OneCore Plus

Installation Guide, User Documentation, and Component Configuration

Installation and Upgrade

Overview

This document describes the procedures for installing, updating, and upgrading a Joomla component using the Joomla Administrator interface. It applies to Joomla versions that support the Extensions Manager and Update Server mechanism.

System Requirements

Before installing or upgrading the component, ensure the following:

Component Installation

Method 1: Install from Package File (Recommended)

  1. Log in to the Joomla Administrator panel.

  2. Navigate to System → Install → Extensions.

  3. Under the Upload Package File tab:

    • Click Browse and select the component installation package (.zip file).

    • Click Upload & Install.

  4. Wait for the installation process to complete.

  5. Confirm the success message indicating the component was installed successfully.

Method 2: Install from URL (Optional)

  1. Log in to the Joomla Administrator panel.

  2. Navigate to System → Install → Extensions.

  3. Select the Install from URL tab.

  4. Enter the direct URL to the component installation package.

  5. Click Install.

  6. Verify the installation success message.

Post-Installation Steps

After installation:

  1. Navigate to Components → [Component Name].

  2. Review and configure global component options as required.

  3. Assign user permissions under System → Global Configuration → Permissions (if applicable).

  4. Publish any related modules or plugins provided with the component.

Component Upgrade Using Joomla Update Server

The component supports upgrades via the Joomla Update Server, allowing administrators to receive and apply updates directly from the backend.

Configuring the Update Server

  1. Log in to the Joomla Administrator panel.

  2. Navigate to System → Update → Extensions.

  3. Click Update Sites.

  4. Locate the update site for the component:

    • Ensure the update site is Enabled.

    • If missing, reinstall the component or manually add the update site as provided by the vendor.

  5. Click Rebuild to refresh the update sites list.

Performing the Upgrade

  1. Navigate to System → Update → Extensions.

  2. Click Check for Updates.

  3. When an update for the component appears:

    • Select the checkbox next to the component.

    • Click Update.

  4. Wait for the upgrade process to complete.

  5. Confirm the success message.

Post-Upgrade Verification

After upgrading:

  1. Navigate to Components → [Component Name].

  2. Verify the component version number.

  3. Review configuration settings to ensure they were retained.

  4. Test key component functionality.

  5. Clear Joomla and browser caches if necessary.

Troubleshooting

Uninstallation (Optional)

  1. Navigate to System → Manage → Extensions.

  2. Search for the component.

  3. Select the component and click Uninstall.

  4. Confirm removal.

Dashboard

Overview

The Joomla Component Dashboard is the primary entry point for managing the component within the Joomla Administrator. Its role is to provide administrators and content managers with a clear, consolidated overview of the component’s status, activity, and readiness, without requiring deep navigation into individual management screens.

The dashboard is intentionally high-level. It focuses on visibility, orientation, and efficiency rather than detailed configuration or data entry.

Purpose

The dashboard is designed to support both initial setup and ongoing operation of the component. It enables users to quickly understand:

  • Whether the component is actively being used

  • How content creation and usage are trending

  • What actions are recommended to complete setup or improve usage

By surfacing this information immediately, the dashboard reduces administrative friction and shortens the learning curve for new users.

Functional Role

Within the overall component workflow, the dashboard serves as a control and monitoring layer. It does not replace dedicated views for managing content, users, or settings. Instead, it provides context and direction, helping users decide where to go next and what actions are most relevant at any given time.

The dashboard also acts as a central access point for creating new content and accessing configuration options, ensuring that common tasks are always within reach.

User Experience Principles

The dashboard follows standard Joomla administrator interface conventions to ensure consistency and usability. Information is presented in a structured and visual manner to allow quick assessment at a glance, while guidance text helps users understand available capabilities and recommended actions.

Where applicable, the dashboard communicates feature availability and licensing status, allowing administrators to make informed decisions about enabling advanced functionality.

Summary

In summary, the Joomla Component Dashboard is a strategic overview screen that brings together insight, guidance, and access. It helps administrators monitor activity, orient themselves within the component, and efficiently manage content and configuration from a single, centralized interface.

 

Categories

Component Categories Overview

Categories in the Joomla component provide a structured way to organize and group content such as listings or events. They establish a hierarchical taxonomy that improves content management in the administrator interface and enhances navigation and filtering on the frontend.

Categories can be arranged in parent–child relationships, allowing administrators to create simple or complex category trees depending on site requirements. This structure supports scalability as content grows over time.

Categories List Screen

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The Categories List screen displays all categories associated with the component in a hierarchical view. This screen is primarily used for overview and management purposes.

Administrators can quickly assess the category structure, including root-level categories and their children, as well as the publication status and ordering of each category. The hierarchical display makes it easy to understand how content is grouped and how categories relate to one another.

From this screen, common management actions such as publishing, unpublishing, reordering, or selecting categories for editing are performed. The list view serves as the central control point for maintaining an organized and consistent category structure.

Category Edit Screen

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The Category Edit screen is used to create new categories or modify existing ones. It focuses on defining both the identity and behavior of a category within the component.

