Essential Joomla 1.5 Extensions

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Feb

2008

Written by David Towers

Joomla 1.5 extensions With Joomla 1.5 coming out of beta at the end of January, the new version of Joomla has already got some great extensions. We thought it would be helpful to share what we consider to be some of the essential extensions for Joomla 1.5.

We have chosen the extensions we particularly like and are using on some of the websites we have up and running on Joomla 1.5. In this post will be mentioning extensions to help SEO, customise blogs, display images and manage communities.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) extensions for Joomla 1.5

While Joomla 1.5 is an improvement on Joomla 1.0.1x for search engine optimisation, we still advise using extensions to make sure your website performs to its full potential in terms of getting indexed. The following two extensions from Joomlatwork will enable you to have truly search engine friendly URLs and give you more control of your meta tags:

Smartsef - For Search engine friendly URL's
SEF patch - For better meta tag control (you'll need to patch Joomla 1.5 core files)

Look out for sh404sef which is coming soon to Joomla 1.5. Yannick Gaultier has released an early beta version (link) which has most of the same features as sh404sef for Joomla 1.0.1x. This extension enables you to have SEO friendly URLs, improved meta tag management and add h1 tags around the article titles. We think Yannick's sh404sef patch for Joomla 1.0.1 is excellent (we use it here at Good Web Practices) and we're looking forward to the extension coming out of beta for Joomla 1.5.

Customising your blog in Joomla 1.5

You can make your blog look and function better by adding these 4 extensions:

JomComment - The best comment system for Joomla 1.5 in our opinion
Blog post calender - Shows the date of the blog post in a neat css format next to the blog post title
Blog post avatar - Adds the avatar/gravatar of the author next to the blog post title
Adsense module - The easy way to add Google Adsense to your website
Joomap - A simple sitemap extension which generates both HTML and XML sitemaps

Displaying images in Joomla 1.5

There are already lots of great ways to show images in Joomla 1.5. Here are a few of our favorites:

JSN ImageShow - A commercial flash slideshow plugin. It costs $30 but if your doing a professional project it's worth the money.
High Slide - A lightbox type effect that zooms open an image without fading out the page

Fostering interactivity in Joomla 1.5

This extension is simply a must if you want to manage user subscriptions on your website:

Community builder

Look out in the near future for phpBB3 forum integration for Joomla 1.5! This is exciting news that is going to make Joomla 1.5 even more attractive!

Have you come across a Joomla 1.5 extension that you have found useful and think we should add?

24 Comments



kingbt March 01, 2008 Votes: +7	In my opinion mxcomment is better than jom comment, xmap then joomap and jomsef ARTIO then smartsef report abuse vote down vote up


Hummerbie March 02, 2008 Votes: +0	@david: Nice overview of some 1.5 components, but for Joomap you need the Lecacy plugin active, so not really clean 1.5 there yet. @Kingbt: I don't like Artio, because of it's sponsors links in the Free version, and I can't find the true 1.5 version there either. report abuse vote down vote up


David T March 04, 2008 Votes: +2	Thanks for the comments KingBt and Hummerbie! I agree that having to use legacy mode is a serious weakness for Joomap. Sh404sef also requires using legacy mode which is a shame... I think that together you make a good point that Xmap could be considered as a good alternative to Joomap. report abuse vote down vote up


Kyle Ledbetter March 06, 2008 Votes: -1	Agreed, Xmap works great in 1.5, we're using it for out new Joomla Template Site: www.JoomlaPraise.com Some other extensions we love for 1.5: * RSform is our new fav for forms in 1.0 and 1.5 * docMAN of course is a must have * EM Slideshow is a great frontpage slideshow for 1.5 * We LOVE the phpBB3 forum bridge from Rocketwerx report abuse vote down vote up


