About 50 gems for Joomla 4 I can’t live without

by Marc Dechèvre

Present slides https://slides.woluweb.be

1. INTRODUCTION

I am always very happy to pay Developers for Joomla Extensions because they deserve it.

Some extensions are widely known because they are available on the Joomla! Extensions Directory™ https://extensions.joomla.org/ and have excellent reviews. But there are also many gems out there which are less known, for example because they are only available on Github .In this article I wanted to share with you my own list of those little extensions that I use on most of my Joomla 4 websites, together with a few tips & tricks.

The vast majority of these extensions are open source (in which case I encourage you to contribute!) or at least free of charge. I have gathered them in 8 themes.

Have fun and enjoy Joomla!

2. I love them all

I love each of the following extension of course.

But I have limited time for this session so I added a ❤️ on the ones I want to focus on.

3. MEDIA MANAGER

3.1. Allow SVG in the Media Manager ❤️

All it takes is 30 seconds to adapt the Options.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7hHYpuNqsg

Txs Brian!

3.2. Preview SVG images in the Media Manager and select SVG files in media fields

Allowing SVG is already nice but being able to preview them is even better!

https://github.com/nikosdion/joomlasvg

Txs Nicholas!

Note: the preview SVG image is now a core feature since Joomla 4.3. released on 2023.04.18

3.3. Responsive Images ❤️

What about generating automatically AVIF & WEBP images and creating source sets (ie creating different sizes of each image in order be totally responsive) ?

https://responsive-images.dgrammatiko.dev/

Txs Dimitris!

3.4. A different folder for each User in the Media Manager

What about restricting access to a specific part of the images folder (images/user/userName, where userName is either the real or a hashed version of the user name). The plugin could be enabled per user group.

https://restrictedfs.dgrammatiko.dev/

Txs Dimitris!

3.5. FTP, Pixabay, Pexels, Emoji, Filters directly in the Media Manager ❤️

What about seeing not only local files but also distant files in the Media Manager? And having Filters and other additional features?

https://joomla.digital-peak.com/products/dpmedia

Txs Allon!

3.6. Allowing Documents -PDF etc- in the Custom Field of Type Media

Want to have a Custom Field of Type Media which would allow to select not only Images but also (for example) Documents?

The paid version of DP Media mentioned just above allows this (and many more things)

Txs Allon!

4. SEO & OPEN GRAPH

4.1. Open Graph – images used when sharing on social media ❤️

What about automatically generating Open Graph images for your site’s pages, superimposing text and graphics over an image or solid color background

https://github.com/lucid-fox/social-magick

Txs Crystal!

4.2. Sharing Buttons ❤️

What about having lightweight Sharing Buttons with no javascript and no tracking?

https://github.com/woluweb/Sharing-Buttons

Txs me!

4.3. Yoast SEO

What about having SEO tips when you edit an Article?

https://www.firecoders.com/joomla-extensions/route-66

Txs Firecoders!

4.4. SEO ❤️

What about having an SEO extension that does it all (Open Graph but also structured data, sitemap, internal linking content writing assistance, broken links, error pages, redirections, …)? Given all these features (and I still discover new ones every time I use it), this is a paid extension.

https://weeblr.com/joomla-seo/4seo

Txs Yannick G.!

5. CUSTOM FIELDS

5.1. Conditional Fields – “showon”

What about allowing Joomla custom fields — including those in subforms — to be displayed or hidden based on another custom field’s value?

https://github.com/nikosdion/plg_content_fieldsshowon

Txs Nicholas!

Note: “showon” will be a core feature as of Joomla 4.3. released on 2023.04.18

5.2. More Types of Custom Fields ❤️

What about having 26 new Types of Custom Fields (videos, maps, …) on top of the 16 native ones

https://www.tassos.gr/joomla-extensions/advanced-custom-fields

Txs Tassos!

5.3. Chained Fields

What having having the ability to create cascading dropdown fields that dynamically change based on the previous selection? That is 1 of the 7 extra Types of Custom Fields you get with the paid version.

https://www.tassos.gr/joomla-extensions/advanced-custom-fields/docs/the-chained-fields-field

Txs Tassos!

5.4. Fields inception

What about nesting Custom Fields of Type Subform (a repeatable list consisting of other Custom Fields)

https://github.com/nikosdion/plg_fields_inception

Txs Nicholas!

