How to Develop Extensions for Joomla 5 with Carlos Camara

Written by: Tim Davis Created: 12 December 2023

Category: Watch Me Work Live Streams

Hot!Hits: 696Reading time: 02:03

Join us for an interview with Carlos Camara, who has written a book about Developing Extensions for Joomla! 5. It's all about how you can extend your sites and build rich customizations with Joomla! plugins, modules, and components. Join us as I tray to better organize the menu on my Joomla site. Some Key Timestamps (will be filled in after the live stream)

00:00:00 Introduction & Background
00:06:22 Joomla 5 Development Book
00:15:04 Business & Community Work
00:28:12 Open Source & Developer Insights
00:44:56 AI & Future of Joomla
00:47:09 Extensions & Joomla Ecosystem
00:57:54 Marketing & Client Work
01:03:30 Future of Joomla & CMS Discussion
01:19:50 Conclusion & Fun Anecdotes

✅ Summary

Carlos’s Joomla Journey & Background
Carlos shares his life in Spain, his Joomla journey, and how his Spanish language skills tied into creating a Joomla podcast and meeting key contributors in person.
Writing the Joomla 5 Development Book
He discusses the inspiration, challenges, and collaboration behind writing the book, including the publishing process with Packet Publishing.
Target Audience & Technical Scope
The book is geared towards intermediate developers familiar with Joomla 4 and 5. Carlos explains compatibility issues and the skill levels required.
Community Involvement vs. Business Demands
He talks about balancing extension development, writing, and community contributions—highlighting the emotional and time demands of community work.
Business Model & Team Challenges
Carlos outlines his business model—developing extensions for clients—and reflects on the difficulty of building a reliable team while maintaining high standards.
Open Source Realities & Developer Empathy
He sheds light on user expectations in open source, the value of kindness in programming, and how developer egos and approaches can differ.
AI in Joomla & Extension Inspiration
Carlos discusses AI assistant ideas, the role of basic extensions, and how many of his best extensions came from personal needs or client requests.
Joomla Ecosystem & Core vs. Extensions
He reflects on the balance between core functionality and extensions, and the growing need for tools like job search and podcast extensions.
The Future of Joomla & Competing Platforms
Thoughts on Joomla 6, WordPress, and how platforms like Wix and Squarespace compare. Carlos speculates on a possible core page builder for Joomla.
Marketing Challenges & Content Promotion
Carlos ends by sharing his struggles and tips on marketing as a developer, promoting Joomla content locally and globally, and staying inspired through creativity.