At a high level, this screen allows administrators to:

The edit interface follows standard Joomla patterns, ensuring consistency with core category management. This familiarity reduces the learning curve and helps administrators work efficiently.

Changes made on the Category Edit screen directly affect how content is organized and displayed throughout the component, making careful category planning an important part of overall site structure.

Summary

Component categories form the foundation of content organization within the Joomla component. The Categories List screen provides visibility and control over the category hierarchy, while the Category Edit screen enables precise definition and customization. Together, they support clear content structure, improved usability, and long-term maintainability of the site.

Content

Content Overview

Content is the core element of the Joomla component and represents the primary data managed and displayed by the extension. Depending on how the component is configured, content items can function as directory entries, business listings, car directories, service providers, news-style entries, or any other structured content type required by the site.

Each content item acts as a flexible container that combines core information, custom fields, media, and optional location data into a single, manageable entity.

Role of Content in the Component

The component is built around the idea that all meaningful output—whether shown as a directory, catalog, or listing view—is driven by content items. Categories define structure, but content provides the actual value presented to site visitors.

This approach allows administrators to use the same system to power a wide variety of use cases without changing the underlying architecture. By adjusting categories, custom fields, and presentation layouts, the component can adapt to multiple scenarios such as:

Content List Screen

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The Content List screen provides an overview of all content items created within the component. It is designed for efficient management and bulk operations.

From this view, administrators can quickly assess publication status, featured state, category assignments, and ordering. Visual elements such as thumbnail images help identify content at a glance, which is especially useful for media-rich directories.

The list screen serves as the operational hub for managing large volumes of content and maintaining consistency across the site.

Edit, Delete, Unpublish

To delete, publish, or unpublish a listing, select the checkbox next to the desired listing and use the action buttons at the top of the screen (Publish, Unpublish, Delete, etc.).

To edit a listing, click on its title in the content list. This will open the listing in the edit screen, where you can update its details, custom fields, media, and other settings.

Tip: When deleting a listing, it is moved to the Trash rather than being permanently removed. To delete a listing permanently, first move it to the Trash, then change the filter to Trashed and remove it from there.

Featured content

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To set a listing as featured, click the Featured icon or select the listing using the checkbox and then use the Featured action button at the top of the list. This allows administrators to highlight important or priority content with minimal effort.

Content Creation and Editing

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When creating or editing a content item, administrators define both the core identity of the entry and its extended data. This typically includes:

The editing interface follows Joomla conventions, ensuring a familiar workflow while allowing the component to extend functionality beyond standard articles.

Custom Fields Integration

Custom fields are a key part of the component’s flexibility. They allow content items to be enriched with structured, domain-specific data such as:

Fields are grouped logically and can be reused across content items, ensuring consistency and making it possible to build complex directory-style layouts without custom development.

TIP: For a custom field to be available in the content editing interface, it must be assigned to a custom field group that is linked to the content entity.

Media Support

Content items support media integration to enhance visual presentation. Images are commonly used to represent listings, products, or locations and are displayed both in list views and detailed views.

This media support is essential for directory-style use cases, where visual identification significantly improves user engagement and usability.

Location and Map Integration

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For location-based content, the component supports associating content items with geographic data. This enables:

Location data transforms standard content into interactive, map-driven experiences, making the component suitable for local business directories, service locators, and similar applications.

Location Setup

The Location tab allows you to define an exact geographic position for an item using either the map or an address lookup. Both methods automatically populate all location fields.

Method 1: Set Location Using the Map (Marker)

Scroll to the map at the bottom of the Location tab.
Click on the map or drag the marker to the desired position.
When the marker is placed, the system automatically fills in:

Address (formatted)
Street
Street Number
Postal Code
City
Country
Latitude
Longitude

This method is ideal when you want to visually select or fine-tune the exact location.

Method 2: Set Location Using Address Geocoding

Enter the full address in the Address field (street, city, country).
Click the Geocode Address button.
The system will automatically:
Locate the address on the map
Move the marker to the correct position
Populate all location fields with accurate values
This method is recommended when you have a complete address and want coordinates generated automatically.

Notes

You can switch between both methods at any time. Updating the marker or re-geocoding will refresh all location data. Latitude and Longitude can also be adjusted manually if needed. The formatted Address field is generated automatically during geocoding. This ensures consistent and accurate location data for maps, search, and filtering.

Summary

Content is the foundation of the component and the primary driver of its functionality. By combining categories, custom fields, media, and optional location data, the component enables the creation of highly flexible and reusable content structures. This design allows a single extension to support a wide range of directory, listing, and informational use cases while remaining consistent with Joomla best practices.


Events

Events Overview

Events in OneCore extend the core content system by enabling the creation and management of time-based entries such as meetings, conferences, workshops, promotions, open days, or local happenings. The Events feature builds on the same flexible architecture used for listings and directories, while adding event-specific data such as dates, recurrence, and location.

Events can be managed entirely from the Joomla administrator interface and displayed on the frontend in list, grid, calendar, or map-based views, depending on configuration.

