jBackend Community is the lite version of jBackend available for free, no subscription required. It provides all the basic features to integrate Joomla content with mobile apps, syndication networks, affiliate networks and any external system, and it is mainly intended to give a chance to test jBackend capabilities, to develop and test new modules, and to provide some basic REST API integration features to a Joomla site.
When the upgrade to the full jBackend version is required, it is possible to install the full jBackend package over the Community version. The two versions share the same data tables and settings, and the upgrade process will preserve the configuration and all existing data.
The Community version is completely free, but doesn't provide the full functionalities available for jBackend. Here's a comparison matrix between jBackend Community and jBackend:
| Features | jBackend Community | jBackend |
|---|---|---|
| Extensible through plugins to increase API and support any Joomla extension |  (2 plugins in the package) |
(3 plugins in the package, 7+ included with the subscription) |
| Support for publishing of multiple endpoints, each with its specific settings | |
|
| Three endpoint access type (free access, user authenticated only, API Key required) |  (free only) |
|
| Tracing requests in the database for each endpoint | |
|
| Selection of jBackend plugins to enable for each endpoint | |
|
| API Key management interface | (not used) |
|
| Request log management interface | |
|
| Each API Key can have a max daily requests limit and an expiration date | (not used) |
|
| Each API Key can be targeted on separate endpoints | (not used) |
|
| Access control is compliant with integrated ACL | (not used) |
|
| Support for REST compliant requests | |
|
| JSON format for responses | |
|
| Support for session ID | (only cookies) |
|
| Get the list of articles by tag id (content module) | |
|
| Support for push notifications on iOS (APNs) and Android (GCM) | |
|
| Custom payload for push notifications | |
|
| Scheduled sending of push notifications | |
|
| Push notifications can be create and scheduled via API call | |
|
| Push notifications can be targeted on selected users, groups or devices | |
|
| License | GPL 2.0 | GPL 2.0 |
| Price | Free | 14 € (one year subscription) |
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The basic extension package includes the jBackend component, that provides the general infrastructure for endpoints, and plugins support system. Also the following plugins are already included in the basic package:
- User Module: provides support for Joomla users (e.g. login, logout, registration);
- Content Module: provides support for standard Joomla content (e.g. categories and articles);
Additional plugins are available only with a valid jBackend Subscription and can be downloaded from here and installed separately. More info about jBackend can be found here
jBackend Community is released under GPL 2.0 license.