5.5. Filtering ❤️

About adding the following kinds of filters for each category displayed in the frontend of your site: Subcategory / Tags / Custom fields

https://github.com/nikosdion/plg_system_filtermagic

Txs Nicholas!

6. EDITOR

6.1. WYSIWYG ❤️

What about enabling true WYSIWYG for Joomla’s tinyMCE Editor?

By default it supplies only the required files for the Cassiopeia template but you can use it for any other template as well.

https://wysiwyg.dgrammatiko.dev/

Txs Dimitris!

6.2. A different Edit Form per Category

What about customizing any back-end / front-end com_content Edit Form per Category?

https://github.com/ttc-freebies/custom-edit-forms-per-cat

Txs Dimitris!

6.3. Facilitate the customization of front-end editing

What about improving the editing of articles in the front-end a little?

https://obix.nl/en/joomla/joomla-extensions-by-obix/front-end-edit-helper

Txs Pieter-Jan!

6.4. Facilitate the customization of back-end editing

What about improving the editing of articles in the back-end? This paid extension allows to customize totally the fields and/or tabs.

https://data2site.com/extensions/d2-profiles

Txs Peter!

6.5. Better front-end edition

What about making editing content in the front-end of your Joomla 4 website distraction free?

https://github.com/brianteeman/cleanedit

Txs Brian!

6.6. Shortcuts in TinyMCE

What about having a set of keyboard shortcuts to use when creating content with Joomla 4 and the default editor (TinyMCE).

https://github.com/brianteeman/slashtools

Txs Brian!

6.7. Customizing TinyMCE menus ❤️

This all started with a question I asked on the Joomla Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/joomlanospam/posts/10158526033230997/

There are 2 ways to add Styles to the predefined menus of TinyMCE:

• there is a native solution, playing with media\templates\site\cassiopeia\css\editor.css (or editor.min.css) or its equivalent in a Child Template (note: make sure your classes are not set as .test but p.test for instance)
• there is a better solution when using the above-mentioned https://wysiwyg.dgrammatiko.dev/The WYSIWYG plugin adds ao the following 2 files
• /media/templates/site/cassiopeia/js/style_formats.json
• /media/templates/site/cassiopeia/js/formats.json

See more explanations about this (including the content of those files) at the bottom of https://wysiwyg.dgrammatiko.dev/documentation/index.html

• /media/templates/site/cassiopeia_MYCHILD/js/style_formats.json
• /media/templates/site/cassiopeia_MYCHILD/js/formats.json

Note: in the case of multilingual websites, if those files in your Child Template do not “trigger” then simply make sure

• that the Child Template is “default” for each language
• and also that the Child Template is “default” (and not the Parent Template)

Txs Dimitris!

6.8. Customizing further TinyMCE ❤️

Wha about having a system plugin to customise TinyMCE beyond what Joomla lets you do?

https://github.com/nikosdion/plg_system_tinymod

Txs Nicholas!

7. CONTENT

7.1. Translations with Deepl ❤️

What about translating all your content to other languages thanks to Deepl, directly from your Editor (so keeping all the HTML tags!)

https://obix.nl/en/joomla/joomla-extensions-by-obix/editor-translation-plugin

Txs Pieter-Jan!

7.2. Artificial Intelligence with ChatGPT

Too lazy to create your own content? Want to use ChatGPT directly from your Joomla Editor?

https://github.com/R2H-BV/chatgpt

Txs Rick!

7.3. Create Articles or Categories in bulk ❤️

What about creating Article or Categories in bulk, including the corresponding Menu Items?

https://www.joomlashack.com/joomla-extensions/oscontent/

Txs Steve!

7.4. Create Articles from a Google Sheet ❤️

What about creating hundreds of thousands of Articles, including their Custom Fields directly from a Google Sheet (thanks to the Joomla API)?

Well, I have started a new series of articles in the present Joomla Community Magazine (JCM) about this.

https://magazine.joomla.org/authors/marc-dechevre

Txs Alexandre!

7.5. Create Articles from a CSV file

What about importing/exporting your Articles in batch, including their Custom Fields, directly from a CSV file?

https://github.com/AlekVolsk/cfi/

Txs Alek!

7.6. A super simple Form to let visitors -or administrators- create Articles from the front-end ❤️

What about a super simple Form to let visitors (or administrators) create Articles from the front-end, including the Custom Fields (thanks to the Joomla API)?

