Your Administrator Components are also used in the administrator area of your website.
In addition to the ones listed here, there are Components in the Administrator area that do not have direct frontend displays, but do help shape your website.
Clarification
Sometimes it can be a little confusing (ambiguous ?) as to what the 'Updates' or 'Update' options refer to.
Maybe an analogy can be made here to help clarify.
The Joomla CMS could be seen as equivalent to Windows™ ® operating system.
Joomla CMS: Components, Plugins, Extensions, Modules could be seen as equivalent to: Word™ ® Excel™ ® Powerpoint™ ® as examples.
In your administrator area, in the administrator menu . . .
Components ⇒ Joomla! Update - refers to your Joomla! CMS (Windows™ ® in our analogy above);
Extensions ⇒ Manage ⇒ Update - refers to your Joomla Components, Plugins, Extensions, Modules (Word™ ® Excel™ ® Powerpoint™ ® in our analogy above).
The most important Components for most users are:
Media Manager- Extensions Manager
- Menu Manager
- Global Configuration
- Banners
- Redirect
- Joomla Updater
- Messaging Component
Media Manager
The Media Manager Component lets you upload and insert images into content (such as articles for example) throughout your website.
Optionally, you can enable the flash up-loader which will allow you to to upload multiple images.
Your uploaded images are 'stored' in the media or images folder and then can be inserted into an Article or Module.
Your Images / Media folder can be divided into folders - pretty much as you would create folders on your PC or laptop.
In Joomla, Media is managed via the Administrator area.
Extensions Manager
Your Extensions Manager Component lets you install, update, uninstall and manage all of your Extensions.
The Extensions Manager has been extensively redesigned, although the core install and uninstall functionality remains the same as way back in Joomla version 1.5.
In Joomla, Extensions are managed via the Administrator area.
Menu Manager
Your Menu Manager Component lets you create the menus you see displayed on your website.
This also allows you to assign template styles to specific menu links.
In Joomla, Menus are administered via the Administrator area.
Global Configuration
Your Global Configuration is where the website administrator configures things such as whether search engine friendly (SEF) urls are enabled, the site meta data (descriptive text used by search engines and indexers) and many other functions including which WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor is used.
Some Global Configuration options can be over-ridden, within specific articles for example.
For many beginning users simply leaving the settings on default is a good way to begin, although when your website is ready for the public you will most likely want to change the meta data to match your website content.
Global Configuration has 6 sections, each section accessed by its own tab:
- Site
- System
- Server
- Logging
- Text Filters
- Permissions
Banners
Your 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.
Your Banners Component can probably be seen as a advertising banner management system.
Redirects
Your Redirect Component is used, among other things, to manage broken links that produce Page Not Found (404) errors.
If enabled this will allow you to redirect broken links to specific pages.
Redirect can also be used to manage migration related URL changes.
Many things can cause "Page Not Found" messages - as a website Administrator you may decide to 'move' one or more of your articles, for example from one Menu item to another Menu item - you can use your Redirect Component to redirect the 'old' Menu location of an Article to its new Menu location.
Your Redirect Component can also record occurrences of Page Not Found - so visit this part of your website Administrator area regularly - it can also let you know what you may have forgotten to update in your list of re-directions.
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 Redirect OptionsRedirects - LinksRedirects - New or Edit |
| Navigation Assistant |
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Joomla Updater
From time-to-time your Joomla version will receive an updated version.
Your Joomla Update Component can quickly and easily update your Joomal version with the latest Joomla version by downloading the new version and installing it directly into your website.
The Joomla updater Options allows you to set the 'release type' - these typically come in different forms such as: Short Term Support; Long Term Support; Testing etc.
UsingJoomla.com recommends using the 'Stable' version as testing versions, Alpha versions, and Beta versions may still contain bugs that may cause issues on your live website.
The 'Testing' version should not be used on a live website - because this version can contain bugs that can crash / destroy your website. 'Testing' versions are usually used on development / test sites by users who want to test and report back bugs to the developers.
Tip
Before you update Joomla, ensure that the installed Extensions are available for the new Joomla version.
You are strongly advised to make a backup of your installation before you start updating.
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| Joomla UpdateJoomla Update - Options |
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Messaging Component
Your Joomla Messaging Component allows you to write a private message to another User - for example if there is another Site Administrator you can write a message and when the other Administrator logs-in to the Administrator area they will see that they have a message.
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| Private MessagesPrivate Messages - ReadPrivate Messages - Write |
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