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The number one thing I hate about Joomla

Joomla's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. The number one thing I hate about Joomla is its Extensions. At time of writing there are 9005 listings at the Joomla Extensions Directory. Despite the fact that these are well categorised and often include reviews, the sheer volume means it can be difficult to find the ideal solution. And then, when you find something interesting, you might spend hours installing, configuring and testing, only to discover that it doesn't do the job you expected.

Here are three methods to help you choose the right extension.

Firstly, read the reviews. Relying on the developer's description alone is a bit like believing what's written on a wine bottle label. You can get a good feel for the quality of an extension by reading the reviews, but don't necessarily get put off by one or two bad ones. It is common for some users to try an extension and then immediately write a bad review because they haven't taken the time to learn how to use it. But clearly, if there are a lot of negative ratings then you're best to keep looking.

The next best step is to look for screen shots, or preferably a demo version at the developer's site. This often helps to give you a feel for whether an extension will do the job, without wasting time trying it out.

Finally, it is a VERY good idea to test the extension before installing it on your live site. There's nothing worse than installing an extension that brings down your site. This shouldn't happen of course, but it does occasionally. Usually all you have to do is uninstall or disable the extension to get your site going again. But in extreme cases this doesn't help and you have to reinstall your site, which as you might imagine is a nightmare. You DID make a backup before you installed the extension, didn't you? The easiest way to test an extension is to have a local copy of your site. Our Joomla Pro course includes lessons on how to install Joomla on your local computer. This provides the opportunity to install, configure and learn about the extension in a safe environment, before unleashing it on your live site.

So, there are three steps to help you choose the right extension. But one final gripe before I sign off. Because extensions are developed by hundreds of different developers, there tends to be a lack of consistency between the ways each extension works. The methods of achieving some result in one extension might be vastly different to the methods of achieving that same result in another extension. Or the icon might be placed or named differently. Hopefully this lack of standardization of the Joomla user experience will improve in future versions, as we reported in Joomla News.

So that's the number one thing I hate about Joomla. Next week I'll reveal the Number One Thing I Love About Joomla.

Is this what irritates you the most about Joomla? Or is it something else? Leave your comment below.

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The number one thing I love about Joomla
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Comments 21

Dan on Saturday, 25 February 2012 11:55

Thanks Richard
I agree completely... that although its a good thing that there are so many extensions it is a fact that having so many available makes it very difficult to find the right one... almost like the problem I was having deciding upon the right CMS just a few weeks ago... that was until I found your tutorials;)
I hope your 3 extensions tips work equally as well!

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Thanks Richard I agree completely... that although its a good thing that there are so many extensions it is a fact that having so many available makes it very difficult to find the right one... almost like the problem I was having deciding upon the right CMS just a few weeks ago... that was until I found your tutorials;) I hope your 3 extensions tips work equally as well!
Andy Markley on Saturday, 25 February 2012 12:43

... thanks Richard. As always, you get right to the point and make it clear. Without your Basics and Beyond courses, I'd have killed myself weeks ago trying to learn Joomla. I'd have thrown my Mac through the back door ... and the next time I wanted to make art, I'd have gone down to the creek to draw pictures in the mud with a stick.

Open source is good (it frees us from the tyranny of money-grubbing corporations like Adobe) ... but their are WAY too many cooks in the Joomla kitchen. Thanks for everything you do to help make Joomla comprehensible.

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... thanks Richard. As always, you get right to the point and make it clear. Without your Basics and Beyond courses, I'd have killed myself weeks ago trying to learn Joomla. I'd have thrown my Mac through the back door ... and the next time I wanted to make art, I'd have gone down to the creek to draw pictures in the mud with a stick. Open source is good (it frees us from the tyranny of money-grubbing corporations like Adobe) ... but their are WAY too many cooks in the Joomla kitchen. Thanks for everything you do to help make Joomla comprehensible.
Jim Gregory on Saturday, 25 February 2012 15:29

Are there keyboard shourt cuts in Administrator to 'Save', 'Save & Close', 'New', etc?

If not, that's the number 1 thing I hate.

