Difference between revisions of "Creating Required Joomla Menu Items"

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__TOC__
 
__TOC__
  
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All listings and articles in Joomla should have a parent menu item, otherwise their URLs will have ugly "/component/content/article/" segment and it won't be possible to assign them modules.
  
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JReviews uses Joomla's content system for listings and because of this each listing must have a Joomla Category menu item as parent, so if you already created JReviews Category List menu items, Joomla will not use them as parent menu items for listings.
  
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== Generating proper Joomla article sef urls ==
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Without a parent menu item, the listing url will look similar to this:
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*http://www.example.com/component/content/article/49-category-name/subcategory-name/305-listing-title
  
  
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JReviews uses Joomla's content system for Listings; therefore the Listing pages in JReviews have the exact same URL as Joomla Article pages. Because of this, it is necessary to create several core Joomla Menu items to ensure that the Listing (Article) URLs will have the correct ItemID parameter (&Itemid=) that Joomla can use for proper module assignments and better SEF URLs .
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When you create a parent menu item, the "/component/content/article/" part will be replaced with the title alias of that menu item (i.e. /hotels/) and the listing detail page will show all modules that you assign to this parent menu item.
  
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You need to create Joomla '''Section Blog/List Layout''' or '''Category Blog/List Layout''' menu items for all Joomla Sections or Categories used with JReviews. Your choice will affect the way listings' SEF URLs will look if you use [[Using Joomla Core SEF|Joomla Core SEF]]<br />
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Since these Joomla Category menu items are required only for nicer listing SEF URLs and for module assignments, the menu items don't need to be visible on the site, that is why we create them inside a "Hidden Menu".
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== Creating Category menu items in Joomla 1.7 ==
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=== How to choose the best category menu item structure ===
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=== Steps for creating the menu items ===
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*In the Joomla administration click on Menus => Menu Manager and to create a new menu click on '''New'''.
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*In the next screen enter the '''Title''' and '''Menu Type''':
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[[File:NewHiddenMenu17.png]]
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*Next, start creating menu items in the '''Hidden Menu'''
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*After you click on '''New''' and click on '''Select''' Menu Item Type, you will get this popup with the list of available menu item types, choose Category Blog or Category List:
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[[File:NewJoomlaMenuItems17.png]]
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*After you click on the menu type, you will need to choose a category from the dropdown.
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*After you created all menu items, go to JReviews administration and  click on the "Clear Cache" link in the left menu. This is necessary because JReviews stores a cached version of the menu system to improve performance.
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== Creating Section/Category menu items in Joomla 1.5 ==
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=== How to choose the best section/category menu item structure ===
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Choosing a good menu item structure is important because the title aliases of those menu items will be used in urls of listings.
  
 
If you create Joomla Section menu items, the URLs will look like this:
 
If you create Joomla Section menu items, the URLs will look like this:
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*<span style="color: blue">http://example.com/section-menu-alias/category-menu-alias/id-article-titlealias</span>
 
*<span style="color: blue">http://example.com/section-menu-alias/category-menu-alias/id-article-titlealias</span>
  
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=== Steps for creating the section or category menu items ===
  
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Because JReviews also has its own menus for sections and categories, the above Joomla menus are considered duplicates and don't need to be displayed on your site. They need to be created only to ensure proper module assignments and better looking SEF URLs for listing pages. We recommend creating a new "Hidden Menu" without a module. If you want to display Section and Category menu items on your site, create [[Creating JReviews Menu Items|JReviews Section/Category List menu items]].
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*In the Joomla administration click on Menus => Menu Manager and to create a new menu click on '''New'''.
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*In  the next screen enter the '''Name''' and '''Title''' of the menu, but  leave the Module Title empty, so that the module won't be created:
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== Steps for creating Joomla Section or Category menu items in Joomla 1.5 ==
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*In the Joomla administration click on Menus => Menu Manager and to create a new menu click on '''New'''.
 
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*In the next screen enter the '''Name''' and '''Title''' of the menu, but leave the Module Title empty, so that the module won't be created:
 
 
[[File:NewHiddenMenu.png]]
 
[[File:NewHiddenMenu.png]]
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*Next, start creating menu items in the '''Hidden Menu'''
 
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[[File:NewJoomlaMenuItems.png]]
 
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*Make sure you enter unique Title/Alias for each menu item, because duplicates will cause SEF issues
 
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*After you created all menu items, go to JReviews administration and click on the "Clear Cache" link in the left menu. This is necessary because JReviews stores a cached version of the menu system to improve performance.
 
