What is a Joomla! Component?
"A (Joomla!) component is a kind of Joomla! extension.
Components are the main functional units of Joomla!; they can be seen as mini-applications.
An easy analogy would be that Joomla! is the operating system and the components are desktop applications.
Each component has one or more views that control how content is displayed.
Source: Official Joomla! Documentation.
Core & 3rd Party Components
The Joomla! CMS already contains a number of important pre-installed Core Components.
You will also find a long list of optional 3rd Party Components created by Joomla! developers in the Joomla! Extensions Directory.
These are the main Core Joomla! Components.
The Banners component permits display of banners in your website.
You are able to manage banners by client and to track the number of times a banner image is viewed and clicked.
Banner Modules can display banners almost anywhere in your website.
The Contacts component enables you to provide contact information, including contact forms, for your website visitors.
It will also enable you to create a complex directory that you may find useful for a wide range of purposes other than managing contacts.
Content
The Content component enables you to create and edit Articles.
The Media component lets you upload and insert images into content throughout your site.
The Menus component lets you create the menus you see displayed on your site.
The News Feeds component enables you to present information from another website on your own website.
You an use menus to present a single feed, a list of news feeds in a category, or a list of all news feed categories.
The Redirects component enables you to fix broken links.
You can use it to redirect broken links to specific pages in your website.
It will also help you manage migration related URL changes and so avoid adverse impact on your search engine ranking if you change the domain name.
The Smart Search Component enables the creation of search filters.
In this way you can provide your website visitors with a specific set of results in response to their search query.
The Web Links component enables you to organise your website's links to external websites.
You may also create links to content within your own website - providing you use the URL of the destination.
Note
Decoupled means the core component is no longer shipped with the Joomla! CMS.
Decoupled core components will in future be made available by the Joomla! Project for separate download and installation.
Once installed they can be updated like any other extension.
Over time the Joomla! Project are decoupling a number of components from the Core Joomla! CMS.
The first such component to be decoupled was Web Links.
If your Joomla! CMS does not include this component then you will need to visit the Joomla! Extensions Directory to download and install it.
You can view the vast range of 3rd party components created by developers in the Joomla! Extensions Directory.
How to see which are installed and ready for use
Select the Components link in the sidebar of your website's Dashboard to see which Components are installed and enabled ready for use.
All but one are Core Components.
JCE Editor is a 3rd party component.
Contents include:
How to install a Component
How to uninstall a Component
How to update a Component
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