Noupe Editorial Team June 29th, 2009

The Ultimate Joomla Toolbox: Themes, Extensions and Resources

Joomla is one of the most popular CMSs out there, and it’s no surprise considering how extensible it is. The great thing about Joomla is the extensions (components, modules and plugins), that can be added to your Joomla website. This allows the average user to add more functionality and dynamic content to their website without being a developer or programmer.

In this post you will find a thorough collection of all kinds of resources that will aid designers and developers working with Joomla-powered websites. This collection is intended to simplify your tasks and save you time when working with Joomla.

This post covers essential resources related to Joomla— Themes, Extensions, Tutorials, Forums, Cheat Sheets and Useful Documents.

Joomla's current version is 1.5, however, some people are still using 1.0. Some of the extensions are only compatible with 1.0, we tried to mix between both version while prioritizing 1.5.

Beautiful Free Joomla Themes

MyPortfolio

Ultimate Joomal Toolbox

Xtreme Sports

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Manuscript

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Ditystyle

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Business

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Fashion and Style

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Decayed

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Sublime

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Siteground

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

ManiFolio

Ultiamte Joomla Toolbox

Happiness

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Red Evo Aphelion

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

JW Getty

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Beautiful Day

Ultiamte Joomla Toolbox

Rainbow

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Anemone Colourful

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Transparent Bliss

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Color Paper

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Xblog

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Contaminated

Ultimate Joomal Toolbox

Must Have Joomla Extensions

JoomlaPack

Backup is the most important thing for any bloggers. JoomlaPack is an open-source backup component for the Joomla. It allows to create a site backup that can be restored on any Joomla!-capable server.

sh404SEF

sh404SEF is really useful and essentianl Joomla extensions. sh404SEF creates Joomla SEF URL, and turn them to a more user-friendly format for your site visitors, as well as for search engines.

JoomSEO

It is necessary to have correct metadata and keyword get discovered by Search Engines. JoomSEO adds heading tags to content titles and descriptions relevant for the search engines, improving ranking and accessibility.

JoomlaComment

This is a useful comment extension which has features such a threaded comments, CAPTCHA Protection and more.

ultiamte Joomla Toolbox

Avatar/Gravatar Plugin

Avatar/ Gravter is widely used in website. This extension add the gravter functionality to your site.

JoomlaStats

No matter what CMS you are using, Knowing your site stats such as hits, pageviews, search engines & keywords are improtant. JoomlaStats is the great tool to be aware of what users/bots are doing with your site .

Community Builder

Community Builder suite (CB) extends the Joomla! user management system such as : extra fields in profile, enhanced registration workflows, user lists, admin defined tabs and user profiles, image upload, front-end workflow management, Forum, Galleries.

Page Peel Banner

This module is developed based on a wonderful Pageear Script, which shows a Page Peel effect on the site

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

AllVideos

If you have media site or want to add videos is AllVideo is a must have extension . You can use the plugin to easily embed videos hosted on popular services like YouTube, Metacafe, Vimeo (and many more) inside your Joomla! articles (content items). or playback almost any video/audio filetype directly from your server or a remote server.

JoomGallery

JoomGallery is a gallery component completely integrated into Joomla, with support for Joomla 1.0 and 1.5 native. Easyto configure with fullscreen animated JavaScript view (Lightbox, Slimbox or Thickbox3).

The Ultimate Social Bookmarking Plugin

Blogger all over the world knows how important it is to have a good social network. This plugin will adds social bookmarking buttons to your content, making it easy for your visitors to submit your articles and build traffic to your website.

Joomla! AddThis

Another useful module that intergrates AddThis on your site on specified position.his module only works with Joomla 1.5.x. You can customize any AddThis Parameter easily within the module it self.

Joomulus

A Flash based tag cloud that works with Joomla 1.5

Ultimate Joomal Toolbox

Jumi

If you are web designer or web developer this is a must have plugin. This plugin allows you can include php, html, javascript scripts into the modules position, articles, category or section descriptions, or into your own custom made component pages.

Slick RSS

This is a really cool plugin . It parse and display RSS Feed News with DHTML Teaser Tooltip

AJAX Shoutbox

This Joomla module adds live chat functionality to your Joomla site. Your visitors can chat with each other right in your website without refreshing their browsers.

Contact Enhanced

Getting feedback or allowing your readers to communicate is vital for any kind of website. Contacts Enhanced is a contact component allows to have contact form with CAPTCHA and custom fields.

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Mini FrontPage

MiniFrontPage module provides you with a lightweight but powerful news headline style of your most recent content items.

AdSense Module

A really simple handy solution for implementing Google AdSense ads in Joomla.

PixSearch Ajax Search module

Another cool module that mimics search like the one on apple.com. It shows result as you type.

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Joomla Tutorials and Resources

A Beginners Guide to organizing content in Joomla

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

How to administer your Joomla system (set meta info, manage emails, stats)?

