Help16:Components Contacts Contacts Edit

Overview

This screen is accessed from the back-end Joomla! administrator panel. It is used to create or edit contacts in your Joomla! website.

How to Access

Navigate to the Contact Manager. To add a new Contact, press the "New" icon in the toolbar. To edit an existing Contact, click on the Contact's Name or click the Contact's checkbox and then click on the "Edit" icon in the toolbar.

Description

This is where you can add a Contact or edit an existing Contact. Contacts allow you to list people on your web site. They also allow users to send e-mails to those people.

Screenshot

Details and Options

In this section, you can enter information about the Contact, such as name, address, e-mail, and so on. The options allow you to control settings such as what information gets displayed for each Contact.

New/Edit Contact

This section will be labeled New Contact if you are creating a new contact. If you are editing an existing contact this section will be labeled Edit Contact.

• Name. The full name of the Contact.

• Alias. The internal name of the item, also used in the URL when SEF is activated. Normally, you can leave this blank and Joomla! will fill in a default value. The default value is the Title or Name in lower case and with dashes instead of spaces. You may enter the Alias manually. The Alias should consist of lowercase letters and hyphens (-). No blank spaces or underscores are allowed. Note: If the title consists of non-Latin characters, the Alias will default to the current date and time, for example "2009-02-11-17-54-38".
• Linked to User. Select the User, if any, that this Contact is linked to from the drop-down list box. This allows you to link this Contact's information to a registered Joomla! User. If this Contact is not linked to a User, select "-No User-".

• Category. The Category this item belongs to.

• State: State of the item. Possible values are:
  • Published: The item is published. This is the only state that will allow regular website users to view this item.
  • Unpublished: The item is unpublished.
  • Archived: The item has been archived.
  • Trashed: The item has been sent to the Trash.

• Access. Who can view this item. You can change an item's Access in its edit screen. See User Access Levels for more information.

• Language. Item language.
• Featured. If marked yes, the item will be displayed in featured view.

• Ordering. The order in which to display items. If the list is sorted by this column, you can change the order by clicking the arrows or by entering the sequential order and clicking the 'Save Order' icon.

• ID. This is a unique identification number for this item assigned automatically by Joomla!. It is used to identify the item internally, and you cannot change this number. When creating a new item, this field displays 0 until you save the new entry, at which point a new ID is assigned to it.
• Other Information. Other information about this Contact. No HTML is allowed in this field.

Publishing Options

• Created by. Shows the user that created the item. Click the 'Select User' button to change the value.
• Created By Alias. You can enter here an alias to be displayed instead of the name of the user who created the contact.

• Created Date. Shows the date the item was created. Click the calendar icon to modify this date, or type in a date and time.

• Start Publishing. An optional start date to publish the item. Click the calendar icon to modify this date, or type in a date and time.

• Finish Publishing. An optional end date for the item. Click the calendar icon to modify this date, or type in a date and time.

Contact Details

• Image. Image to display for this Contact. Select an image file from the drop-down list box. This lists images in the 'images/stories' folder. Images can be uploaded using the Media Manager.
• Contact's Position: The Contact's current position.
• E-mail. The Contact's e-mail address. Note that e-mail addresses in Joomla! can be protected from "spambots" by enabling "Content-Email Cloaking" in the Plug-in Manager. This is enabled by default.
• Address. The Contact's street address.
• City or Suburb. The Contact's town or suburb.
• State or Province. The Contact's state or county.
• Postal / ZIP Code. The Contact's postal code.
• Country. The Contact's country.
• Telephone. The Contact's phone number.
• Mobile. The Contact's mobile phone number.
• Fax. The Contact's fax number.
• Website. The Contact's web site address.
• First Sort Field. The part of the name to use as the first sort field.
• Second Sort Field. The part of the name to use as the second sort field.
• Third Sort Field. The part of the name to use as the third sort field.