If there are, there #1 thing I hate is that I didn't know it ;-{)

I love the range of choice but I too have developed screens to narrow the choices.

I really love that I'm dealing with folks from, Romania, Germany, England Viet Nam etc. Their ESL (English as a Second Language) is so much better than my ability in their native languages will ever be. I am envious.

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Are there keyboard shourt cuts in Administrator to 'Save', 'Save & Close', 'New', etc? If not, that's the number 1 thing I hate. If there are, there #1 thing I hate is that I didn't know it ;-{) I love the range of choice but I too have developed screens to narrow the choices. I really love that I'm dealing with folks from, Romania, Germany, England Viet Nam etc. Their ESL (English as a Second Language) is so much better than my ability in their native languages will ever be. I am envious.
Richard Pearce on Saturday, 25 February 2012 20:51

I'm not aware of a keyboard shortcut solution for the current version.

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I'm not aware of a keyboard shortcut solution for the current version.
Tom on Sunday, 26 February 2012 00:59

I second this... not that I am singling out Joomla, for there are numerous instances both online and in my local programs where one cannot escape the dreaded mouse, unless one wants to wear out the Tab key :p. The more one uses Joomla, and indeed a computer, the more one grows to dislike the fact that you need to use a mouse in routine, repetitive tasks like Open, Save and New, etc. Once I press the Enter key to log into my admin screen, the mouse rules.
Maybe the top guns at Joomla can forcefully sequester the mavens to work on this somewhere, secretly in a dungeon... chained to a terminal with their only hope of release, the formulation of keyboard shortcuts. I would, at the very least, "Like" if not worship them.:)

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I second this... not that I am singling out Joomla, for there are numerous instances both online and in my local programs where one cannot escape the dreaded mouse, unless one wants to wear out the Tab key :p. The more one uses Joomla, and indeed a computer, the more one grows to dislike the fact that you need to use a mouse in routine, repetitive tasks like Open, Save and New, etc. Once I press the Enter key to log into my admin screen, the mouse rules. Maybe the top guns at Joomla can forcefully sequester the mavens to work on this somewhere, secretly in a dungeon... chained to a terminal with their only hope of release, the formulation of keyboard shortcuts. I would, at the very least, "Like" if not worship them.:)
Mary on Saturday, 25 February 2012 16:30

falling in love with an plugin or component that is just not ready for a production site and having to wait on the developers..

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falling in love with an plugin or component that is just not ready for a production site and having to wait on the developers..
Margot on Saturday, 25 February 2012 19:14

For me its extensions as well, but the unreliability of them. History has shown that some extensions dont get upgraded, either at all or much later, so you will be forced to make difficult choices - upgrade and rebuild important functionality, or stay with your current version which will not be supported for much longer.

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For me its extensions as well, but the unreliability of them. History has shown that some extensions dont get upgraded, either at all or much later, so you will be forced to make difficult choices - upgrade and rebuild important functionality, or stay with your current version which will not be supported for much longer.
Guest - Jon Satterthwaite on Sunday, 26 February 2012 00:57

Yes, the extensions! Thanks Richard, you saved me a great deal of time with your tutorials on core Joomla and even helped with your best extension list. I love that the directory is organized as well as 9000 of anything could be, and the reviews are very helpful. I really love the direction the support structure is seems to be headed. Could there be a more fair way? Try my work product for free, and if you find it valuable to you, pay a nominal amount for support and continued development. I am not a programmer but I assume that this would normally work out to be a few pennies per hour of work put into the project. I hate the people who want to complain about both any charge at all, and the lack of documentation, support and development. Demanding more from someone whom you asked to give you something for free is not how I was raised.

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Yes, the extensions! Thanks Richard, you saved me a great deal of time with your tutorials on core Joomla and even helped with your best extension list. I love that the directory is organized as well as 9000 of anything could be, and the reviews are very helpful. I really love the direction the support structure is seems to be headed. Could there be a more fair way? Try my work product for free, and if you find it valuable to you, pay a nominal amount for support and continued development. I am not a programmer but I assume that this would normally work out to be a few pennies per hour of work put into the project. I hate the people who want to complain about both any charge at all, and the lack of documentation, support and development. Demanding more from someone whom you asked to give you something for free is not how I was raised.
Guest - Michael on Sunday, 26 February 2012 01:41

These are all my pet hates as well.

