Think Smart Solutions

Written by Robert Bono

Joomla is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) written, like many of the most popular content management systems, in the PHP scripting language and using the MySQL database access language to store and retrieve information from a database. The Joomla CMS is released under the popular GNU General Public License, making it an attractive solution to bloggers, web developers and non-profit organizations.

Simply put, Joomla is a server-side software package that allows users to conveniently setup dynamic websites and blogs without needing to do any programming or know any markup languages. The Joomla software is installed on a web server using a convenient installation process, and the site’s operator configures, administrates and runs the website using a fully-featured administrative control panel.

Like many other CMS, Joomla has a long list of features including RSS syndication, blogging, language localization, caching, searchable content, convenient banner management, customizable templates and many others.

History of Joomla

Joomla’s history is somewhat sordid in comparison to that of other content management systems; the Joomla CMS sprang into existence in 2005 as a branch of the Mambo CMS after an internal disagreement about the structure, philosophy and general direction in which Miro International (the non-profit foundation setup to fund and legally shelter the Mambo software) was planning to take the Mambo project. The disagreement became public when the development team, led by project leader Andrew Eddie (known as “MasterChief” in the development community) created OpenSourceMatters, a website to disseminate information to the open-source web development community.

The site quickly gained in popularity after it was featured on popular science and technology news aggregation site Slashdot; Miro International was soon forced to make a public response to the widespread criticism of the Mambo project, which CEO Peter Lamont did in an article entitled “The Mambo Open Source Controversy – 20 Questions With Miro.” Although Mambo continues to exist as a content management system, Joomla has dramatically outpaced it both in terms of active developers and user popularity.

Technically, Joomla’s name is “Joomla!” with an exclamation point, although this is often omitted when the CMS is mentioned.

Joomla’s development is somewhat slower than that of fellow content management systems Wordpress and Drupal; the most recent version of Joomla is 1.5.14; version 1.5 was released in January of 2008. Drupal 1.6 is currently in active development; an alpha release of that version was released for testing in June of 2009.

Current Usage of Joomla

Exact Joomla usage is difficult to measure; there is no built-in system to report back to the Joomla development team about how many websites are currently running the software. The Joomla software package has been downloaded from the JoomlaCode repository over ten million times; however, it’s not safe to assume that each of these downloads represents a unique, active website running the software. Of the top 1 million websites (as rated by Alexa), it’s estimated that approximately 25,000 are running the Joomla software – that’s roughly 2.5%, although some estimates run as high as 3%.

Among the most popular websites running Joomla are RocketTheme, a website featuring professionally designed Joomla and PhpBB3 themes, and Kontera, a popular online advertising network specializing in contextual link advertising. Some of the most prominent organizations to utilize Joomla for their websites include Quizilla (now owned and operated by MTV), IHOP (the International House of Pancakes restaurant chain), Harvard University, Citibank, and several others.

Benefits of Joomla

Joomla’s greatest benefits are its “extensions” and “components” systems, which allow for the extension and integration of additional features beyond Joomla’s core functionality (“extensions” were previously known as “Mambots” before the Joomla/Mambo split). Extensions and components are similar to “Plugins” in Wordpress the Wordpress CMS and “Modules” in the Drupal CMS.

Currently, over 4000 extensions are listed in Joomla’s Extensions Directory, as well as a significant number of components. Both extensions and components are, for the most part, written, submitted and maintained by third-party developers.

Drawbacks of Joomla

Currently one major feature that Joomla doesn’t feature is granular user permissions and access control, which allows administrators to customize the actions and features available to particular Joomla users and user groups.

Joomla: Looking Toward the Future

Joomla is currently one of the most popular and fully-featured open-source content management systems, and it’s supported by a collection of vibrant, active and self-motivated user communities. Although its development is somewhat slower (and began somewhat later) than other CMS like Wordpress and Drupal, it is nonetheless a powerful platform on which to build both large and small websites.

The 1.6 version of the Joomla software is expected to shore up some of its shortcomings, as well as add additional functionalities to bring it up to speed with other popular content management systems. Having already left its predecessor, Mambo, in the dust, it’s a safe bet that Joomla will remain at the head of the class well into the future.