Display Options

• Show Category. Show or hide the Contact's category.
• Show Contact List. Show or hide the Contact list.
• Display format. Determines the style used to display sections of the contact form.
• Name. Hide or Show the Contact's Name.
• Contact's Position. Hide or Show the Contact's Position.
• E-mail. Hide or Show the Contact's e-mail address.
• Street Address. Hide or Show the Contact's street address.
• City or Suburb. Hide or Show the Contact's town or suburb.
• State or County. Hide or Show the Contact's state or county.
• Postal Code. Hide or Show the Contact's postal code.
• Country. Hide or Show the Contact's country.
• Telephone. Hide or Show the Contact's telephone number.
• Mobile phone. Hide or Show the Contact's mobile phone number.
• Fax. Hide or Show the Contact's fax number.
• Webpage. Hide or Show the Contact's web site URL.
• Misc. Information. Hide or Show any miscellaneous information entered for this Contact.
• Image. Hide or Show the Contact's image.
• vCard. Hide or Show the vCard link for this Contact. Note that the "Enable vCard" option in the Contact Manager - Options must be set to "Show" for this option to work correctly.
• Show User Articles. If this contact is mapped to a user, and if this is set to Show, then a list of articles created by this user will show.
• Show Profile. If this contact is mapped to a user, and if this is set to Show, then the profile of this user will show.
• Show Links. Show or hide the links.
• Link A Label. Label for an additional link for this contact.
• Link A URL. The additional link URL for this contact.
• Link B Label. Label for an additional link for this contact.
• Link B URL. The additional link URL for this contact.
• Link C Label. Label for an additional link for this contact.
• Link C URL. The additional link URL for this contact.
• Link D Label. Label for an additional link for this contact.
• Link D URL. The additional link URL for this contact.
• Link E Label. Label for an additional link for this contact.
• Link E URL. The additional link URL for this contact.
• Alternative Layout. Use a different layout from the supplied component view or overrides in the templates.

Contact form

• Show Contact Form. Hide or Show the E-mail form. If Show is selected, a form is displayed that allows the user to send an e-mail to the Contact from the web site.
• Send Copy to Submitter. Hide or Show the checkbox: 'E-mail a copy of this message to your own address.'
• Banned Email. Enter any e-mails to be banned from the site. E-mail addresses containing any of the listed text will be banned. Separate different words with semi-colons ';'. For example, the entry "spam;junk" would ban e-mail addresses such as "myspam@.com" or "aeddie@junkisgood.com".
• Banned Subject. Enter any e-mail subject words to be banned from the site. Separate different words with semi-colons ';'. For example, the entry "spam;junk" would ban e-mail subjects such as "This is not spam" or "I Like Junk".
• Banned Text. Enter any e-mail text words to be banned from the site. Separate different words with semi-colons ';'. For example, the entry "spam;junk" would ban e-mail content such as "This is not spam" or "I Like Junk".
• Session Check. Check for the existence of session cookie. This means that users without cookies enabled will not be able to send emails.
• Custom Reply. Turns off the automated reply, allowing for Plugins to handle integration with other systems.
• Contact Redirect. Enter an alternative email address, where information will be sent.

Metadata Options

• Meta Description. Optional text entered here will be added to the page's HTML output and may be displayed in search engine results.

• Meta Keywords. Optional comma-separated list that will be added to the HTML keywords output.

• Robots. This will be added to the page's HTML output. Options are: Use Global, Index-Follow, No index-Follow, Index-No follow, No index-No follow, and Don't display robots tag.

• Content Rights. Rights others have to use this content.

Toolbar

At the top right you will see the toolbar:

• Save. Saves the item and stays in the edit screen.

• Save & Close. Saves the item and closes the edit screen.

• Save & New. Saves the item and keeps the editing screen open and ready to create another item.

• Cancel. Returns to the previous screen without saving your work. If you press Cancel while adding a new item, this new item will not be created. If you were modifying an existing item, the modifications will not be saved.

• Help. Opens this Help Screen.

Quick Tips

• At least one Contact Category must be added before adding the first Contact.

Related Information

• To add or edit Contact Categories: Contact Category Manager
• To find and edit existing Contacts: Contact Manager