This can be all solved by rating the reviewers. I mean how many times do we see some newbie who takes out their frustration on the developer with a bad review, only to find they did not RTM. Some I might add turned out to be great extensions we use as standard.

Having to read an entire thread to find that the developer is right and the reviewer is wrong, is such a waste of our time.

Thanks for good advice Richard.

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These are all my pet hates as well. This can be all solved by rating the reviewers. I mean how many times do we see some newbie who takes out their frustration on the developer with a bad review, only to find they did not RTM. Some I might add turned out to be great extensions we use as standard. Having to read an entire thread to find that the developer is right and the reviewer is wrong, is such a waste of our time. Thanks for good advice Richard.
STEPHEN ALLAN BROWN on Sunday, 26 February 2012 02:33

I expect "The number one thing you hate about Joomla" to be the "The number one thing you love about Joomla". It makes it so easy to add functionality to a Joomla site "IF" and "WHEN" you find an appropriate extension. A process that is much less time consuming than writing code from scratch, especially for those of us with little to no experience with PHP.

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I expect "The number one thing you hate about Joomla" to be the "The number one thing you love about Joomla". It makes it so easy to add functionality to a Joomla site "IF" and "WHEN" you find an appropriate extension. A process that is much less time consuming than writing code from scratch, especially for those of us with little to no experience with PHP.
Michael Hendricks on Sunday, 26 February 2012 05:01

You would think that having a decent e-commence extension would be a no brainer but Joomla's extension developers haven't gotten there yet. Supposedly, we are finally at a stable Joomla version... so developers give us a good e-commerce solution, until then I've got to depend on a company that specializes in e-commerce.

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You would think that having a decent e-commence extension would be a no brainer but Joomla's extension developers haven't gotten there yet. Supposedly, we are finally at a stable Joomla version... so developers give us a good e-commerce solution, until then I've got to depend on a company that specializes in e-commerce.
Richard Pearce on Sunday, 26 February 2012 06:55

I'm still hopeful that KagoCommerce will be the winner, even though it is 9 months since it was announced. I read that a release will be available "soon".

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I'm still hopeful that KagoCommerce will be the winner, even though it is 9 months since it was announced. I read that a release will be available "soon".
Guest - Michael Sharp on Sunday, 26 February 2012 12:42

Richard, I hope you are right about KaGo. I joined the pre-beta list. Sounds a way off yet.

In the meantime I am enjoying Tienda after seeing your wonderful 3 part tutorial.

Thanks once again for all the help in 2011.

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Richard, I hope you are right about KaGo. I joined the pre-beta list. Sounds a way off yet. In the meantime I am enjoying Tienda after seeing your wonderful 3 part tutorial. Thanks once again for all the help in 2011.
Guest - Paul on Sunday, 26 February 2012 05:39

I really enjoy your blog pieces, free courses, etc. I agree with you regarding extensions. I'm a newbie, so not sure if I fully understand the extension search process. But I think it would be helpful if ALL extensions were tracked in terms of total downloads and total reviews and a ranking system was available. It seems the listings and ratings of available extensions are based on a fairly small sample and only more recent extension releases are listed in the extensions directory.

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I really enjoy your blog pieces, free courses, etc. I agree with you regarding extensions. I'm a newbie, so not sure if I fully understand the extension search process. But I think it would be helpful if ALL extensions were tracked in terms of total downloads and total reviews and a ranking system was available. It seems the listings and ratings of available extensions are based on a fairly small sample and only more recent extension releases are listed in the extensions directory.
Guest - bill eckert on Tuesday, 28 February 2012 04:00

The thing I hate is that so often we've run into extensions that have so many bugs that haven't been thought through and worked out before releasing it, as a commercial extension especially, and even as a free one.

