Community Magazine Introducing the Joomla Health Checker: Your Website's Personal Physician
Empowering administrators with insights beyond just updates
We've all been there. You log into your Joomla administrator panel, check for updates, see that green checkmark, and think "Great! My site is healthy." But is it really?
The current update checker tells us if our extensions are current, but what about performance bottlenecks, security configurations, accessibility issues, or SEO optimizations that could be holding our sites back?
Enter the Joomla Health Checker – a new initiative that aims to further empower site administrators in care and maintenance of Joomla websites. Think of it as upgrading from a simple thermometer to a full medical diagnostic suite for your website.
Beyond the Update Checker: A Holistic Approach to Website Health
The concept behind the Joomla Health Checker is simple. While the existing update checker focuses solely on whether your extensions are current, the Health Checker takes a 360-degree view of your website's wellbeing.
Picture this: you open your administrator dashboard and instead of just seeing "Updates Available: 0," you're greeted with a comprehensive health score, actionable insights, and clear pathways to improvement. The Health Checker evaluates multiple dimensions of your site's performance:
Performance Metrics - Is your site loading quickly? Are there unused extensions slowing things down? Could your database use some optimization?
Security Posture - Are your file permissions configured correctly? Do you have unnecessary admin users? Is your site following security best practices?
SEO Health - Are your meta descriptions optimized? Do you have broken internal links? Are your images missing alt tags?
Accessibility Compliance - Is your site usable by people with disabilities? Are you following WCAG guidelines?
Content Quality - Do you have orphaned articles? Broken menu links? Categories with no content?
A Dashboard That Works for You
The Health Checker is designed with you in mind with a customizable dashboard. We understand that not every Joomla administrator has the same priorities or expertise level. A small business owner running a simple company website has different needs than a digital agency managing dozens of client sites.
The dashboard adapts to your role and requirements. The idea is that new administrators might see simplified recommendations with step-by-step guidance, while experienced developers could access detailed technical reports and advanced configuration options. Site owners can focus on content and SEO recommendations, while hosting providers might prioritize performance and security metrics.
Each health check comes with direct action links. The details on what is known about the concern and suggested next steps. No more hunting through menus or wondering where to start – the Health Checker becomes your guide to a better website.
More Than Just Diagnostics
The Health Checker isn't designed to replace human expertise – it's designed to amplify it. Think of it as having a knowledgeable Joomla expert looking over your shoulder, pointing out opportunities and potential issues before they become problems.
For developers, it provides a systematic way to audit client sites and demonstrate value. For site owners, it demystifies website maintenance and provides clear priorities. For the broader Joomla ecosystem, it helps ensure that websites built with our beloved CMS are fast, secure, accessible, and effective.
The Path Forward: Building Together
Like all great Joomla initiatives, the Health Checker is being built by volunteers who believe in making the web a better place. The core concept is solid, but we need more hands to make this vision a reality.
Whether you're a PHP developer who can contribute code, a UX designer who can improve the interface, a content writer who can craft helpful explanations, or simply an enthusiastic Joomla user who can test and provide feedback – there's a place for you in this project.
Join the Health Revolution
The Joomla Health Checker represents more than just a new feature – it's a new mindset about website maintenance. Instead of reactive "fix it when it breaks" approaches, we're enabling proactive "optimize before issues arise" workflows.
We're building something that will help every Joomla site be better: faster, more secure, more accessible, and more successful. But we can't do it alone.
Ready to contribute? Join our team on MatterMost in the 6.0 Health Checker channel. Whether you can contribute an hour a week or become a core team member, we'd love to have you aboard.
The future of Joomla website health starts with us – the community that believes in building better websites for everyone. Are you ready to help diagnose, treat, and prevent website issues before they impact your users?
The Health Checker team is actively seeking volunteers in development, testing, documentation, and user experience design. No contribution is too small, and every perspective makes the project stronger. Join us in making Joomla sites healthier, one check at a time.
This article represents the vision and progress of the Joomla Health Checker working group. The features described are in active development and subject to community input and refinement. For the latest updates and to contribute, visit our MatterMost channel or follow the project's progress on GitHub.
Some articles published on the Joomla Community Magazine represent the personal opinion or experience of the Author on the specific topic and might not be aligned to the official position of the Joomla Project
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Comments 1
The concept of a site health check is well-established. We’ve implemented similar functionality in security-focused extensions, and platforms like WordPress offer comparable features. However, a recurring issue is that users often interpret the goal as achieving a "perfect 100%" score. In many cases, this pursuit is neither practical nor appropriate for their specific use case and can lead to unnecessary changes that may degrade site stability or usability. This reflects a broader systemic problem: such tools are either of limited use to advanced users or too ambiguous for less experienced users, creating confusion and, potentially, mistrust. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has discovered a solution to this systemic issue. The most realistic mitigation may be to include clear guidance that a perfect score is neither expected nor required, and that expert review may be advisable.
I would also like to express a modicum of concern regarding the UI decision to label compliant third-party extensions as "Low Risk" rather than using more neutral terminology like "OK" or omitting them entirely. To an end user, "Low Risk" implies the potential for issues, which may prompt unnecessary uninstallations or support requests. This isn't hypothetical. We've seen similar reactions stemming from unfortunate, misleading warnings in Joomla Update’s Pre-Update Check caused, for example, by temporary issues like network problems or hosting restrictions. Such messaging gradually erodes user trust in the ecosystem, which could push users toward other platforms perceived as more reliable or better supported.
Another critical point is the decision-making process itself. Conducting discussions exclusively in Mattermost, an ephemeral and non-indexable communication channel, risks the loss of valuable institutional knowledge. This has happened before with Joomla 4 development discussions, and it's particularly problematic in a volunteer-driven project where contributor turnover is high.
Additionally, relying solely on chat-based platforms limits participation to those who can afford to be constantly available. This excludes key stakeholders, such as third-party developers and site integrators. These are the groups most impacted by these changes.
Open source development should strive for inclusive, transparent decision-making. While platforms like GitHub have their own limitations, they offer better long-term traceability and broader engagement. There's a reason documentation lives on a structured website and not on Discord. We should apply the same thinking for development-related discussions. Mistakes made by others in similar contexts offer valuable lessons. It’s in our best interest to learn from them rather than repeat them.