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

How to Move Your Joomla! 1.5 Site to a New Server

Ultimate Jommal Toolbox

How to Convert an existing Web site to a Joomla! Web site?

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

How to Create Your First Joomla Template

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

How to make your Joomla admin panel rock?

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Writing a Simple Module

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Joomla CSS Drop Down Menu Tutorial

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

How to Speed Up - Optimize Joomla Performance?

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Install Joomla locally

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Joomla Cheat Sheets and Useful Documents

Joomla Template Cheat Sheet

A cheatsheet for Joomal Templte files and useful syntax

Joomla! Official Documentation

The best place to start for any kind Joomla tips, tricks, questions.

Joomla Database Structure

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Joomla Developer Manual

All the helpful information behind Joomla development.

Web Developer SEO Cheat Sheet

Joomla Glossary

A Glossary of all terms related to the Joomla. Very useful.

Joomla 1.5 Basic Template Cheatsheet

Ultimate Joomla Toolbox

Cheatsheets for your Joomla! development

Lots of Joomla related references and chat sheets

Joomla! 1.5 API Reference

The Joomla! Framework API, and A number of third-party libraries used by Joomla! and/or available for use by third-party Joomla! extension developers are listed here.

Joomla! and Common CSS debug tools

Forums and Where to Get Started

Here are some of the sites on the web to find any Joomla related news, tips, tricks and resources:

We tried to bring you the best Joomla resources on web, but it is obvious to miss a great theme, extensions or Joomla related site. Please share it with everyone in the comment.

Author: Kawsar Ali

Kawsar Ali is a web designer, graphic designer, and wannabe photograper based in NY, U.S. He’s also the founder of Desizn Tech, a site for web designer and web developer. If you’d like to connect with him, you can follow him on Twitter or at his Personal Website.

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Noupe Editorial Team

The jungle is alive: Be it a collaboration between two or more authors or an article by an author not contributing regularly. In these cases you find the Noupe Editorial Team as the ones who made it. Guest authors get their own little bio boxes below the article, so watch out for these.

44 comments

  1. Excellent research, thanks! The links for “AllVideos” and “The Ultimate Social Bookmarking Plugin” are swapped, might want to switch ’em back :)

  2. Kawsar, the link for “How to Create Your First Joomla Template” points to “PixSearch Ajax Search module” on extensions.joomla.org.

    Other than that great post. I definitely found some good resources that I hadn’t known about.

      1. Kawsar the link is updated.

        @Max thanks for pointing that out and i am glad you found some useful information over here.

        Thanks Kawsar for getting us some great content here at Noupe :)

  3. You can say I’m a lucky guy today when stumble to this page. They are great stuff for my new Joomla project. Thanks for smash up these things about Joomla.

  4. i am lovin joomla.. thx for the post.. and mambo.. i build sooo many websites with this cms i cant even remember them all :D so if somebody needs help.. ;)

  5. Does Joomla allow properly layed out HTML already? Last time I checked, it allowed the main layout to be nice and standards-compliant, but modules were tables in tables in tables in tables and one could do nothing about it, except re-writing the module.

  6. Great article about Joomla stuff. 1 thing though – the article: “How to Create Your First Joomla Template” (I hope it’s from NetTuts as it is awesome for beginners) isn’t working it is not linked correctly.

  7. Great List.

    I’ve got a few joomla templates over at joomlacreative.com and a few more coming soon if anyone is interested – let me know!

    Ed

  8. This is collection of great List.
    I think, this is the best collection of Joomla templates available in Internet.

    Can we use this for our commercial purpose ?

  9. thanks for including our free templates. This is a great article for new and even experienced users. Nice work bringing it all together.

  10. I am a huge fan of Joomla! and always recommend it to my web design clients when they are looking for a CMS solution. Just another great list to return to when developing sites for my clients, thanks!

  11. I think Joomla is the best template i ever use to website as a Web designer it gain more points in my every designs.

  12. Great post!
    Thanks a lot, this is really a compact set of the best stuff existing for Joomla.
    There is also a great component for Joomla which is the Letterman, which allows us to manage and create newsletters. Really great component.
    Thanks again, regards
    Antonio

  13. Great collection…thanks a lot…I like to keep a single page bookmarked with the best resources for a particular topic instead of bookmarking many different URLS…This is great…

  14. Great article on Joomla! heads up on the links for the AllVideos and The Ultimate Social Bookmarking links – These are mixed up.

  15. I’ve always been a huge fan of Joomla!, awesome to see Template Monster offering such creative templates for it.very cool one.

  16. Congratulations for the initiative.
    This is the list most complete that i saw about joomla.
    Sorry if my english is not good, but i’m not exercised it.

    thank you

  17. hi, i have launched my new website template 2 weeks ago..since then daily traffic of my site dropped down. i have also to mention the company has changed all the CMS of my website… can this problem be for that…
    irtouring.com is my site
    thank’s if someone help me

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