David T March 06, 2008 Votes: -1	Hi Kyle! Welcome to Good Web Practices! Your website looks great by the way! I'm looking forward to seeing the templates and extensions you'll bring out in the future. Thanks for sharing with us some of the extensions you're using at http://www.JoomlaPraise.com and the extensions you consider essential for Joomla 1.5! report abuse vote down vote up


great March 22, 2008 Votes: -1	great art. report abuse vote down vote up


J.Mihai March 25, 2008 Votes: +0	Nice article. It is such a pitty there are so few extensions available for Joomla 1.5, even with legacy more on... report abuse vote down vote up


Steve \| Hannisdal Express March 28, 2008 Votes: +0	What is the status of sh404SEF for 1.5? I looked at his site and it doesn't give any inclination of when it will be native for 1.5. Also, I've heard that legacy mode is a bad thing, but what exactly does it do? Does it add some sort of abstraction layer to make things run and therefore slow down the site? Again, I've heard it isn't great, but I'm not sure what it does. Thanks. Steve report abuse vote down vote up


Yannick Gaultier March 30, 2008 Votes: +5	Hi, Good question. As for sh404SEF, I have not started anything in direction of removing the legacy plugin requirement. I would not expect that to be really hard, but it is just a huge amount of work, mostly for the backend. As for how bad the legacy plugin is, it basically only "recreates" the classes and behaviors of 1.0.x using 1.5 functions. I only looked superficially, but I can't imagine there would be significant penalities in using it. Any real data on this would be appreciated. Please note however that preliminary testing did find J!1.5 (w/o) leg. mode) to be 20% slower than 1.0. I think next releases will focus on perf. optimization though. Rgds report abuse vote down vote up


m0nb0f July 01, 2008 Votes: +1	David T, could you tell me how can I download http://extensions.joomla.org/c...Itemid,35/ for Joomla 1.5 ? Thanks report abuse vote down vote up


David T July 01, 2008 Votes: +1	You can download the Adsense module here: http://www.joomlaspan.com/index.php?option=com_sobi2&sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=6&sobi2Id=1&Itemid=3 report abuse vote down vote up


m0nb0f July 01, 2008 Votes: +0	Ok, thanks, I see it after, sorry But could you explain me the difference between clicksafe and Reg versions ? Are we agree that the 2 modules needs an subscription to Google Ads Service for "win" money ? report abuse vote down vote up


David T July 01, 2008 Votes: +1	Using the ClickSafe feature you can select to block certain IP numbers from seeing Google AdSense ads on your site. Reg is the regular version. Yes you need a subscription to Google Adsense to earn money. report abuse vote down vote up


m0nb0f July 01, 2008 Votes: +0	Ok, thanks. I will try the Reg version so. I don't see what is the benefit to block certain IP numbers from seeing Google AdSense... Regards report abuse vote down vote up


David T July 01, 2008 Votes: +2	The benefit is that you can block your own IP address so that the ads don't appear when you are on the site. report abuse vote down vote up


m0nb0f July 01, 2008 Votes: +0	ok, except that view that I do not have a fixed IP address, I did no interest report abuse vote down vote up


New Cars India September 14, 2008 Votes: +0	Thanks for the information Man. Can I find any good free image slideshow extensions. I was to just do some experiment on joomla. If you know any please do inform me. report abuse vote down vote up


yankeewig October 12, 2008 Votes: +1	Can anyone help me get the URLs working for RSforms with sh404SEF? There doesn't seem to be much out there, thought someone must have found an extension somewhere! report abuse vote down vote up


David T November 28, 2008 Votes: +0	Yankeewig, I'd recommend trying the sh404sef forums. report abuse vote down vote up


kisa December 01, 2008 Votes: +0	and this is it. report abuse vote down vote up


Ken February 11, 2009 Votes: +0	This is cool report abuse vote down vote up


name March 20, 2009 Votes: +0	still dont understand! report abuse vote down vote up


Jeff Parker May 12, 2009 Votes: +2	I Cannot get RSforms to work with the SEO Friendly URLS enables. What do I need to do to change it without disabling it? Here is my Site, Look and see whats wrong PLEASE! http://www.todaysinsurancesolution.com/ report abuse vote down vote up


Lav June 10, 2009 Votes: +0	Thanks for the useful article! report abuse vote down vote up