Two objects are said to be orthogonal when they form a right angle to each other.
But what has this to do with Joomla?
Joomla component structure
Joomla has a unique component structure, sometimes also called an orthogonal structure.
But what does that means?
Joomla has 2 types of components, vertical and horizontal components.
You can't use the horizontal components without the vertical ones.
So, in a sense, they are orthogonal.
Joomla vertical components
The vertical components are the Joomla core components:
- users
- content
- contacts
- menus
- banners
- ...
Joomla horizontal components
The horizontal components are more like extended features for the vertical components.
These components can't work on there own and need the input/data from the vertical components..
The most know/used horizontal components are:
- versioning
- tagging
- custom fields
- ...
Conclusion
The Joomla orthogonal structure has a big advantage.
Any component, core or third-party, can use the capabilities of the horizontal components.
