Joomla! Menu-Items

Presentation “Joomla! Menu-Items” - http://slideshare.net/yireoJisse Reitsma ([email protected]) - Twitter @yireo

Joomla! Menu-Items


My name is J isse Reitsma

Joomla! enthousiast

PHP programmer

Lead developer of Yireo

Joomla! templates-book (NL)


My presentation

Part I - Menu basics

Part II - Some practical tips

Part III - Your friend “Itemid”


Part IMenu basics


Definition of “Menu-Item”

A link to another page (either internal Joomla! page, or external webpage), where the configurable settings tell something about both the link itself as the destination page


Logic of menus

A page is a component

A Menu-Item refers to a page, therefor a component

A Menu-Item is part of a menu

A menu can be shown throw a menu-module (mod_menu)


Components & modules

ComponentCore feature of a page

Examples: Forum, article, blog, category listing, contact-form

ModuleAdditional features of a page

Examples: Menu, breadcrumbs, search-box, latest blog, banner


Example


Example

Component


Example

Modules


Part IISome practical tips


SplitmenuSplitmenu

1 Menu (for example “Site Menu”)

2 or more Menu-modules

Configuration Menu-module “Top Menu”Menu “Site Menu”

Start Level = 1; End Level = 1

Configuration Menu-module “Sub Menu”Menu “Site Menu”

Start Level = 2; End Level = 99


System Links


One Menu strategy

1 menu-structure for the entire site

No sitemap needed

Helper-menus with Menu Item Aliases

Tip:Draw a tree-like picture of your site

If you don't understand it, neither will your visitor


Invisible menus

A menu without a moduleLinks are still usable, but never displayed on a webpage

Useful for search-pages, contact-page, homepage


Rebuild Menus

Rebuild hierarchy of menusPossibility of menu-corruption when lft & rgt fields are messed up

Major warning: Possibility that IDs are renumbered


Part IIIYour friend “Itemid”


System URLs versus SEF URLs

System URLindex.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&Itemid=34

SEF URLblog/5-my-example-article

ID 5 is the article ID

ID 34 is the Menu-Item ID of the Menu-Item “Blog”


Yireo extension: seftest

Turn on or off SEF by adding a flag to the URLblog/5-my-example-article?sef=0

index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&Itemid=34&sef=1

Only visible for your own browser-session, and NOT for Google Search robots

Tip: Set access-level of plugin to “Special” (Super Users only)


Itemid = Menu-Item ID


Why is the Itemid important?

Settings are assigned to a Menu-ItemAssignment of modules to Menu-Items

Assignment of template styles to Menu-Items

Breadcrumbs

Settings for a specific component-page

Keeping track of the current page

Troubleshooting this, involves knowing about the Itemid


Itemid or not

Identical content but different pageindex.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&Itemid=34

index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5


Common problems with Itemids

Menu is not expanded correctlyMissing Itemid causes incorrect relation between Menu-Items

Different template-style is appliedTemplate assignment is based on the Itemid

Modules are disappearing or reappearingModule assignment is based on the Itemid


Menu Item Aliases

Original URLindex.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&Itemid=34

Menu Item Aliasindex.php?Itemid=34


Yireo extension: Dynamic404

Handle “404 Not Found” errors in a dynamic wayhttp://yireo.com/dynamic404 = Gives you a 404-error, handled by Joomla!

Redirects to http://www.yireo.com/software/joomla-extensions/dynamic404

Easier for your visitors; A delight for Search Engine Optimization


tweets to @yireo

Technology

Joomla! Menu-Items