The public portal is the customer-facing side of ExtensionFlow. It should answer what the product is, which release should be installed, what changed, whether the platform is healthy and where supporting documentation lives. This article explains each major public page and the purpose of its actions.
Catalog page
The catalog is for discovery. It should stay compact, searchable and focused on parent products. Child artifacts are intentionally nested below their parent extension so a package with many language packs does not flood the public list.
| Element | Purpose | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Search | Filters products by name, alias, element or description. | The AJAX filter changes the list without a full page reload. |
| Type filter | Narrows the catalog to modules, plugins, packages, components or language packs. | Use when the visitor already knows the Joomla extension type. |
| Extension card | Shows product name, short description, latest version and primary actions. | Cards should avoid internal implementation details. |
| View extension | Opens the product hub. | This is the primary catalog action. |
Extension overview page
The extension page is the operational hub. Releases stay here because release choice and download behavior belong to the product page, not the long-form documentation article.
| Button or block | Purpose | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Download latest | Downloads the current public package when the latest release is downloadable. | Use for normal installation when compatibility matches. |
| Documentation | Opens the full product guide. | Use when the visitor needs explanation, setup notes, FAQ or related files. |
| Changelog | Shows product-level change history. | Use to understand what changed across releases. |
| Roadmap | Shows planned or in-progress product work. | Use to understand future direction. |
| Release filters | Narrow the release table by version, stability, status or channel. | Use when the product has many historical releases. |
| Child artifacts | Shows bundled plugins, language packs or related add-ons below the releases. | Use when the extension ships multiple installable pieces. |
Documentation pages
Documentation pages should explain the product and workflows. They can link to related ADRs, PDFs, architecture notes and seed notes, but they should not become another release index because that duplicates the product page and makes the guide harder to read.
- Keep product explanations, setup guides, field references and FAQs in documentation.
- Keep release tables, downloads and update-feed links on the extension overview or release pages.
- Use related documentation files for ADRs, PDFs and supporting implementation notes.
Status, changelog and roadmap
| Page | Purpose | Important behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Shows current incidents, maintenance and infrastructure checks. | The top status pill links here from the public header. |
| Platform changelog | Shows changes to ExtensionFlow itself. | This is separate from extension release changelogs. |
| Roadmap | Shows platform or product planning items. | Roadmap is not release history; it is future or planned work. |