Joomla! Menu-Items

Joomla! Menu-Items

Presentation “Joomla! Menu-Items” - http://slideshare.net/yireo
Jisse Reitsma (jisse@yireo.com) - Twitter @yireo

My name is Jisse 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 I
Menu 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
Component
Core feature of a page
Examples: Forum, article, blog, category listing, contact-form

Module
Additional features of a page
Examples: Menu, breadcrumbs, search-box, latest blog, banner


Example


Example
Component


Example
Modules


Part II
Some practical tips


Splitmenu
Splitmenu
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 module
Links are still usable, but never displayed on a webpage
Useful for search-pages, contact-page, homepage


Rebuild Menus
Rebuild hierarchy of menus
Possibility of menu-corruption when lft & rgt fields are messed up
Major warning: Possibility that IDs are renumbered


Part III
Your friend “Itemid”


System URLs versus SEF URLs
System URL
index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&Itemid=34

SEF URL
blog/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 URL
blog/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-Item
Assignment 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 page
index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5


Common problems with Itemids
Menu is not expanded correctly
Missing Itemid causes incorrect relation between Menu-Items

Different template-style is applied
Template assignment is based on the Itemid

Modules are disappearing or reappearing
Module assignment is based on the Itemid


Menu Item Aliases
Original URL

Menu Item Alias
index.php?Itemid=34


Yireo extension: Dynamic404
Handle “404 Not Found” errors in a dynamic way
http://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


Joomla! Menu-Items

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Joomla! Menu-Items

Similar to Joomla! Menu-Items (20)

More from Yireo

More from Yireo (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Joomla! Menu-Items