What is a Joomla Menu Item Type?
When setting up a Joomla menu item, you need to choose the menu item type. The menu item type defines what and how the content on the next page will look like.
For example, if you choose the Single Article menu item type, that link will direct users to one individual article. Selecting the Category List menu item type will link to a page listing all of the articles belonging to the category you choose.
How do I set the Joomla Menu Item Type?
When you are in the Edit Menu Item area of your Joomla Dashboard, one of the first settings you will see is menu item type. When you click Select next to this option, you will see a listing of item types you can choose from.
What does each menu item do?
Below, you will find a brief summary and example screenshots for all default menu items. The default menu items fall under these main categories: Articles, Configuration Manager, Contacts, Newsfeeds, Search, Smart Search, System Links, Tags, User Manager, Weblinks, and Wrappers.
Articles
Categories:
Archived Articles
Archived Articles: Display all archived articles.
The Archived Articles menu item type shows a listing of all articles archived. As you can see in the screenshot to the right, our admin dashboard shows the Custom HTML Module and What’s New in 1.5? articles as archived, and those two articles show on the front end of the website.
This menu type also includes a filter at the top of the page to show archived articles based upon Month and Year.
Category Blog
Category Blog: Displays article introductions in a single or multi-column layout.
The Category Blog menu item type displays the article introductions from a category of your choosing.
We have an article category called Park Blog with two articles in it: First Blog Post and Second Blog Post. The screenshot to the right shows these articles as they appear in our Joomla admin dashboard (left) and the frontend of our website (right).
Category List
Category List: Displays a list of articles in a category.
The Category List menu item type creates a page that simply lists the articles in a category of your choosing.
To the right, you can see that our frontpage is showing all of the articles in the Joomla! article category. There are more than 10 articles in this category, so pagination is enabled.
Create Article
Create Article: Create a new article.
If you want to allow your users to write their own articles, the Create Article menu item will help you accomplish this. Users clicking this link will go to a page where they can enter a title, alias, and enter the text for the article. They will also have access to manage publishing settings, Language settings, and Metadata settings.
Featured Articles
Featured Articles: Show all featured articles from one or multiple categories in a single or multi-column layout.
The Featured Articles menu item type shows articles in a manner similar to the a category blog layout, except that the articles displayed are those set as featured articles.
List All Categories
List All Categories: Shows a list of all the article categories within a category.
In the example provided, the frontend view lists the following: Joomla!, Park Site, and Fruit Shop Site. These are all sub categories of the Sample Data-Articles category.
Single Article
Single Article: Displays a single article.
The sample data includes an article named Australian Parks. As you can see in the example, the single article menu item points to a page that displays just one article.
Configuration Manager
Menu Item Types:
Display Site Configuration Options
Display Site Configuration Options: Displays basic site configuration options.
If you want to allow your administrators to edit site settings, the display site configuration options menu item will allow them to do just that. As you can see in the screenshot, your site administrators will be able to change (without logging into /administrator) settings such as: Site Name, Site Offline, and even your Site Meta Description and Site Meta Keywords.
Display Template Options
Display Template Options: Displays template parameter options if the template allows this.
The Site template options is another menu item that allows your administrators to edit the look and feel of your site without /administrator access. In the screenshot to the right, you can see our admins can make some pretty significant changes to the template, such as the Template Colour, Background Colour, and even the Logo used.
Contacts
Featured Contacts
Featured Contacts: This view lists the featured contacts.
The Featured Contacts creates a page that displays contacts set as featured in a table. In the screenshot to the right you can see that in the admin dashboard Buyer, Contact Name Here, Owner, and Shop Address are all contacts that are starred (aka set as featured). To the right, they are listed on the Featured Contacts page along with their Name, Position, Phone number, Suburb, State, and Country.
List All Contact Categories
List All Contact Categories: Shows a list of contact categories within a category.
We have a parent Contact Category of Sample Data-Contact. Within this category are sub categories, Park Site and Shop Site. As you can see, the list all contact categories menu item is displaying these sub categories.
List Contacts in a Category
List Contacts in a Category: This view lists the contacts in a category.
Buyer and Owner are contacts that belong to the Staff contact category. As you can see in the screenshot, the List Contacts in a Category menu item is listing the contacts that belong to the category chosen, the Staff category.
Single Contact
Single Contact: This links to the contact information for one contact.
The Single Contact page allows you to choose an individual contact and create a page showing just their information. In the screenshot to the right, the user selected is Contact Name Here and the single contact page for that user displays their contact info (Address, phone number, etc.), a contact form visitors can fill out, links, and miscellaneous information about that contact.
Newsfeeds
Menu Item Types:
List All Categories List Feeds in a Category Single News Feed
List All News Feeds Categories
List All News Feed Categories: Show all the news feed categories within a category.
We have two news feed categories, Sample Data-Newsfeeds and Newsfeeds category 2. In the screenshot to the right, you can see that these two news feeds categories are listed on the list all news feeds categories page.
List News Feeds in a Category
List Feeds in a Category: Show all news feeds within a category.
