Over 15 years ago Cédric Keiflin crossed the road of Joomla, he learned the CMS, but that’s not all. He shared his knowledge via certain products and his writings, in the French-speaking and international community.

And since his initials are known in the Joomla world, we have all met CK one day!

But let him tell us about this beautiful encounter with a thing called Joomla.

Tell us a little about yourself: where do you live, what do you do in your daily life, what is your background?

Hello, my name is Cédric and I live in France in a small city located in the mountains, with my wife and 2 children. I love playing with anything that is about creating, like making software on my computer (as you know), but also some gardening for growing and harvesting my own vegetables, and working with wood. But I also like doing some sports, and have a great time with my friends when the time comes for the apéro!

Of course I spend a lot of time in my days working on my Joomla extensions.

When did you make your first Joomla website / extension?

If I’m right, it was in 2007… One of my friends had a plane business and he told me “Hey Cédric, you must make me a website”. At this time, I had no idea of what a website was, lol, but I decided to give it a try. I searched, and I found Joomla 1.0 with the forum and the great community. I created my first website and the most important job I did was to create my own template from a SVG image that I created myself showing a plane in the air. My new passion was born: Joomla and templating.

What made you choose Joomla?

When I started on the web and especially in Joomla, I didn't know anything about it. I had never heard of HTML, CSS, templates and so on. I looked for help on the French Joomla forum and met some great people there. Some of them are still my friends today and the reason I chose Joomla is that I felt like I was in a family. I learned a lot from others and had a lot of good times with people, more than I ever expected.

What did you do first, and after that?

After doing my first website with Joomla 1.0 for the plane instructor, I continued to learn about Joomla and I spent a lot of time on the French forum to help others too. I have searched every documentation and information that I could find and learned about the Joomla templates. This was my hobby! 

One day I had some much data about the templates that I decided to make all that into one single file. This became my first tutorial about the Joomla templates. I wrote a lot for myself, to create my own documentation, and finally I decided to share this with others. I think this was my first contribution in the Joomla community. (I have searched for it and found it in my archive, it was the 13 october 2008, a tutorial to create your own Joomla 1.5 template).

Can you describe the process of creating your first Joomla extension?

If you visit my website, you will find one extension that doesn’t have the CK suffix. Have you seen that? Yes, this is the very first extension that I created in April 2009, and I was not alone! At this period of my life I spent a lot of time on the Joomla forum to discuss with other people and to learn some Javascript (especially Mootools) with my friend Ghazal. She was my mentor.

I don’t remember why, but there was a need for a tooltip feature and I have started the job for the CSS / JS files. I had no intention to make an extension, and also I had no idea how to make it. Ghazal did it! We finalized the extension together and I called it Tooltip GC (Ghazal Cédric). It still has the same name, even if the code has nothing to do with the V1 anymore 🙂.

What challenges did you face?

The challenges? I don’t know if I should call them challenges because everything that I did using Joomla, I did it with love and passion. I have spent a lot (a very lot) of hours learning Joomla, learning the code: HTML, CSS, Javascript, Mootools, JQuery, PHP … The one I did not feel very well with, was PHP. It was a long time ago! 

Another challenge was the feedback of the people, when you try to do something and some people are just hurting you. Fortunately they are rare and Joomla is made of a great community and great people that give you a lot of love.

How did you solve them?

I studied every tutorial that I could find, and tested anything I could do!

I also learned a lot about myself and how to manage things, like managing my own business and my personal life. 

Where did you get help (if you needed it)?

Until a few years ago, I always got a lot of help from the community, especially from the Joomla forums. I also participated in the very first JoomlApéro in Alsace/Lorraine, where I met some other users and learned a lot.

You are well-known in the French-speaking and international community, what is/was your involvement? 

From the start, in 2007, I always tried to help other users to use Joomla. I did it first on the French Joomla forum, for many years. Then I have written a few documents about Joomla templates to share my knowledge about it. I have also participated in the Joomla user groups, as coordinator for the JUG Alsace. We organized some events over the years and it was always a great moment with great people.

Nowadays, I develop my own extensions and provide support for them. My support is free, you don’t need to pay for it. I’m trying to help people even when the request is outside my scope, because I think that the most important thing is to help others to use Joomla, not especially my extensions. I try to listen to the users’ requests to make my extensions better, but also to be more accurate to the users' needs. 

Since Joomla 4 I have also started a thread on my forum where you can ask for an extension to be reborn. Some extensions have stopped and won’t be available anymore for Joomla 4. If it meets my criteria, I update it for Joomla 4 and I give it to the community. I have already created 3 extensions in this way.

Do you take part in any events?

I have taken part in every Joomlapéro that has been organized in Alsace since the beginning. I have also participated in the Joomladay France as a visitor, but a few years ago I gave some presentations about the Joomla templates and then my extensions. Now it’s an event where I can share everything about Joomla with my friends, and meet other Joomlers.

If there was one sentence to sum up your relationship with Joomla / Joomlers, what would it be?

The last words? I would say long life to Joomla, and spread the Joomla love around you! 

If I hadn’t met Joomla, my life would be totally different.