About Joomla - An Introduction to Joomla Open Source Software

 

If you're new to Web development or making websites you'll find that Joomla! Open Source Software delivers sophisticated solutions for much of your online needs. Joomla Open Source Software provides you with a robust enterprise-level Web site development platform, empowered by endless scalability and extensibility for your publishing needs now and as your organisation grows and its needs change.

 

Joomla is often the web platform of choice for small business owners or home users who want a professional looking site that's simple to deploy and use and economical to manage. There are also many choices and avenues for you to learn Joomla so you can make the most that this Open Source Software program has to offer.

How Much Is Joomla's Open Source Software?

 

Being Open Source Software, Joomla! 1.5 is free as it is released under an Open Source license - the GNU/General Public License v 2.0. Had you invested in a mainstream, commercial alternative, there'd be nothing but moths left in your wallet and to add new functionality would probably mean taking out a second mortgage each time you wanted something added.

 

Joomla! makes professional functioning websites affordable

 

Many of the plug-ins for added functionality are free or come at a small cost. For example you can get a free mail component and auto responder. Once you have built your list you can upgrade to a more powerful system for under $100. This brings the total cost of ownership of your site way down to something completely manageable.

 

You can also pay for custom made Joomla templates rather than the standard free ones for a more unique look or customize pre-made templates with your own backgrounds, logo and headers. Bottom line you can have a website up and running using Joomla from zero money down to around $250 all up. Still a very cheap commercial website solution. The only thing you will want to invest in is training so you know how to use it. This is explained in a little more detail below.

 

Installing Joomla

 

Joomla! is different from the normal models for content management software. For a start, the content management system is not complicated. Joomla! has been developed for everybody, and anybody can develop it further. It is designed to work (primarily) with other Open Source, free, software such as PHP, MySQL, and Apache.

 

It is easy to install and administer, secure and reliable. Joomla! doesn't even require the user or administrator of the system to know HTML to operate it once it's up and running.

 

To get the perfect Web site with all the functionality that you require for your particular application may take additional time and effort, but with Joomla! Community support that is available and the many Third Party Developers actively creating and releasing new Extensions for the 1.5 platform on an almost daily basis, there is likely to be something out there to meet your needs. Or you could develop your own Extensions and make these available to the rest of the community.

 

From ecommerce solutions to online booking plug-ins Joomla has the scalability for a whole lot less than purchasing software.

 

How to Learn Joomla

 

You can learn Joomla via PDF, Book, or Off Site Training of Joomla Video Tutorials depending on your preference for learning. Or you can hire a Joomla developer to configure the site for you. Most people when they learn Joomla find it difficult at first to configure.   It can be time consuming if you are new to website design and configuration. But once you know you're way around it is simple and easy to put together. The steep learning curve for some, is why they either hire a developer to configure for them, or purchase Joomla Video Tutorials to put the whole thing together.   For more on Joomla Video Tutorials visit our homepage.

  Learn Joomla

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: About Joomla, Learn Joomla, Joomla Open Source Software, Introduction to Joomla