You may already have a site with articles, menus and other extensions, so this page tells you what Webal Blocks adds when you install it and what it leaves exactly as it was.
We tested this on a practice site that ran Joomla 6.2. The practice site held the Joomla sample blog, a child theme with changes of its own, a second template (T4) and a file that we planted ourselves. We took a full snapshot of its files and database before and after each install, and then compared the snapshots.
What the install adds
- Webal's own files. The component, the 39 modules, the two plugins and the child theme each go in their own Webal folders, and language files for them are added as well.
- Six database tables. The names of these tables contain wblblocks_. See Database requirements.
- One copy of each website module. The install adds each one to your list of modules, but these copies are switched off and are on no pages.
- A new template style. It is called Cassiopeia - Webal, and it is not made the default, so your site keeps the template that it has now.
- The Webal Blocks entries in the administrator menus. These entries appear under Components.
What the install leaves alone
In every test that we ran, we found no change to any of these:
- your articles, categories and tags,
- your menus and menu items,
- the modules you made yourself,
- your users and groups,
- your other templates, and the styles of your own template,
- your other plugins and components,
- the Global Configuration of Joomla,
- your files, such as a user.css file or a template override that you wrote.
Installing a single Webal module, or the child theme, also changed nothing outside Webal's own items.
What your visitors see
Right after the install, with the Options left as they come, a page that has no Webal module on it looks exactly as it did before. In our test of ten pages, no page changed, and we also looked at the page source of thirteen pages and found no Webal code in any of them. As a check on the test itself, we switched the back to top button on. Its code then appeared in the page source, and it went away again when we switched the button off.
This works because the features that touch every page start switched off, and each one adds something to a page only when you turn it on:
- The back to top button is off.
- Web-friendly names for uploaded files are off.
- The page transition is set to Off.
- The Titles and caching button on Joomla's Modules list is off.
- The two Admin quick links modules are installed but not published, so nothing new shows in the administrator area until you publish them.
You switch these on yourself when you want them, and you can find the settings of the System - Webal Site plugin in the Options tour.
The administrator logo. There is one deliberate exception to "leaves alone". The setting Show the Webal Blocks logo in the administrator is on when you install, and it puts the Webal Blocks logo into the logo boxes of your administrator template style. Webal Blocks saves your own logo first, and it puts your logo back when you switch the setting off or remove Webal Blocks. See the Options tour.
The two plugins
- The System - Webal Site plugin is switched on the first time you install the package. After that, an update never switches it on again, so any choice that you make stays as it is.
- The Content - Webal WebP on upload plugin is off until you switch it on.
- Even when the System - Webal Site plugin is switched on, its own features start switched off, as the section "What your visitors see" above explains.
The menu layout files
The install does not copy anything into your template's folders. The four menu layout files are copied only when you press Install on the Webal Blocks Dashboard, and Webal Blocks never overwrites a file that it did not make. In our test we planted a file with the same name as one of ours. After we pressed Install all, our file was still there and untouched, and the screen said so. See Installing the menu layouts into templates.
When you install the same package again
We changed several Webal Blocks settings, switched a plugin off, changed the plugin's own settings and changed the settings of the child theme style. Then we installed the same package again, and every one of those values was exactly the same afterwards.
When you update, Webal Blocks does bring its own menu layout files up to date, but it only does this for files that it made and that you have not edited. It never adds a layout that is not there. You can switch this off in the Options: Keep the Webal menu layouts up to date when Webal Blocks is updated. See Updating.
When you remove it
Removing the package takes away only Webal's own items, and the page Uninstalling explains the details.
Tip Joomla itself asks browsers to fetch fresh copies of your site's styles after any extension install, and that is Joomla's doing, not Webal Blocks'.