Tech Product Review: Community Builder Extension for Joomla

Joomla! is a CMS Open Source Software program that I highly recommend to anyone researching a new CMS software utility. I use Joomla as my choice CMS program for many reasons, some of which include:

• Easy to use and configure...Intuitive
• Easy to Install, see CMS Software Programs Automatically Installed for information on how to easily get Joomla set up and ready to run with only one click!
• Joomla allows one click install of: Modules, Components, mambots, Extensions, and plug-ins
• Joomla is easily customized
• Joomla.org provides lots of tutorials and documentation!

And much more....

If you've never used Joomla, or you are unsure of what an Open Source CMS Software program is capable of, here is some background information for you.

The Joomla! Community Builder Extension is a must for anyone create a Joomla website that features users and user profiles. The basic Joomla software comes with user profiles, user web links, user types, etc. But, Community Builder significantly enhances the way that your user's profile looks, their roles as users, and the function of your users.

It comes with three files that have to simply to uploaded to your site. Each file is a separate zip document:

Joomla Component Joomla Module Joomla Plugin To install these extensions, simply go into the backend of your Joomla website, click on the "Install" tab and navigate to either, Component, Module or Plugin. Once in there, simply browse your hard drive for the appropriate zip file, click upload and you should get a screen that tells you, "Success!"

The Community Builder extension for Joomla is available for download on the Joomla website, and is one of the most popular extension downloads for Joomla users. Meaning that it is highly recommended, contains little to no bugs and problems, and is a very popular extension to add to your basic Joomla Installation.

The Community Builder Extension for Joomla adds some key features to your Joomla! Installation user management:
User Profiles contain extra fields, enhanced registration and profiles, customizable user lists, users can chat and send messages to each other, admins can customize user fields and profile requirements, user photo galleries, front-end workflow management, integration with other components, like PMS, Newsletter, Forum, Galleries, the newest release is also compatible with Joomla! 1.0 and 1.5 beta 1 and mambo.

One very important aspect of Community Builder to note is the ability to create highly customized user lists. This is beneficial when creating search results for types of users with different interests and abilities.

Another reason to make sure you download and install the Community Builder extension is that many advanced and very useful Joomla extensions require the Community Builder extension be pre-installed. Most of the extensions that require this are community based extensions for Joomla...Some of the more popular and Super cool extensions requiring Community Builder allow users to post and label Videos, maintain advanced Photo Galleries, Forums, personalized and advanced Blogs and Blog settings and more...

Basically, if you are using Joomla and are planning on catering to a group of users who will maintain their own profile, no matter how simple, you should download the Joomla! Extension Community Builder.

A link to donload the Joomla Extension, Community Builder, can be found in the resources section.

To read about the UHP2 extension for Joomla, which allows you to give your users their own mini-web page, visit my article: Review of Joomla Extension UHP2-Give Users their own mini website!