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by
Tom Canavan | November 2010 |
Cookbooks Joomla! Content Management Open Source
Joomla! can be extended via the use of "Extensions". These extensions fall into three categories: Components, Modules, and Plugins. In the previous article we covered the installation and management of components. That's exactly half the process. Next you create a menu item for it. This will enable it to interact with the users. Lastly you will learn how to change the menu order of components.
In this article by Tom Canavan, author of Joomla! 1.5 Cookbook, we will cover:
- Creating menu items for components
- Changing the menu order of a component
| Read more about this book |
(For more resources on Joomla!, see here.)
Carrying on with our Agora example, let's create a menu for Agora so our WidgetWorld Users can post threads on the products.
How to do it...
- Log in to your Administrator Console.
- Click Menus and choose the menu you wish - in this case, use Main Menu - thus Menus | Main Menu.
- Click New in the upper right-hand corner.
The above screenshot is a snippet of the Select Menu Item Type - Yours will vary.
In this example, we see several items - we want Agora Forum.
- Click Agora Forum.
- Scroll down and fill out the details as you see here (use your own details):
This will give the forum menu on the home page a title called WidgetWorld FORUM.
- Click Save.
Now when we visit this from the front of the site we see the completed WidgetWorld FORUM on our menu:
How it works...
The creation and location for the component is stored in the database. When the Joomla! template renders the page, it will include the component.
Thus - when you create a menu item for the component you are giving the user the ability to 'use' the component.
There's more...
As you gain more experience with Joomla!, you'll want to work with the menu to give it a more custom feel. Let's look at changing the location of menus.
Changing the location of the menu
You likely noted that the forum in the last example was at the bottom of the Main Menu. Let's change the order.
- Click Menu | Main Menu - see the Order column.
This is the order of display.
- Type 2 in the Order number box for the WidgetWorld FORUM.
- Click the Floppy disk <save> icon next to Order - the result should be as you see in the following screenshot:
Here are the menus before and after side-by-side:
Summary
Having covered menu items for components, in the next article we will cover Installing, Creating, and Managing Modules.
Further resources on this subject:
- Joomla! 1.5: Installing, Creating, and Managing Modules
- Installation and Introduction of K2 Content Construction Kit
- Managing Articles Using the K2 Content Construction Kit
- Joomla! 1.5: Installing and Managing Components
About the Author :
Tom Canavan
Tom Canavan has been in the Computer and IT industry for 20+ years where he spent several years as a Systems Consultant to many Fortune 100 clients and other global companies.
Canavan is considered a top security and disaster recovery expert in the Joomla world. He is the author of the Packt Published book Joomla! Web Security.
He is a former CIO and is currently the co-founder of SalvusAlerting.com. Canavan contributes articles on security and disaster recovery to several websites.
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