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Extension profiles and the coverage gate

Joomla extensions store media references in very different ways: sometimes as a path in a column, sometimes deep in a JSON parameter tree, sometimes as a folder entry. For Media Organizer to search a foreign extension reliably, it has to know where that extension keeps its references.

This knowledge sits in profiles.

Profiles are data, not code

A profile describes, for exactly one extension, which tables and columns can contain media references and how they are to be read. It is a data file — not program code.

That has a practical advantage: profiles can be updated independently of the extension. When knowledge about another third-party extension is added, you do not need a new program — only new data.

Profiles are not guessed. Every one of them comes out of a documented procedure in which the actual data structure of the extension is examined and verified. An invented table or column name would be the most dangerous kind of error: it would make a file that is in use look orphaned.

Which profiles are currently available is shown in Options → scanning under available profiles.

The coverage gate

Now the decisive question: what happens with an installed extension for which there is no profile?

Media Organizer could ignore it and hope. It does not. Instead it states: "for this extension I cannot rule out that it uses media" — and blocks deleting for good.

Incomplete coverage blocks deleting for good and nothing else. Scanning, reviewing, quarantine and restoring stay fully possible. All of that is reversible after all.

The notice appears at the top of the review view and names the extension concerned.

How to establish coverage

There are three clean ways:

  1. Wait or ask. For common extensions, profiles arrive with updates. If one you need is missing: report it.
  2. Register the extension as media-free. If an extension demonstrably stores no media references, enter its element (for example com_example) under Options → scan – advanced → media-free extensions. It then counts as covered.
    Under detected media-free extensions you find those already verified — you do not have to enter those yourself.
  3. Uninstall the extension if you no longer need it anyway.

"Media-free" is a claim you stand behind. Only register an extension if you really know — not to get rid of the notice. That very entry helps decide whether a file may be deleted.

The override — and why you should avoid it

There is a switch that lifts the block: Options → security & retention → override the deletion block on incomplete coverage.

It is deliberately built to be inconvenient:

  • Only super users may set it.
  • A reason is mandatory — no text, no override.
  • The override is recorded in the audit log together with the reason.

It exists for the case where you know better than the software and stand behind that. It is not a shortcut for clicking the notice away. If you need it, the more honest question is usually: why is the profile missing — and would the route via "register as media-free" not be the right one?

Custom fields: a common stumbling block

Custom fields can contain media. Which field types those are is defined under Options → scan – advanced → custom field media types. The default covers Joomla's own media field as well as common field plugins.

What matters is the automatism behind it: if media fields are used but not searched, deleting for good stays blocked. So if you use another field plugin that stores media, add its internal type name to this list.

Where to go from here

Applies to version 1.0.3.

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