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By A Web Design
A Joomla componentis in fact a separate application being plugged into Joomla CMS. Think of a component as something that has its own functionality, its own database and its own presentation. So if you install a component, you add an application to the Joomla CMS.
Examples of components are:
And so on.
Think of each of theseas being a separate application. Each one of these would make perfectly good sense as a stand-alone system.Only one component will be shown at any instant in time in the main part of your website.
A menu item then nothing more than a technique to switch between different components.
Joomla modules are extensions which present certain pieces of information on your site. It's a way of presenting information that is already present. This can add some new functionality to an application which is already part of your website.
Think about latest article modules, login module, a menu, etc. Typically you'll have a number of modules on each web page. A module doesn't make sense as a standalone application; it will just present information or add a function to an existing application.
For example: Newsletter. A newsletter isa component. You can have a website which is used as a newsletter only. That makes perfect sense.
Nowa newsletter component will have a subscription page integrated. The subscription page may have to be displayed on all pages of the website. Hence, you might want to add a subscription module on a sidebar on every page of your website.You can put this subscribe module anywhere on your site. A site with just a subscription module and no actual newsletter component would be rather strange.
A plugin is a script that is triggered by an "event". For example, content plugins are run when content is displayed, and usually modifies the output. When an article is opened for editing, the editor plugin runs and displays the WYSIWYG editor that was assigned for that user.
Plugins used to be called mambots in Joomla 1.0.x, but since Joomla 1.5.x they're called plugins.
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