This article is devoted to the front-end Joomla components and contains descriptions of the main of them. It is oriented to the beginners in Joomla.

Joomla CMS is independent site control system. Some Mambo-components are compatible with it. Joomla has some basic features:

1. Division to user’s and administrator’s areas (front-end and back-end).

2. in the Joomla front-end, modules and components are displayed. There is the only components and it is located at the central area while there can be as much modules as it’s possible. All site menus are modules. Number of modules can differ depending on what site section is viewed by a user. Parameter Itemid in site URL (actually this is number of menu element) informs about what this section is.

3. Joomla CMS provides a lot of abilities to organize site content. By default, 14 components organize Joomla 1.0.4 front-end. These components are:

• com_content: 

  shows: an article, list of articles of a category in the form of a table, list of articles of a category in the form of a journal (blog), list of categories of a section in the form of a table, category list of a section in the form of a blog;

  shows sections which are in archive;
  shows categories which are in archive;
  sends links to an article by e-mail (send to friend);
  records voting for an article (for article’s rating);

  All table-appeared content contains filter by word and ability to sort by name (ascending/descending) and date).

  Forms for the article appearance can contain links (icons), and the following functions: download in pdf, send to friend, printable version. This is configured through the administrative area.

  Article rating and link to voting form can also be shown.

• com_frontpage – organize main page and just outputs all articles which is marked for showing on the main page.
• com_poll – outputs voting results or voting form.
• com_rss – subscribes browser to RSS subscription. Subscription content may be shown when subscribing and may be not.
• com_login – the same forms (login, logout) as in the login module.
• com_banners – has no visual appearance; this function is performed by the respective standard module.
• com_contact – displays the list of contacts, feedback form and accomplish export through vCard.
• com_newsfeeds – displays list of subscriptions and one subscription with its description.
• com_messages – has no visual appearance, contains class for main sending. it is not interested for a front-end user.
• com_registration – form for requesting the forgotten password, sending a new one, showing registration form for a user, saving data about new user, user activating after his approving.
• com_search – shows search results and saves search statistics to database.
• com_user – shows user profile, control files uploading to a server and edit user data.
• com_weblinks – shows list of categories list and links list. Allows organizing of your links.
• com_wrapper – allows showing of a page inside a site by iframe tag.