Within our Sample Data-Newsfeeds category, we have three feeds: Joomla Announcements, Joomla! Connect, and Joomla! Security News. In this screenshot, you can see links to these three RSS feeds are shown on the list news feeds in a category page.
Single News Feed
Single News Feed: Show a single news feed.
The Joomla! Connect news feed, at the time when this tutorial was published, had the following two pages listed: Phoca Gallery 4.1.0 Released and JoomlaMagazin: Die Ausgabe 1/2014 ist da. The single news feed menu item shows the RSS feed for the particular news feed that you choose.
Search
Search Form or Search Results
Search Form or Search Results: Display search results.
In the screenshot to the right, you can see a search form with settings such as All words, Any words, and Exact Phrase. Creating a search form or search results menu item will create a standard Joomla search page.
Smart Search
Search
Search: The default search layout.
The Search menu item, by default, looks much simpler than the search form or search results menu item. It displays a search box, and the advanced search features are only visible after clicking the Advanced Search button.
System Links
Menu Item Types:
External URL
External URL: An external or internal URL.
The External URL menu item in our testing is setup to point to https://www.joomla.org. Joomla.org is listed in our right menu, and it will direct users to https://www.joomla.org.
Menu Heading
Menu Heading: A heading for use within menus, useful when separating menus with a separator.
If you have many links in a single menu, the Menu Heading gives you a way to add text between links to help separate them. In the screenshot to the right, the text Menu Heading is a Menu Heading menu item.
Menu Item Alias
Menu Item Alias: Create an alias to another menu item.
In the screenshot to the right, the links Single News Feed and This is a menu item alias both point to the same exact URL. If you want one menu item to point to another menu item, use the Menu Item Alias menu item to accomplish this.
Text Separator
Text Separator: A text separator.
The text separator menu item is very similar to the Menu Heading menu item. It helps you to organize a long list of menu items by adding text between them. The menu heading is a heading and therefore stands out more, where the text separator is supposed to be more subtle.
Tags
Menu Item Types:
Compact list of tagged items
Compact list of tagged items: List of items that have been tagged with the selected tags.
The compact list of tagged items menu item allows you to choose one or more tags and create a page that lists all articles tagged with those tags. It appears to be very simliar to the tagged items menu item, the only exception being that the list or article links displayed is much more compact.
List of all tags
List of all tags: This links to a details list of all tags.
In the screenshot to the right, you can see that we have 4 tags setup: Green, Lime, Red, and Yellow. The List of all tags menu item creates a page that lists all of these tags. As you click each tag, it takes you to a page listing all articles tagged as such.
Tagged Items
Tagged Items: This links to a list of items with specific tags.
We have 4 articles tagged with Red. The screenshot to the right shows that the Tagged Items menu item creates a page listing all articles that have been tagged Red.
Users Manager
Profile Menu Items:
Login Menu Items:
Edit User Profile
Edit User Profile: Edit a User Profile.
The Edit User Profile menu item goes to a page where logged in users can edit settings such as their Name, Password, and their Email Address.
Login Form
Login Form: Displays a Login Form.
The login form creates a page for users to enter their username and password. If they don’t know their credentials, the user can user the forgot your password and forgot your username tools. The don’t have an account yet? tool will link them to the user registration page.
Password Reset
Password Reset: Displays a request to Reset Password.
The password reset page will show the user their profile details and the basic settings for their account. They can then click the Edit Profile button to go to a page where they can reset their password.
Registration Form
Registration Form: Displays a Registration Form.
The Registration Form menu item brings the user to the User Registration page. Here, they can enter in their name, desired username, etc. and register for a new account on your site.
User Profile
User Profile: Displays a User Profile.
The User profile menu items links users to a page very similar to the password reset page. The two pages actually appear to be identical.
Username Remind Request
Username Remind Request: Displays a Username Reminder Request.
The Username Remind Request page allows users to enter their email address, and Joomla will email the user their username.
Weblinks
Menu Item Types:
List All Web Link Categories
List All Web Link Categories: Show all the web link categories within a category.
In our Weblinks we have a parent category of Sample Data-Weblinks, and two children categories: Park Links and Joomla! Specific Links. The List All Web Link Categories menu item creates a page listing the two child categories. The user can then click on any of the categories listed to see a listing of links belonging to the chosen category.
List Web Links in a Category
List Web Links in a Category: Displays a list of Web Links for a category.
In our weblinks category of Joomla! Specific Links, we have three links: Joomla!, Joomla! Forums, and OpenSourceMatters. The List Web Links in a Category menu item creates a page showing all of the weblinks in the weblinks category we chose.
Submit a Web Link
Submit a Web Link: Display a form to submit a web link in the frontend.
On the Submit a Web Link page, users can submit their own weblinks. They’ll be directed to a submission page, where they can enter details about the link such as the link title, link alias, and any tags to associate the weblink with.
Wrapper
Iframe Wrapper
Iframe Wrapper: Displays a URL in an Iframe.
When configuring an Iframe Wrapper menu item, the most important setting is the URL. In our testing, you we entered https://www.joomla.org as the URL. As you can see in the screenshot to the right, the Iframe Wrapper page shows https://www.joomla.org in an iframe – showing the user joomla.org while keeping them on our site.
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