Purpose of Events

The Events system is designed to support a wide range of use cases, including:

By combining structured event data with custom fields and media, OneCore Events can adapt to both simple and advanced event-management scenarios.

Event Creation and Editing

Creating or editing an event follows standard Joomla editing patterns, ensuring a familiar workflow for administrators.

An event consists of:

All changes made in the event editor directly affect how the event is presented on the frontend.

Event Dates and Time

Each event includes a required start date and time, along with an optional end date and time. These values determine when the event is considered active and how it is displayed in chronological listings or calendars.

This time-based structure allows OneCore to accurately sort, filter, and display upcoming, ongoing, and past events.

Recurrence Support

OneCore PLUS Events includes built-in recurrence support, allowing administrators to create repeating events without duplicating entries. This feature is ideal for regularly scheduled activities such as classes, meetings, workshops, or ongoing programs.

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Enable Recurring Event

When recurrence is enabled, the event is treated as a repeating series rather than a single occurrence. Administrators can enable or disable recurrence at any time, giving full control over whether the event repeats.

Frequency

The frequency defines how often the event repeats. Available options include daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly repetition. This setting establishes the base pattern for the recurring event.

Interval

The interval determines how often the selected frequency is applied. For example:

This allows flexible scheduling without creating multiple rules.

By Day

For weekly recurrence, specific days of the week can be selected using standard weekday codes:

MO, TU, WE, TH, FR, SA, SU

Multiple days can be defined using a comma-separated list. This is useful for events that occur on multiple days within the same week, such as classes held every Monday and Wednesday.

Until Date

The Until Date option defines when the recurring event series should stop. Once this date is reached, no further occurrences will be generated. Leaving this field empty creates an open-ended recurring event.

Count

As an alternative to using an end date, the Count option limits the recurrence to a specific number of occurrences. Once the defined number is reached, the event series automatically ends.

Exceptions

Exceptions allow individual dates to be excluded from the recurrence pattern. This is useful for skipping holidays, cancellations, or special cases without modifying the overall recurrence rules.

Together, these recurrence options provide precise control over repeating events while keeping event management simple and efficient.

Custom Fields Integration

Events fully support OneCore custom fields, enabling administrators to extend event data with structured information such as:

Custom fields must be assigned to a custom field group linked to the Events entity in order to appear in the event edit screen.

Media Support

Events can include images to enhance visual presentation. Media is commonly used for banners, promotional graphics, or venue photos and can be displayed in both event listings and detail views.

Rich media improves engagement and helps events stand out in crowded listings.

Location and Map Integration

Events can be linked to a physical location, allowing them to be displayed on maps and filtered by geographic area. This is particularly useful for local events, venues, or multi-location event directories.

Location data enables map-based browsing and improves discoverability for users searching by area.

Publishing and Access Control

Each event includes standard Joomla publishing controls, allowing administrators to:

These controls ensure events are visible only to the intended audience and at the appropriate time.

Custom Fields

Custom Fields – Overview

Custom Fields in OneCore allow you to extend standard content types (such as events, listings, or articles) with additional, configurable data fields. This makes it possible to tailor content structures to specific project requirements without modifying core code.

Custom fields are organized into Field Groups, which are then assigned to specific content entities. Once assigned, all fields within the group become available when creating or editing content of that type.

Field Groups

A Field Group defines where and how a set of custom fields is used.

Creating a Custom Field

When creating a custom field, you define both its basic identity and its behavior.

Before creating first custom field, as least one custom fields group needs to be created.

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Basic Options

Field Configuration

The Configuration tab controls how the field behaves and how it is presented.

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Publishing and Visibility

Only published fields that belong to a published field group assigned to the correct content entity will appear in the content editor. This ensures full control over which fields are active and visible to content managers.

Usage in Content

Once configured and published:

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Best Practices

Custom Fields Group

Custom Field Groups

Custom Field Groups in OneCore are used to organize related custom fields and control where and how those fields are displayed. A field group acts as a container that defines visibility, context, and layout placement for all fields assigned to it.

Field groups must be properly configured and published in order for their fields to appear in content or event edit forms and on the frontend.

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Group Details

Title and Description

Entity Assignment (Visibility)

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The Entity Type determines where the field group is available:

Only field groups assigned to the correct entity type will be visible when creating or editing items of that type.

Category Assignment

Display Options

Show Title

Controls whether the group title is displayed on the frontend.

Show Description

Controls whether the group description is displayed on the frontend.

Ordering

Defines the position of the field group relative to other groups. Lower values appear first.

Status

Only Published field groups are active and visible. Unpublished groups and their fields are hidden from both backend forms and frontend output.

Display Settings

The Display Settings tab defines where the field group is rendered on the frontend. These settings apply to all fields within the group.

Position (Items List)

Controls where the group is displayed in list or grid views (for example, category listings).

Position (Single Item)

Controls placement when viewing a single content item or event.

Position (Module)

Controls how the field group is rendered when used inside a module.

Publishing Rules and Dependencies

For custom fields to appear correctly:

If any of these conditions are not met, the group and its fields will not be visible.

Best Practices