The Joomla! Extensions Directory ™

I needed a native component like this for running surveys in schools having made do with the phpESP script running in an iframe within Joomla for some years. It's perfect, with a modern interface, loads of skins to suit virtually any site design, front end survey management (essential for less savvy users), decent reporting and even the ability to use a WYSIWY editor to simply embed MP3 files so that questions can be 'read' to younger children. The question piping function is useful (once you've worked out the logic!). I had an issue with looping re-directs when a user tried to access a survey already taken but this was swiftly resolved by the developer within hours of reporting and a patch created. Stellar support for such a reasonably priced component. Highly recommended.

For a free extension this is remarkable. Not even any links back to the developer! Found this an ideal solution for a smallish site. At first glance it may not be obvious how things work but it is possible to install some demo data and easily workk things out from there. There is some useful online documentation available also. I liked the way subscriptions to newsletters can be for general public or registered users, with a useful groups system to refine things further. I had some problems sending newsletters out but the developer quickly found the root cause and solved the issue. I've not had better support with some paid extensions! Only downside is that it looks as though future development is focusing on versions of Joomla above 1.5.x (understandable and not really an issue given the very good level of support for the very useable 1.5.x version).

I first experimented with the free version, which is so much neater (and more transparent) than having the ususal Google Translator widget. I upgraded to the Pro version due to it offering language specific URLs, much in the way that Joomfish does. It is necessary to have certain things installed on your server, most of which are standard in Linux installations these days: PHP Curl + PHP Json. Less likely is ionCube loader, which can be installed by a user in most cases without having to refer to their hosting provider.

Had a couple of issues, which were responded to swiftly by the developer in the forum (i.e. within an hour). Turned out the issues were due to me having the site .htaccess protected during development, rather than GTranslate.

That was two days ago. Today I received an email from the developer with the latest release attached as a Zip (no hunting / checking a site for downloads). This version is a pearler: i) Now uses a Google API (you need to get your own but that's easy enough) allowing translation of up to 100,000 characters a day. A new sophisticated caching system means that changes to pages will only require asking Google for translations of any new words should mean that, after initial translations, the load on Google is keplt well within the character limit. Some users of the previous version had run into trouble with the number of requests being sent to Google and translations were suspended for up to 10 days. Hopefully this will avoid all that. Now for the killer feature: the ability to edit the translated text, so that if Google doesn't get it right you can make manual edits. I'd previously planned to use Joomfish on this site but I really can't see the need now. This looks as though it's going to save me masses of time (and save my clients loads of money!) Following today's release I had just one question to ask the developer (about cacheing) and it was responded to within 10 minutes. Not the cheapest extension I've ever bought but in terms of what it can do, it must rank highly as one of the best value.

If you are looking for a forum that can be set up and running in minutes and has a clean interface that very cleverly integrates with your existing template (they call the feature 'chameleon') then check this one out. It's still relatively young in development terms buy the guys at NinjaForge are working hard with an impressive planned feature set over an above what is already there - things such as integration with popular community software. Things that impress me most ...

i) Ability to upload your own icons for different forum sections etc.
ii) In-editor previews of posts
iii) Fantastic support - the support folk will bend over backwards to help sort out issues for you - even if they are caused by things out of their control such as the template you are using, or other modules. A real personal touch - becoming quite rare!

This is a very useful component, providing a relatively easy way to customise the information gathered from users as they register. I particularly like the ability to have registrants accept the site's T&Cs during the account creation process.

The developer is responsive to any support queries via a forum and is actively improving the product based on feedback. Yes, it's a commercial product but, quite honestly, not a lot for what you are getting.