On October 3, 2016 Joomla! announced the new and improved Joomla! Showcase Directory, a place where you can demonstrate the flexibility, variety, extensibility and strengths of Joomla! as well as your design and creative skills. If you haven’t submitted your creative websites yet, now is the time to do so.

Submission Rules

Submitting your site to Joomla! Showcase should be abided by certain rules. In order for the site to be approved, the submitted site must be compliant to the Showcase Directory rules.

The main purpose of showcasing your site is to demonstrate the strengths of Joomla!.

Showcase Registration

You can find the ‘register’ button on the right side of the Joomla! Showcase Directory site. Once you click you’ll be taken to a new page. Fill in the required fields and hit the ‘save’ button. A mail will be sent to your registered email address. Within a few minutes you should receive a confirmation email including an activation link for your profile. Click it and fill in your username and password.

You are now registered and able to submit sites and reviews, as well as modify your moderated sites.

Moderation Process

Your submitted site will be moderated by a Joomla! Showcase Directory team. The site could be rejected or might be requested for corrections to make sure it abides by the Joomla! Showcase submission rules. If it does by the rules, the site will be moderated again and approved to be showcased. The process usually takes around one business day. The submitted sites should be for sure Joomla! sites; any site which is not Joomla! will not be moderated and directly rejected.

Featured Sites

Your site might be set as featured in case it meets high standards. The high standards revolve around producing a clean, light, responsive, and optimized website design including the use of Joomla! core advanced features or with the usage of 3rd party extensions.

Featured Countries

The country will be set as featured if there are at least 20 sites from more than one company in that category. Be free to contact Joomla! Showcase Directory team if that's the case and the country will be added under the "Featured Countries" menu item.

Introducing Case Studies

Joomla! Showcase Team would like to introduce Case Studies. Case studies allow site owners to showcase their project description, challenges faced, approaches used to reach the final results with their websites creation, and redesign or migration. Please send your case study, as explained below, by contacting Joomla! Showcase Directory Team. Check FAQ for more information.

Project:  Title of Project 

Please include in the title any particular features used or benefits gained as a result of the project.

Example: Joomla website refresh and redesign, incorporating independent booking and payment systems. Client Name with link to website; Add screenshot of website.

Business Description

(Add 2 to 3 lines describing the business, example size of business, offer, industry and target market)

Example: Company A is an established beach-front Bed and Breakfast (B&B) property on the peaceful Wild Atlantic Way in the heart of Connemara. Stunningly located with rooms overlooking the beautiful lake waters, it is a perfect place for couples and families to stay, relax and enjoy the area whilst visiting Connemara.

Challenge

(In a few short sentences and paragraphs (1 to 3 max) explain what the client wanted when they approached you for the job) 

Example: The directors knew that while their business was growing – it had shown steady growth based on their 5-star service excellence and unique location - however their website was in need of an upgrade and redesign. They also needed to revise their operating structure. 

When the website was first developed, the business was still in its early days and they had chosen not to invest in features such as online booking and payment engine. Instead they used the services provided through third party online booking sites (OTAs).  While these relationships helped to grow their business through added visibility and reach, this invariably meant a large portion of income from every booking was regularly paid out in commissions.  

Company A was poised for growth. They knew that in the long run, they needed to become independent, and bring such features under their direct control. This would ensure that they were future-proofing the business for growth.

The Approach

(In a few sentences/paras explain the work that was required, breaking it in to parts so that the reader can understand what the job entailed. Feel free to list the particular features included in the project as this will help SEO)

Example: The business needed to upgrade and redesign its Joomla website while ensuring full synchronisation with back-office operations. Top priority was the need to have real-time room-availability accessible on several channels; the site had to be fully responsive and easily accessible for online bookings on mobiles and tablets.  Equally, the site had to remain bi-lingual to cater for French visitors.

They approached Company B, who had built their first site and were acknowledged experts in Joomla sites. With their help, they mapped out their requirements, highlighting elements they considered essential for the smooth running of their operation, as well as other features which would help them maintain their online visibility and ease-of-use for site visitors. 

Puma IT handled the Joomla CMS upgrade and template fresh, re-skining the site template with the refreshed design. They successfully managed the new build within a short, four month time-frame. Many of the required features were out-of-the-box elements in Joomla Core, making it a seamless operation to revise and upgrade the existing site. These included: 

List the features and benefits, separating core from third party:

• Seamless content and structure migration from existing site, including bilingual  content

• Responsive design optimised for mobile & tablet

• Template refresh

• Bilingual elements - French English

Third party extensions:

• Booking solution with payment engine

• Featured backend software with multiple rooms management

• Social media integration

• Independent and yet fully synchronized with the main Online Travel Agents (OTS)

• Automated email system for reservation reminder, invoice, follow up message, customised reservation process and user interface

The Result

(In one paragraph explain the results of the project, giving statistics and real results where possible.)

Example: Within a few months, Company A saw a 12% increase in direct bookings. Furthermore, their online ranking and traffic were similarly increasing month-on-month. By investing in a class-leading Joomla-based solution that was future proofed, they were ensuring that the business was accessible and operating well across all channels and that they could continue to add features to the site as required. Today, it is a growing business with an attractive, independent and secure online presence powered by Joomla. 

(Add a comment from the site builder. This will help the company to gain more visibility and also promote their services. We do not recommend using names unless you are a freelancer)

Example: As Company B commented, since the site was already built using Joomla, the refresh and redesign was a seamless and painless project. Many of the features were already included in the Joomla core, thus ensuring stability and security to both the site and the booking system. It also reduced the need for numerous third-party plugins which could compromise the business if not maintained. 

(If available add a client testimonial.  This will help both the site builder and the end client as it will be on the Joomla website.  They can also then include it on their website with links to Joomla).

Example: Company A were equally pleased, “It was a very good choice… the site works very well, and customers are happy because they can book online, directly from the website. And …the costs were totally covered in less than one year.”