Joomla! is an open source content management system (CMS) for publishing content on the Web. A CMS uses dynamic pages to display content compared to static pages. At a static page a change of a menu normally has to be re-done on all pages manually where as Joomla! adds, moves and deletes menus easily. The ease of managing content like articles, items in a shop, dates, blogs and more, is due to Joomla!'s abilty to generate the code for pages "on the fly".

Joomla! is a free software supported by a large community of a quarter million registered members. As most Content Management Systems, Joomla is divided into a Front End - that are the pages published in the World Wide Web - and a Back End - that is where you can create your content like pages, menus and where you can administer users, blogs, shops and more. The Back End can be accessed with a standard web browser - mostly Firefox will give best results.

Installing Joomla! requires a web hosting service with the scripting language php and the database MySQL enabled. At some web hosting providers you can use auto-installers like Fantastico De Luxe which simplifies the installation process tremendously. To learn how to work with Joomla! the new user can chose to install sample pages at the time of installation.

One of the great advantages of Joomla is the ability to easily add menus and sub-menus. Joomla is extendible with blogs, shops, calendars and more and Joomla can handle rss feeds which supplies on the minute actual information to your readers. But you have to be online to edit your pages - that's why we suggest Web Hosting on Australian Servers which will give you fast access and no delays.

Joomla! uses templates for look and functionality. A template is a pre-configured layout which can be used for the whole site or only for one page or for a range of pages. Joomla! comes with a few templates which look can be altered using the template manager. More templates can be purchased on specialised web sites and some free templates are available on the net - just Google "Joomla templates". A template contains areas which can be used for different purposes. An area can contain a menu, a graphic, an advertising, extra information from other pages, pictures, a shopping cart, a calendar and more.

Joomla!'s functionality can be enhanced in different ways, with a plug-in, a component or a module.
A plug-in can for example enhance the ability to search information on your pages, it can make your pages more search engine friendly (SEO) or it can give you a better editor for your articles.
A component adds fuctionality like a shop, a calendar, let you manage your links and advertisings and more.
A module can be seen as a box which can contain all kind of information and which can be placed in different areas of your site. A module can contain your latest news, a log-in form, a menu, an advertising, a shopping cart, a calendar and, and, and...

Joomla! contains out of the box a user management system. You can restrict content to registered users only and you can display different pages to differerent user levels. The highest user level is the super administrator which is the first user Joomla! creates at time of installation. He can access all articles, install addtional functionality and can administer other users. Below the super administrator are other user levels down to the registered user. As an example, some of these user levels can edit any article (publisher), others can only edit their own articles (author). Once a user is logged in, he/her can edit their article from the front-end with a little pencil symbol visible after the log in.

There are two branches of Joomla available Joomla 1.0x and Joomla 1.5x. We currently only support and provide Joomla 1.5 due to the superior security features and because the Joomla 1.0.x series will no longer be updated from July 22, 2009 on.