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The thing I hate is that so often we've run into extensions that have so many bugs that haven't been thought through and worked out before releasing it, as a commercial extension especially, and even as a free one.
Peter Wiles on Thursday, 01 March 2012 10:26

Richard totally agree on this one.
If I was to highlight one more thing it would be that there doesn't seem to be as much consistency as there could be between the different components that can be linked to menus and modules. Several times I've had to use workarounds by things that would be simply solved if the same options were available for both.

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Richard totally agree on this one. If I was to highlight one more thing it would be that there doesn't seem to be as much consistency as there could be between the different components that can be linked to menus and modules. Several times I've had to use workarounds by things that would be simply solved if the same options were available for both.
Ivan Bayross on Sunday, 04 March 2012 14:52

Hi Richard,

I really like the way this Blog post is written. Nice and easy to read and understand.

While I agree completely with what you've said about Joomla extensions I have a pretty different POV.

I think that the power of Joomla comes from the Joomla development team focusing on the Joomla Core, i.e. the CMS itself.

The Joomla core development team has made it pretty simple and elegant to extend the functionality of the Joomla CMS by third party developers creating excellent extensions.

Hence, sliders, Shopping carts, SEO, SMM plugins and tons more have come into existence.

As you rightly pointed out, choosing the best fit plugin for your specific needs can be a bit of a pain sometimes.

Having said that, I must admit that the one thing that you dislike about Joomla is what I like about it :D.

Regards,

Ivan Bayross

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Hi Richard, I really like the way this Blog post is written. Nice and easy to read and understand. While I agree completely with what you've said about Joomla extensions I have a pretty different POV. I think that the power of Joomla comes from the Joomla development team focusing on the Joomla Core, i.e. the CMS itself. The Joomla core development team has made it pretty simple and elegant to extend the functionality of the Joomla CMS by third party developers creating excellent extensions. Hence, sliders, Shopping carts, SEO, SMM plugins and tons more have come into existence. As you rightly pointed out, choosing the best fit plugin for your specific needs can be a bit of a pain sometimes. Having said that, I must admit that the one thing that you dislike about Joomla is what I like about it :D. Regards, Ivan Bayross
Richard Pearce on Sunday, 04 March 2012 16:27

Be sure to read the next post too.

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Be sure to read the next post too.
Guest - Elenore on Tuesday, 09 July 2013 10:15

The thing I most hate about Joomla 3 is that it does not remember things. I like to have plugin manager and module manager display ALL. and, every time I log in to the back end, the damn thing has reverted to showing 20. AAAAAAHHHHHHRRRRRRRR !!!

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The thing I most hate about Joomla 3 is that it does not remember things. I like to have plugin manager and module manager display ALL. and, every time I log in to the back end, the damn thing has reverted to showing 20. AAAAAAHHHHHHRRRRRRRR !!!
Tom on Sunday, 15 December 2013 22:56

I am really starting to hate Joomla 3... Why on earth did they:

    remove the ability to tab through drop down choices and change them using the keyboard? No I have to use the d&%m mouse all day long... a real pain for those who are adept at keyboard commands

[/list]move module parameters to tabs - why couldn't they have left everything on one page?[list]
While once can still build with 2.5, it isn't sensible to not move to 3 as 2.5 is moving rapidly toward the end of life. Anyone who has tried to migrate from 2.5 to 3 through the Joomla update process, as I have several times, is in for a miserable experience.

That's today's mini rant

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I am really starting to hate Joomla 3... Why on earth did they: [list]remove the ability to tab through drop down choices and change them using the keyboard? No I have to use the d&%m mouse all day long... a real pain for those who are adept at keyboard commands[/list] [/list]move module parameters to tabs - why couldn't they have left everything on one page?[list] While once can still build with 2.5, it isn't sensible to not move to 3 as 2.5 is moving rapidly toward the end of life. Anyone who has tried to migrate from 2.5 to 3 through the Joomla update process, as I have several times, is in for a miserable experience. That's today's mini rant
Richard Pearce on Wednesday, 15 January 2014 07:50

I must admit that I was not overjoyed by the new interface. I think I heard a whisper that usability is on the list for Joomla 4, but I might have been dreaming.

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I must admit that I was not overjoyed by the new interface. I [i]think [/i]I heard a whisper that usability is on the list for Joomla 4, but I might have been dreaming.

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