The Joomla Language

Joomla's roots are going back more, than a decade (remember, Joomla is a fork of the Mambo CMS, and the development was started in 2000) , - lot of time in the Internet's dog-years, and it definitely has a language of  its own. Seasoned veterans are fluent in Joomla 's own language, but for "newbies", this speak can be confusing at best, if not unintelligible or meaningless talk or writing; gibberish in nutshell. This fact can be a main obstacle for ones want to start using/mastering Joomla. This is a reason we began to compile a Joomla-to-English dictionary to help "translate" the usual Joomla-talk. The list of the most commonly used words and/or phrases in Joomla you'll find here is incomplete, and the given definitions are arbitrary. We just attempt to find some "translations" that actually meaning something to a non-veteran Joomla user too. The list is open, the content is not nailed down, any suggestion/addition/request is highly appreciated!

Frontend

The Frontend is a collective term to name the areas of the website as visitors or registered users see it. A registered user normally works only in the frontend. It is like in a store, where the goods are displayed in shop windows and on shelves. Here you can have a look around.

So, in nutshell: it's everything an unregistered user (Guest) and all other registered users, withouth administrative user rights (the members of main Registered group and it's subgroups) can see.

User groups

By default, across all Joomla versions from Joomla 1.0, through Joomla 1.5, Joomla 1.6 to the Joomla 1.7 the basic structure of default user groups is unchanged. The users are generally sorted in 3 main categories, the unregistered/not logged in users, the registered users with frontend only access and the backend users. The exact naming of these main groups are varying across the different Joomla versions, but the default end level groups are the same. The groups and their core permissions are as follows:

Layout

Components, as you already know, are fairly complex and have the ability to display different information in different ways.

Plugin

A plugin is a kind of Joomla! extension, in fact the smallest building block of a Joomla site. Plugins provide functions which are associated with trigger events. Joomla provides a set of core plugin events, but any extension can fire (custom) events.

Template

Many people think of a template as their website, but that is an incorrect way of seeing templates. Templates are used for providing a layout and design within which all of the pieces of your Joomla site come together.

Joomla 1.5 ACL explained

Despite claims to the contrary Joomla 1.5 does have an ACL system. It may be rudimentary but when fully understood can be very useful.