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== Steps for creating Joomla Category menu items in Joomla 1.7 ==
 
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*In the Joomla administration click on Menus => Menu Manager and to create a new menu click on '''New'''.
 
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*In the next screen enter the '''Title''' and '''Menu Type''':
 
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[[File:NewHiddenMenu17.png]]
 
 
*Next, start creating menu items in the '''Hidden Menu'''
 
*Next, start creating menu items in the '''Hidden Menu'''
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*After  you click on '''New''' and click on '''Select''' Menu Item Type, you  will get this popup with the list of available menu item types, choose  Category Blog or Category List
 
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[[File:NewJoomlaMenuItems17.png]]
 
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*After you click on the menu type, you will need to choose a category from the dropdown.
 
  
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[[File:NewJoomlaMenuItems.png]]
  
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== Relation between Modules and the core Joomla Category menu items ==
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*Make sure you enter unique Title/Alias for each menu item, because duplicates will cause SEF issues
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*Joomla core Category menu items are important because URLs of listing pages will have their ItemIDs
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*After  you created all menu items, go to JReviews administration and click on  the "Clear Cache" link in the left menu. This is necessary because JReviews stores a cached version of the menu system to improve  performance.
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*That means that if you want to display certain modules in listing detail pages (Joomla article pages), you must assign modules to those Joomla menu items
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*Creating the JReviews Category menu items is not enough, because the Joomla article system doesn't look for JReviews menus when trying to figure out the ItemIDs of the articles; it only looks for core Joomla menus.
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== Module assignment to JReviews pages ==
 
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*Now that you have created the required Joomla menus for your article section or categories you can assign modules that will appear in the articles. To do that edit the modules and under Menu Assignment select the Joomla hidden menus you just created.
 
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*If you want the modules to appear in both JReviews category pages and the listing detail page, you need to assign the module to both the JReviews category menu and the Joomla hidden menu.
 
  
  

Revision as of 10:28, 22 August 2011

All listings and articles in Joomla should have a parent menu item, otherwise their URLs will have ugly "/component/content/article/" segment and it won't be possible to assign them modules.

JReviews uses Joomla's content system for listings and because of this each listing must have a Joomla Category menu item as parent, so if you already created JReviews Category List menu items, Joomla will not use them as parent menu items for listings.

Without a parent menu item, the listing url will look similar to this:


When you create a parent menu item, the "/component/content/article/" part will be replaced with the title alias of that menu item (i.e. /hotels/) and the listing detail page will show all modules that you assign to this parent menu item.

Since these Joomla Category menu items are required only for nicer listing SEF URLs and for module assignments, the menu items don't need to be visible on the site, that is why we create them inside a "Hidden Menu".


Creating Category menu items in Joomla 1.7

How to choose the best category menu item structure

Steps for creating the menu items

  • In the Joomla administration click on Menus => Menu Manager and to create a new menu click on New.
  • In the next screen enter the Title and Menu Type:

NewHiddenMenu17.png

  • Next, start creating menu items in the Hidden Menu
  • After you click on New and click on Select Menu Item Type, you will get this popup with the list of available menu item types, choose Category Blog or Category List:

NewJoomlaMenuItems17.png

  • After you click on the menu type, you will need to choose a category from the dropdown.
  • After you created all menu items, go to JReviews administration and click on the "Clear Cache" link in the left menu. This is necessary because JReviews stores a cached version of the menu system to improve performance.


Creating Section/Category menu items in Joomla 1.5

How to choose the best section/category menu item structure

Choosing a good menu item structure is important because the title aliases of those menu items will be used in urls of listings.

If you create Joomla Section menu items, the URLs will look like this:

If you create Joomla Category menu items, the URLs will look like this:

If you decide to create both Joomla Section and Category menu items, the URLs will look like this:

Steps for creating the section or category menu items

  • In the Joomla administration click on Menus => Menu Manager and to create a new menu click on New.
  • In the next screen enter the Name and Title of the menu, but leave the Module Title empty, so that the module won't be created:

NewHiddenMenu.png

  • Next, start creating menu items in the Hidden Menu

NewJoomlaMenuItems.png

  • Make sure you enter unique Title/Alias for each menu item, because duplicates will cause SEF issues
  • After you created all menu items, go to JReviews administration and click on the "Clear Cache" link in the left menu. This is necessary because JReviews stores a cached version of the menu system to improve performance.
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