The Joomla!® Content Management System (CMS) lets you create web-pages of various types using extensions.
There are 8 basic types of extensions
The default installation of Joomla includes the extensions you need to create a basic website in English, but thousands of additional extensions of all types are available.
Each of the extensions has a specific function.
If you take a look at the UsingJoomla.com menu near the top of most pages you will see a menu item for each of the following:
Components- Modules
- Plugins
Each of these menu items explains a bit about each of the default Joomla components, modules and plugins.
Components
Components tend to be the most complex of the Joomla extensions and have two "parts":
- A site (front-end) part, and
- an Administrator part
An extension can comprise of any one or more of the following: component, plugin(s), and/or module(s).
A component may include its own plugins and/or its own modules.
Or an extension can simply be only a plugin, or only a module.
To Manage components and extensions - commonly, to: Install, Update, Uninstall - you need to visit the 'Extensions' tab in your adminstrator area menu and then select the 'Manage' tab. Your components, once installed, are accessible through your Joomla! administrator area 'Components' menu tab where you will set-up those components.
In the administrator menu "Extensions" tab your extensions can be Managed (Such as: Installed, Uninstalled, Enabled, Disabled)
The grey right-pointing triangle 
indicates that a sub-menu is available.
In the administrator menu "Extensions" tab your extensions can be Managed (Such as: Installed, Uninstalled, Enabled, Disabled)
The grey right-pointing triangle indicates that a sub-menu is available.
In the administrator menu "Extensions" tab your extensions can be Managed (Such as: Installed, Uninstalled, Enabled, Disabled)
The grey right-pointing triangle indicates that a sub-menu is available.
Your components, once installed, are accessible through your Joomla! administrator area 'Components' menu tab in order to configure them.
In the Joomla version 3.10.x administrator menu "Components" tab your installed Components can be accessed for configuring.
The grey right-pointing triangle indicates that a sub-menu is available.
The above image shows the default Joomla version 3.10.x components - these are already installed when you first setup Joomla.
When you install additional Components they appear in the 'Components' tab list.
Read more of our articles about Components
Modules
Modules are small blocks of content that can be displayed in positions of a web-page.
For example, the menu and site logo of UsingJoomla.com are modules that occupy module positions.
The core of Joomla includes 24 separate modules ranging from Login to Search, to random images.
If a module is not needed on any page it can simply be unpublished. Alternatively, if a module is to appear on one or more specific page - the Module Manager in the administrator area can be used to assign the module to the required page(s).
Module positions are usually determined by your template and the naming of those positions are not necessarily "universal" - what one template calls "sidebar-a" another might call "left".
Multiple modules can usually be assigned to a module position, and the order of multiple modules can be determined by you - your website designer/administrator.
Modules administration is accessed via your Joomla! version 3.10.x administrator area menu selecting the 'Extensions' tab.
Modules administration access is via the "Extensions" tab of your Joomla 3.10.x administrator menu tab.
The grey right-pointing triangle indicates that a sub-menu is available for that corresponding item.
Modules administration access is via the "Extensions" tab of your Joomla 3.10.x administrator menu tab and then selecting the 'Modules' tab.
The grey right-pointing triangle indicates that a sub-menu is available for that corresponding item.
Read more of our articles about Modules
Plugins
Plugins are small task orientated extensions that enhance the Joomla framework.
Most plugins are associated with particular, specific extensions - perhaps best seen as "event handlers" - when an event is triggered the associated plugins will then handle that event such as filtering words, installing or uninstalling a plugin/module/extension/component/package/template.
Modules administration is accessed via your Joomla! version 3.10.x administrator area menu selecting the 'Extensions' tab.
Plugin administration access is via the "Extensions" tab of your Joomla 3.10.x administrator menu tab and then selecting the 'Plugins' tab.
The grey right-pointing triangle indicates that a sub-menu is available for that corresponding item.
Plugin administration access is via the "Extensions" tab of your Joomla 3.10.x administrator menu tab and then selecting the 'Plugins' tab.
The grey right-pointing triangle indicates that a sub-menu is available for that corresponding item.
Read more of our articles about Plugins
Package
Confused yet ?
Do not despair - as you become more familiar with Joomla you will soon be showing and teaching others how to use this great Content Management System - or simply using it for yourself with much more confidence.
A package is an installable extension which comprises at least two of: component, plugin, module.
Templates
A template is a type of Joomla extension that determines the look and feel of your web site.
There are two types of template:
- Front-end templates
- Back-end templates
Front-end templates determine the look and feel of your website as shown to and seen by your website visitors.
Back-end templates on the other hand determine the look and feel of the administrator area of your website.
