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Top 10 Must-Have Joomla Addons |
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Saturday, 02 June 2007 |
As I continually try to improve my site, I always seem to have some Joomla components, modules, modifications, and mambots that I always have to have. It just so happens that there are 10 such additions for this great CMS. Hopefully this list will enlighten you, and introduce you to an addon you need, or want to use. Without further ado, here is my list of the top 10 Joomla Addons:
1. OpenSEF
I was majorly a user of 404SEF, but I ended up having too many issues with it to keep using it. OpenSEF is an amazing component, as it will automatically write Search Engine (and user) friendly URLs for all of your content on-the-fly, so that as users see your pages, your URLs will propagate. Alongside that, OpenSEF includes a Google Sitemap generator, as well as a META tag generator, for both descriptions and keywords. To every Joomla user, this component is a MUST!
2.Page Cache by Ircmaxwell
This is yet another must have. This component will cache pages after they have been loaded once, either in a file, in the Database, or through APC. This speeds up page load times by up to 90%, and is simply amazing. You can set the component to not cache certain modules, so that your constantly updating modules will still work correctly.
3.Joomlastats
Joomlastats is a great component that records every page hit, referrer, search engine bot, and search string that leads people to your website. I find it useful to find all of the ways hackers are trying to break in, so that I can redirect them to a noindex page. In all reality, it is a great tool to analyze every aspect of the traffic your site gets. Please note that if used with Page Cache, it will appear your server is visiting your website, and you show double the hits you are actually getting. Just divide by two and continue analyzing your traffic.
4.Artistworks.net version of AkoComment
AkoComment is an older component, but it has many forks. My favorite is the artistworks.net version, which adds a captcha to keep spam from happening. As of writing, artistworks.net is down for maintenance.
5.TMEdit
The WYSIWYG editor that comes with Joomla just doesn't cut it for me. It always seems that I can't do this or that with MOStlyCE which comes as the default. TMEdit just rubs me the right way, with all of the features that I want and need. Give it a try!
6.Google Analytics Bridge Mambot
This great little Mambot inserts the Google Analytics code
automatically into every one of your pages. This is great for me,
because I hate to have to edit the code of my templates, and it makes
things easy as pasting your analytics ID in, and publishing the bot.
7. MosSociable
I admit that it doesn't have buttons for every social networking site,
and I admit that it doesn't have any fancy features, but it is easy to
modify and add buttons for sites you wish to include, such as tweako.
It is small, and out of the way, and just really fits the layout of my
site nicely.
8. A good .htaccess file
I am sorry about plugging myself here, but you really need a good
.htaccess file to be secure. Mine blocks spammers, bad bots, and
prevents hacks upon my site as well. This saves my bandwidth, and my
website.
9.Remository
How could I forget? This is a really useful component, as it provides
an easy interface for users to download files from your site.
Remository has a slew of features that I would have to write several
paragraphs to name, and just works. If you use it with OpenSEF, make
sure to get the sef_ext file from the Remository site so that your
Remository can also have friendly URLs.
10.BigAPE Backup
This component has saved my butt, quite honestly. It will backup all of
your sites files, as well as the database. This makes restoration easy.
It features the ability to email your backups to a specified address,
if you so choose. Currently, it has a problem with database backups, as
it uses the wrong character (// instead of #) for SQL comments. You can
either do a careful replace job on the backup in a text editor, by
replacing every instance of // with #, then replace instances of http:#
with http://, or you can just modify the component's code. Either way,
it is still worth having.
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