Today we're going to look at the Extension Manager. Themes are look/feel and layout settings; Components are folder views, message views, etc.; Folder Items are "things that live in a folder," like blogs or calendars; User Items are special bits of user-centric functionality like the Message Center; and Extensions are... well, Extensions are anything that doesn't fit neatly in any of the other buckets. Register Plus (extra user fields to provide extended profiles, plus COPPA support, etc.) is an Extension. Time Since Posting (says "2 days 15 minutes" rather than the exact date posted) is an Extension. The Auto-Responder Filter (allows filtering of out of office replies and other auto-responders) is an extension. There are dozens.
Some extensions must be enabled sitewide. Other extensions can be enabled just in one or more folder hierarchies if that suits your needs better. Extensions are inherited - if you enable Time Since Posting in the Pets folder, the Dogs, Cats, and Fish folders will automatically have it enabled as well.
To enable an extension sitewide, navigate to the Control Panel Extension Manager and use the Choose Extensions option in the Extension Manager pulldown menu. For each extension you want to enable, check the box next to it and submit the form.
To enable an extension in a specific folder, navigate to that folder, click the Edit Folder link, and find the folder-level Extension Manager. Choose the Choose Extensions for this Level option there and you'll see a very similar page, except it will show you if an extension is already enabled there because it is inherited, and it will show you those extensions that can only be enabled in the Control Panel for the top level of the site. Any extensions not inherited, and which don't require enabling at the top level, can be turned on there.
As you can see from the Extension Manager pulldown menu, Extensions each have a settings page, just like other plugins.
That's about all there is about installing Extensions, but the functionality they can add is quite broad and deep.
Next time we'll talk about Localization tools.
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