The default install of Joomla comes with one or two templates for each of the front-end and back-end giving you something to start your journey with.
In your Joomla! administrator area, Templates are accessed via your Administrator area menu "Extensions" tab.
Templates access is via the "Extensions" tab of your Joomla 3.10.x administrator menu tab.
The grey right-pointing triangle indicates that a sub-menu is available.
Templates are available from the "Extensions" tab of your Joomla! 3.10.x administrator menu.
Selecting the grey right-pointing triangle next to "Templates" reveals the options to choose: Styles, or Templates.
The options you are presented with may depend on the template you have chosen to use and its provider.
Templates are available from the "Extensions" tab of your Joomla! 3.10.x administrator menu.
Selecting the grey right-pointing triangle next to "Templates" reveals the options to choose: Styles, or Templates.
The options you are presented with may depend on the template you have chosen to use and its provider.
Read another article about Templates
Languages
Joomla installs in English (GB) (en-GB) by default but translations of the interface, sample data, and help screens are available in a number of languages.
If there is no language pack available for your language, instructions are available for creating your own translation, which you can contribute to the community by starting a translation team to create an accredited translation.
Translations of the interfaces are installed using the extensions manager in the administrator interface.
If you have two or more languages installed you may enable the language switcher plugin and module (both the plugin and the module must be used together). By default the plugin and module are disabled.
If you create multilingual content and mark your content, menu items or modules as being in specific languages and follow the specific instructions your visitors will be able to select a specific content language using the module.
Modules administration is accessed via your Joomla! version 3.10.x administrator area menu selecting the 'Extensions' tab.
Languages administration access is via the "Extensions" tab of your Joomla 3.10.x administrator menu tab.
The grey right-pointing triangle indicates that a sub-menu is available for that corresponding item.
Languages administration is accessed via your Joomla! 3.10.x administrator area menu "Extensions" tab.
The grey right-pointing triangle indicates that a sub-menu is available, giving you three sub-menu items to choose from: Installed, Content languages, Overrides.
Languages administration is accessed via your Joomla! 3.10.x administrator area menu "Extensions" tab.
The grey right-pointing triangle indicates that a sub-menu is available, giving you three sub-menu items to choose from: Installed, Content languages, Overrides.
Joomla Installable Language packs are available in the following Languages. Do note than a number of these translations may be at various stages of completeness - they are often produced by volunteers who contribute the translation pack to the Joomla community.
Below are the currently available Language Packs (also known as 'translations') for
At time of writing this, Joomla 4 is relatively new - therefore not all of the Translation Languages that are available for Joomla 3 are available (yet) for Joomla 4.
Joomla 3 Language Packs - Languages Available
- Afrikaans (af-ZA)
- Albanian (sq-AL)
- Arabic (Unitag) (ar-AA)
- Armenian (hy-AM)
- Basque (Spain / España) (eu-ES)
- Belarusian (be-BY)
- Bengali (Bangladesh) (bn-BD)
- Bosnian (bs-BA)
- Bulgarian (bg-BG)
- Catalan (Spain / España) (ca-ES)
- Chinese (Simplified) (zh-CN)
- Chinese (Traditional) (zh-TW)
- Croatian (hr-HR)
- Czech (cs-CZ)
- Danish (da-DK)
- Dari (Persian - Afghanistan) (prs-AF)
- Dutch (nl-NL)
- Dzongkha (dz-BT)
- English (Australia) (en-AU)
- English (Canada) (en-CA)
- English (New Zealand) (en-NZ)
- English (United States of America) (en-US)
- Esperanto (eo-XX)
- Estonian (et-EE)
- Farsi (Persian - Iran) (fa-IR)
- Finnish (fi-FI)
- Flemish (Belgium) (nl-BE)
- French (France) (fr-FR)
- French (Canada) (fr-CA)