This is just one example of what is possible with Convert Forms 4, I think only in the paid version.

https://www.tassos.gr/joomla-extensions/convert-forms/docs/webhooks#webhooks_article

Txs Tassos!

7.7. RO-CSVI ❤️

I have just mentioned 4 tools to import Articles in Joomla. It would not be fair not to mention the most complete tool afaik allowing import/export, being logically a paid extension.

https://rolandd.com/products/ro-csvi

Txs Roland!

8. ADMINISTRATION

8.1. Access your Log files ❤️

What about accessing your Log files directly from the backend (instead of FTP)?

https://weeblr.com/joomla-seo/4logs-simple-free-logs-viewer

Txs Yannick G.!

8.2. Task list

What about having your Task list directly in the backend of your website?

https://github.com/brianteeman/tasklist

Txs Brian!

8.3. A Task Scheduler to check in all your content ❤️

What about having all your Articles, Menu Items, Plugins etc be automatically checked in every night or at the frequency that you choose?

https://github.com/zero-24/plg_task_checkin

Txs Tobias!

8.4. Administration Dashboard

What about having a Dashboard Module, ready to configure?

https://github.com/micker/mod_dashboard

Txs Yannick B.!

8.5. Impersonation

What about allowing administrators to log in as any other user?

https://github.com/akeeba/skeletonkey

Txs Nicholas!

9. ADDITIONAL FEATURES

9.1. A powerful comment system ❤️

What about having a fast, powerful and highly configurable comment system for Joomla?

https://www.akeeba.com/products/engage.html

Txs Nicholas!

9.2. Invalidate browsers caches

We have all experienced this: we have changed some CSS or JS file… but our users don’t see the result because of their browsers cache.

https://github.com/dgrammatiko/invalidate-cache

Txs Dimitris!

9.3. Dark Mode for your back-end

What about having an alternative version of Atum, the backend template of Joomla4? This is Muta

https://muta.dgrammatiko.dev/

Txs Dimitris!

9.4. Dark Mode for your back-end and/or front-end

What about taking care of your eyes?

https://github.com/nikosdion/DarkMagic

Txs Nicholas!

9.5. Cards Layout

What about having nice overrides with configuration settings to create Card Layouts?

https://github.com/brianteeman/joomla-cards

Txs Brian!

9.6. Login Modal

What about displaying the login module in a modal/popup?

https://github.com/brianteeman/loginmodal

Txs Brian!

9.7. Module Versioning ❤️

What about having Module Versioning (the same way we have Article Versioning natively)?

https://github.com/R2H-BV/

Txs Rick!

9.8. Orphan images ❤️

What about finally cleaning your website? This starts by identifying orphan images.

Joomla 3 version is free, Joomla 4 version is paid.

R2H Image Manager https://www.r2h.nl/joomla-extensions

Txs Rick!

9.9. Using Bootstrap in Joomla 4

Ever wanted to know how to enable Bootstrap in Joomla4 (for example if you need a Slideshow, an Accordion, …)?

https://gist.github.com/dgrammatiko/efb3de4aa7cab4813a244f93f73cc0fd

Txs Dimitris

9.10. Export your Child Template

Ever needed a GUI way to export your Child Templates? Here’s a little module that does exactly that.

https://github.com/dgrammatiko/mod_child_export/

Txs Dimitris!

10. LEARN MORE

10.1. Joomla! 4 Masterclass

A practitioner’s guide to building rich and modern websites using the brand-new features of Joomla 4

Paperback so paid of course (PDF version included)

https://www.amazon.com/Joomla-Masterclass-practitioners-building-brand-new/dp/1803238976

Txs Luca!

10.2. Extension Development

The missing Joomla™ reference for extension developers

https://www.dionysopoulos.me/book.html

Txs Nicholas!

10.3. Joomla 4 – Developing Extensions

550 pages to lean developing extensions

https://ug-mayen.de/images/aextension2301262/1.en.pdf

Txs Astrid!

10.4. Learn Joomla 4

Powerful user tips & secrets about Joomla 4 (13 videos atm)

https://www.youtube.com/@learnjoomla4/videos

Txs Brian!

10.5. BasicJoomla

Hundreds of videos

https://www.youtube.com/@Basicjoomla/videos & https://www.youtube.com/@Basicjoomla/streams

Txs Tim!

Creating Joomla Content Plugins (With Examples)

[ added on 2023.04.26 ]

https://kevinsguides.com/guides/webdev/joomla4/ref/content-plugins-with-exs

Txs Kevin!