Another round up of the top 10 (actually 11 this month as someone miss counted when doing the research) new extensions for Joomla in April 2014.
With so many extensions out there, I'll be looking at a few highlighted and useful plugins, modules and extensions that you may have missed.
This month's 10 extensions include:
-
Please note that I've removed links to extensions that were unpunlished, removed or are no longer supported.
News
Joomla! 3.3 has been released. With this, a whole bunch of new features, which you can find more about in a previous episode. The other week Russell English, Max Lynam, and Patrick Jackson all did a live Google+ hangout where they talked about all the brand new features and went through the release and all the good work that has been done there.
Events Joomla! Day Brasil happened over the weekend, I did a storify feed for this which you can check out. There was quite a lot of activity that happened during the conference and a live stream, so check it out.
At the end of May, we have the J and Beyond conference coming up. So if you can make it to Germany, it is an excellent conference to attend.
The J!OSCARS nomination forms have been released, which you can find on the J and Beyond website. You can start nominating people and businesses within the industry for outstanding achievements.
Top 10 New Extensions List - April 2014
- Awesome Social Links Sidebar
This adds social follow links all onto the side of your site. It is a sticky sidebar so it follows up and down either side of your site. It allows you to embed Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Youtube, and also a custom RSS feed. It has a cool Javascript effect where the icons actually are very small and hang off the side of your site, then when you hover over it, it expands as a tab and slides into your site.
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/social-web/social-share/social-multi-share/27112
- Nonstop Slider
This extension is great to use for a row of icons. The slider continusouly slides and icons keep appearing on a loop. This a nice subtle animation for your website.
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/ads-a-affiliates/sponsors/27103
- Advanced Twitter Display Widget
It allows you to customise your Twitter feed on your website. You can add CSS class suffixes to everything, it is easy to stylise and works with Joomla! 2.5 and 3.
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/social-web/social-display/twitter-display/26807
- Advanced Twitter Followers Widget
Pulls in all your Twitter followers onto your website, so you can have social proof of followers. It is very similar to the Facebook ‘like' box, but it is highly customisable. It is a free module.
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/social-web/social-display/twitter-display/26793
- Bitcoin Donate
Free module download that works on Joomla! 2.5 and 3. This allows for the acceptance of payments and donations via bitcoin. The virtual worldwide currency is gaining momentum, and we have had clients asking us about it. If you have experience working with Bitcoin on your website, let me know about it in the comments.
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/e-commerce/donations/26778
- Maps2
Brought to us by Anthony Olsen from JoomlaBamboo. This is a fantastic module for Joomla 3, to display Google Maps on your website. It allows you to customise and display the map. It is easy to style with a choice of themes or your own customisation. Another feature is the ability to show multiple map markers, highligh certain places, it even includes weather, and traffic conditions in the area.
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/maps-a-weather/maps-a-locations/street-maps/27058
- Sucuri CloudProxy WAF
This is a cloud based web application firewall, known as an Intrusion Prevention System. It protects your site from SQL injections, XSS attacks and a whole bunch more. This is the forefront of Joomla! and web security. It is a paid extension but very beneficial to helping protect your website from these attacks.
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/access-a-security/site-security/site-protection/26571
- Linkedin Group Feed
This extension adds a module to your site that will allow you to add in a group feed from your linkedin profile that you might be managing. Pull in the feed from that group and embed it on your website. Show how active you are and your expertise within the linkedin community.
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/social-web/social-display/social-channels-display/27159
- Content to K2
This is a paid extension that works with Joomla! 2.5 and 3. Redirects the users from the content area of the backend of your website to the corresponding K2 area of the site. Makes it a whole lot easier to keep track of articles.
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/extension-specific/k2-extensions/26924
- Charts for ZOO
ZOO is an application construction kit for Joomla!, so with this extension it allows for display of data easily in cool bar charts, pie charts and various different charts. It uses html5, using the library called chart.js.
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/extension-specific/zoo-extensions/26885
- jBackend
If you are starting to build applications, mobile apps or any with 3rd party software and want your Joomla! site to be powering that application or software, then this extension will allow you to do that.
It allows you to enable a REST API from the backend of Joomla! which allows an external application to pull data out of your Joomla! website and pull it in live to a mobile app, syndication network, an external website or anything else like that. Very powerful stuff!
This has been something that I've been wanting for a long time and has also been in a crowd funding exercise to have it in as a part of the core functionality of Joomla! Personally I don't think it should be a part of core but rather another layer that can be added on if people are using it.
This one is well worth checking out and taking advantage of is you are into building third party applications.
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/core-enhancements/libraries/27134
So there you have it, my top 10 (with a bonus extra!) extensions for April 2014.
Subscribe to the Podcast