- Galician (Spain / España) (gl-ES)
- Georgian (ka-GE)
- German (Germany / Deutschland) (de-DE)
- German (Austria) (de-AT)
- German (Liechtenstein) (de-LI)
- German (Luxembourg) (de-LU)
- German (Switzerland / Confoederatio Helvetica) (de-CH)
- Greek (el-GR)
- Hebrew (he-IL)
- Hindi (India) (hi-IN)
- Hungarian (hu-HU)
- Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) (id-ID)
- Irish (ga-IE)
- Italian (it-IT)
- Japanese (ja-JP)
- Kazakh (kk-KZ)
- Kmer (km-KH)
- Korean (ko-KR)
- Latvian (lv-LV)
- Lithuanian (lt-LT)
- Macedonian (mk-MK)
- Malay (ms-MY)
- Motenegrin (srp-ME)
- Norwegian (Bokmål) (nb-NO)
- Norwegian (Nynorsk) (nn-NO)
- Persian (Farsi) (fa-IR)
- Persian (Dari - Afghanistan) (prs-AF)
- Polish (pl-PL)
- Portuguese (Brazil) (pt-BR)
- Portuguese (Portugal) (pt-PT)
- Romanian (ro-RO)
- Russian (ru-RU)
- Serbian (Cyrillic) (sr-RS)
- Serbian (Latin) (sr-YU)
- Sinhala (si-LK)
- Slovak (sk-SK)
- Slovenian (sl-SL)
- Spanish (Spain / España) (es-ES)
- Spanish (Colombia) (es-CO)
- Swahili (sw-KE)
- Swedish (sv-SE)
- Syriac (East) (sy-IQ)
- Tamil (India) (ta-IN)
- Thai (th-TH)
- Turkish (tr-TR)
- Turkmen (tk-TM)
- Ukrainian (uk-UA)
- Uyghur (ug-CN)
- Vietnamese (vi-VN)
- Welsh (cy-GB)
 Notes |
| Language Translations / Packs are available of the interfaces, sample data and help screens. Your created content on Multi-lingual websites may require additional set-up. |
| Notes |
| Time for change Change can be hard Joomla 3 is now 'End of Life' Support for Joomal 3.x ended on 23rd August 2023 If you have Joomla 3.x websites you should have started upgrading to Joomla 4 New website projects should use Joomla 4 |
| Article Navigation Assistant |
You can download your required Joomla 3 Language Pack(s) hereGo to top of Joomla 3 Language Packs List (this column) Go to top of Joomla 4 Language Packs ListGo to list of extensions Go to top of page |
Joomla 4.x Language Packs - Languages Available
- Africaans af-ZA
- Arabic (Unitag) (ar-AA)
- Basque (Spain / España) (eu-ES)
- Bulgarian (bg-BG)
- Catalan (Spain / España) (ca-ES)
- Chinese (Simplified)(zh-CN)
- Chinese (Traditional) (zh-TW)
- Croatian (hr-HR)
- Czech (cs-CZ)
- Danish (da-DK)
- Dutch (nl-NL)
- English (Australia) (en-AU)
- English (Canada) (en-CA)
- English (New Zealand) (en-NZ)
- English (United States of America) (en-US)
- Esperanto (eo-XX)
- Estonian (et-EE)
- Finnish (fi-FI)
- Flemmish (Belgium) (nl-BE)
- French (France) (fr-FR)
- Georgian (ka-GE)
- German (Austria) (de-AT)
- German (Germany / Deutschland) (de-DE)
- German (Liechtenstein) (de-LI)
- German (Luxembourg) (de-LU)
- German (Switzerland / Confoederatio Helvetica) (de-CH)
- Greek el-GR
- Hebrew (he-IL)
- Hungarian (hu-HU)
- Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) (id-ID)
- Irish (ga-IE)
- Italian (it-IT)
- Japanese (ja-JP)
- Kazakh (kk-KZ)
- Kmer (km-KH)
- Latvian (lv-LV)
- Lithuanian (lt-LT)
- Macedonian (mk-MK)
- Norwegian (Bokmål) (nb-NO)
- Pashto (Afghanistan) (ps-AF)
- Persian (Farsi - Iran) (fa-IR)
- Polish (pl-PL)
- Portugese (Brazil) (pt-BR)
- Portuguese (Portugal) (pt-PT)
- Romanian (ro-RO)
- Russian (ru-RU)
- Serbian (Cryllic) (sr-RS)
- Serbian (Latin) (sr-YU)
- Slovak (sk-SK)
- Slovenian (sl-SL)
- Spanish (Spain / España) (es-ES)
- Swahili (sw-KE)
- Swedish (sv-SE)
- Tamil (India) (ta-IN)
- Thai (th-TH)
- Turkish (tr-TR)
- Ukrainian (uk-UA)
- Vietnamese (vi-VN)
- Welsh (Wales / Cymru) (cy-GB)
| Notes |
|
| Language Translations / Packs are available of the interfaces, sample data and help screens. Your created content on Multi-lingual websites may require additional set-up. |
|
| Article Navigation Assistant | |
| You can download your required Joomla 4 Language Pack(s) hereGo to top of Joomla 4 Language Packs List (this column)Go to top of Joomla 3 Language Packs ListGo to list of extensionsGo to top of page |
|
Libraries
Libraries tend to be PHP libraries that bring extra functionality for a module, component or plugin to work correctly.
Files
A file is a single page file that is installed - usually as part of a component, module, plugin or package installation anywhere within Joomla but is usually strategically placed within the corresponding component, module or plugin.
