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What is Joomla?
Posted: May 14th, 2018
Joomla! is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) for publishing web content, developed by Open Source Matters, Inc. It is built on a model–view–controller web application framework that can be used independently of the CMS.
Joomla! is written in PHP, uses object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques (since version 1.5) and software design patterns, stores data in a MySQL, MS SQL (since version 2.5), or PostgreSQL (since version 3.0) database, and includes features such as page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, search, and support for language internationalization.
Historical Background
Joomla! was the result of a fork of Mambo on August 17, 2005. At that time, the Mambo name was a trademark of Miro International Pvt. Ltd, who formed a non-profit foundation with the stated purpose of funding the project and protecting it from lawsuits. The Joomla! development team claimed that many of the provisions of the foundation structure violated previous agreements made by the elected Mambo Steering Committee, lacked the necessary consultation with key stakeholders and included provisions that violated core open source values.
Joomla! Developers created a website called OpenSourceMatters.org (OSM) to distribute information to the software community. Project leader Andrew Eddie wrote a letter that appeared on the announcements section of the public forum at mamboserver.com. Over one thousand people joined OpenSourceMatters.org within a day, most posting words of encouragement and support. The website received the Slashdot effect as a result. Miro CEO Peter Lamont responded publicly to the development team in an article titled "The Mambo Open Source Controversy — 20 Questions With Miro". This event created controversy within the free software community about the definition of open source. Forums of other open-source projects were active with postings about the actions of both sides.
In the two weeks following Eddie's announcement, teams were re-organized and the community continued to grow. Eben Moglen and the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) assisted the Joomla core team beginning in August 2005, as indicated by Moglen's blog entry from that date and a related OSM announcement. The SFLC continue to provide legal guidance to the Joomla! Project.
On August 18, Andrew Eddie called for community input to suggest a name for the project. The core team reserved the right for the final naming decision and chose a name not suggested by the community. On September 22, the new name, Joomla!, was announced. It is the anglicised spelling of the Swahili word jumla, meaning all together or as a whole that also has a similar meaning in at least Amharic, Arabic and Urdu. On September 26, the development team called for logo submissions from the community and invited the community to vote on the logo; the team announced the community's decision on September 29. On October 2, brand guidelines, a brand manual, and a set of logo resources were published.
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