Extensions
Administrator Components
All components also are used in the administrator area of your website. In addition to the ones listed here, there are components in the administrator that do not have direct front end displays, but do help shape your site. The most important ones for most users are
- Media Manager
- Extensions Manager
- Menu Manager
- Global Configuration
- Banners
- Redirect
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Media Manager
The media manager component lets you upload and insert images into content throughout your site. Optionally, you can enable the flash uploader which will allow you to to upload multiple images. Help
Extensions Manager
The extensions manager lets you install, update, uninstall and manage all of your extensions. The extensions manager has been extensively redesigned for Joomla! 1.6, although the core install and uninstall functionality remains the same as in Joomla 1.5. Help
Menu Manager
The menu manager lets you create the menus you see displayed on your site. It also allows you to assign modules and template styles to specific menu links. Help
Global Configuration
The global configuration is where the site administrator configures things such as whether search engine friendly urls are enabled, the site meta data (descriptive text used by search engines an indexers) and other functions. For many beginning users simply leaving the settings on default is a good way to begin, although when your site is ready for the public you will want to change the meta data to match its content. Help
Banners
The banners component provides a simple way to display a rotating image in a module and, if you wish to have advertising, a way to track the number of times an image is viewed and clicked. Help
Redirect
The redirect component is used to manage broken links that produce Page Not Found (404) errors. If enabled it will allow you to redirect broken links to specific pages. It can also be used to manage migration related URL changes. Help
Archive Module
This module shows a list of the calendar months containing archived articles. After you have changed the status of an article to archived, this list will be automatically generated. Help
Articles Category Module
This module allows you to display the articles in a specific category. Help
Article Categories Module
This module displays a list of categories from one parent category. Help
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Authentication
The authentication plugins operate when users login to your site or administrator. The Joomla! authentication is in operation by default but you can enable Gmail or LDAP or install a plugin for a different system. An example is included that may be used to create a new authentication plugin.
Default on:
- Joomla
Default off:
- Gmail
- LDAP
Subcategories
Components
Components are larger extensions that produce the major content for your site. Each component has one or more "views" that control how content is displayed.In the Joomla! administrator there are additional extensions suce as Menus, Redirection, and the extension managers.
Modules
Modules are small blocks of content that can be displayed in positions on a web page. The menus on this site are displayed in modules. The core of Joomla! includes 17 separate modules ranging from login to search to random images. Each module has a name that starts mod_ but when it displays it has a title. In the descriptions in this section, the titles are the same as the names.
Templates give your site its look and feel. They determine layout, colors, type faces, graphics and other aspects of design that make your site unique. Your installation of Joomla comes prepackaged with four templates. 
Plugins are small task oriented extensions that enhance the Joomla! framework. Some are associated with particular extensions and others, such as editors, are used across all of Joomla!. Most beginning users do not need to change any of the plugins that install with Joomla!.