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Menu Items

Overview

In this section, we will learn how to create menu items to access JomDirectory. 

Menus are used to control website navigation and are a set of menu items. Menu items provide the navigational experience to your users. The menu items in our case must point to the JomDirectory. 

Creating Administration Menu Links

This step is not needed if new installation being made.

Go to the System -> Administrator modules and insert new. Than choose Administrator Menu. From the presets, select Comdev and place it under menu position. Do the same for the JomDirectory:

Creating Menu Items to access JomDirectory

Creating an Items menu link is mandatory. If you have a multilingual site, ensure that you create an Items menu link for each language. You can hide this menu link, but it needs to be created nonetheless. Though you are creating an Items link that does not point to any category or address, you can create other links with Items menu type that can point to an address or a category once main Items link has been created.

To create menu items with Items menu item type, do the following:

  1. Click Menus > <your_menu> > Add New Menu Item.

  2. Provide a title in our case is Latest Listings in the Menu Title field. Now, since the Latest Listings menu item provides a list of all the latest postings on the site, we have selected the menu type as Items. The Alias field will build URL for the site. When a search is done this will be the landing page for the search results as well. 

  3. Provide the options as seen in the following image:

    Screen 3: Items menu item screen


     

  4. Provide the values based on the following table.

    Menu Item Type

    Click Select. A pop-up is displayed. In this case, since we are creating the Items menu item, click Directory > Items from the list.

    Category

    Select the appropriate category if creating direct category link.

    Address

    Select the appropriate address if, creating direct address link.

    Link

    This field is auto-populated based on the menu item type selected.

    Target Window

    Select the parent for this menu item.

    Template Style

    Select the template style you want for this menu.

  5. Click Save.

Ensure that you see a green tick next to this menu item. The green tick indicates that the item is published. To publish an item, select the checkbox next to the item and click Publish. 

To view the created menu item, go the front end of your site. The new menu item and it's alias is displayed and will be used for search results:

If you called it - Latest Items than search results page will be www.mydomain.com/latest-items.

If you do not create this menu search results URL will be: www.mydomain.com/components/jomdirectory

It is very important to notice that listing details and proper URL's does not build if the category menu is missing (each category must have a link). You have to ensure that for each category on your site, you create a corresponding link in the Joomla menu. The best approach is to create a separate Joomla menu e.g. Categories and link each category there. 

Creating Menu Items to access the Category Tree

The categories created in the component can be seen in the following format on the site depending on the layout selected.  


Screen 1: Category page screen

Ensure that for each category on your site, you create a corresponding link in the Joomla menu. This is important for SEO and module positioning. If this linking is not created, you may not be able to access the detailed listing view.

For the Category screen to appear in your required format, you can edit the JomDirectory settings for that Menu item. The options seen for JomDirectory settings are as follows.


Screen 2: Category Tree menu item screen

The following table explains different options that you can edit.

Columns Count Choose number of columns to be displayed
Choose to show Products or Listings
Start level Choose start level category to be displayed

Enable Image

Enable category images that are displayed

Enable Count

Enable item count

Enable Subcategories

Enable to show subcategories

Enable Category Index

Enable to display category index

Choose Layout

Select from the following layout options:

  • Use Global
  • Category Tree
  • Category List
  • Category Float Layout

Category Image Width

Define the category image width in pixels

Category Image Format

Select from the following format options:

  • 1:1
  • 4:3
  • 16:9
This link creates a Categories Tree page if you would like to link to a direct category, use Items Menu and select a category under Details Tab.  

Creating Menu to access JomDirectory Front Admin

To create menu items with Front Admin menu item type, do the following:

  1. Click Menus > <your_menu> > Add New Menu Items.
  2. Provide a title as Front Admin and the alias as front-admin in the Menu Title field.
  3. Provide the options as seen in the following image:

    Screen4: JomDirectory Front Admin menu item screen

  4. Click Save.

Front Admin Options

For the Menu to be able to access the JomDirectory Front Admin, certain settings need to be made. The following table shows the three menu links that need to be made and linked with JomDirectory Options. You can create these 3 menu items anywhere on the site e.g. link them under User Menu.
Profile Edit Menu Link

This link should point to Edit profile menu item created using Edit User Profile menu item type.
  1. Click Menu > <your_menu>>Add New Menu Item.
  2. Provide the Title as Edit Profile and the menu item type as Edit User Profile.
  3. Click Save.
 

This link should point to the login form menu item created using Login Form menu item type.
  1. Click Menu > <your_menu>>Add New Menu Item.
  2. Provide the Title as Login Form and the menu item type as Login Form.
  3. Click Save.

The following image shows how the Login Form menu item is used

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When a user is not logged into the front page, he will be redirected to the built-in Joomla login form. After successful login, he will be redirected to the JomDirectory Front Admin.
The following image shows the redirect URL that needs to be provided. The value you provide in the Login Redirect field depends on the following:

  • http://domain.com/index.php/front-admin - Use if URL rewriting is not applicable.
  • http://domain.com/front-admin - Use if URL rewriting is applicable.

In our example, we are using the http://domain.com/front-admin URL as shown in the following image where front-admin is the alias of the JomDirectory Front Admin Menu Link:
Profile View Menu Link

This link should point to the user profile created using User Profile menu item type.
  1. Click Menu > <your_menu>>Add New Menu Item.
  2. Provide the Title as User Profile and the menu item type as User Profile.
  3. Click Save.
 

Now link menus with JomDirectory Options:

Make the following settings for the Front Admin are made in the JomDirectory options for the user to be redirected correctly to the Front Admin, when he is not logged in.

  1. Click System > Control Panel.
  2. Under Extensions, click JomDirectory.
  3. Click Options in the top right-hand corner of the screen.
  4. Click the Front Admin tab. 
  5. Change the Profile Menu Link, Login Menu Link, and View Profile Menu Link field as per the following image.

    Screen5: JomDirectory Front Admin options

  6.  Click Save.

The Front Admin lets users add listings in the front of the site. For more information about how to add listings, see Front Admin.

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