Just in case you are not familiar with Joomla terminology yet, here's a quick guide to the terminology used on this site.
Component
There are several types of Joomla extension. Components are the main core of large extensions. The main part of every Joomla page is drawn by a Component. Most components have two parts, a site part, often referred to as the "front end", and an administrator part, often referred to as the "back end".
Plugin
These are another type of Joomla extension. They are usually smaller and often work in conjunction with a Component. Plugins allow you to include dynamic content in Joomla articles. With a Plugin, you can decide exactly what appears on each page and exactly where the dynamic content is included.
Module
Modules are usually small boxes that appear in specific positions on pages. The Check Availability box on the left of this page is a Module.
Article
An Article is page of text that you can setup in the Joomla Article Manager in the back end of Joomla. Articles can contain text, pictures and Plugins, and can have complex layouts.
View
A View is a page that can be drawn by a Component. Views are created by creating an item on a menu, where you can often set a number of parameters that configure the View's behaviour. Rentalot Plus can draw several different kinds of View. Using Views is easier but less flexible than using Articles and Plugins.
CSS
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet. This is the special language used to define the look and feel of every element on a web page, including colours, font sizes, margins, and much, much more. It can be difficult to understand at first, but once you get the hang of it you can completely re-style Rentalot Plus to look exactly the way you want.
Ajax
Ajax stands for Asynchronous Javascript and Xml, which probably doesn't help you very much. It's the technology that retrieves data from a server "behind the scenes", that is, without submitting and re-drawing a whole page. The Check Availability Module on the left uses it. It really does help speed up response times, especially for pages with a lot of content.
Unit
Rentalot Plus refers to rental properties as Units. They can be villas, flats, houses, boats, mobile homes, or anything else you rent out. Rentalot Plus makes it easy for you to configure the word that is used on the front end of your site. On this site, we use the word Villa.
Responsive
This refers to the ability of a website to automatically change its format to suit a wide variety of different screen sizes and proportions. To create a responsive site you need to use a responsive template and responsive components. You can experiment with different window sizes to see how the various pages of Rentalot Plus respond.
Template
A Joomla Template is a specific type of Joomla Extension that defines page structure and provides placeholders for menus, modules, and components. Templates can also define fonts, colours, headings, field styles, and other elements. Some template providers supply templates that include a range of third party exensions.
