Joomla orthogonal structure

Joomla orthogonal structure
Remacle Jean-Claude
1 minute
2022-02-28
what is
Joomla

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.