Dynamic Menus

From Joomla! Documentation

Creating Dynamic Menus (ex: Left Nav based on Horizontal Nav) in Joomla.

Example: You have a products link on the Horizontal Navigation (Main Navigation) and you want to have a dynamic Left Navigation (Left Nav) to appear with all the Products that you offer.

Step:1

• Go to Article Manager
• Create article for your main Products page and one article each for your products. Example: Product-1, Product-2, Product-3

Step:2

• Go to Menu Manager
• Create a Menu Item called "Products" on your Horizontal Navigation Menu (or whatever your site's main navigation menu is) and link it with your main products page
  Example: Your menu is called "Main" in the menu manager and you have "Home", "Products", "Services" etc.. under the Main Menu and this is displayed as "HorNav"
• Create a new Menu called "Products". (This is a new menu not a menu item)
• Create Menu Items for each product "Product-1", "Product-2", "Product-3" under the "Products" Menu

Step:3

• Go to Module Manager
• Create a new module, Select "menu" and name it as "Products"
• Under Module Parameters, select Menu Name as "Products"
• Under the Menu Assignment Select the radio button "Select Menu Item(s) from the List". Choose the following items (this means you are restricting that to this module)
  1) "Main" Menu => "Products" Menu Item link
  2) "Products" Menu => Select all the products (Product-1, Product-2 and Product-3) in our example
  
• Save it and you are all set to have a beautiful dynamic Products menu.

However:

If you add a new Product let's say "Product-4" , You need to go to the Module Manager again and select that item as well Under the Menu Assignment, so that all products are displayed when you click on "product-4" link. This has to be done every time you add a new product.