger discussion communition leading to increased exposure and readership of your Joomla installation.