Help310:Components Article Manager Options

Description

Used to set global defaults for menu items that display articles. These default values will be used when "Use Global" is selected for an option in an Articles menu item.

How to Access

• Select Content → Articles from the dropdown menu of the Administrator Panel

• Click the Options button in the toolbar.

Screenshot

Form Fields

Article Options are divided into 9 groups as follows. Each controls the appearance of the listed type of layout. Click on a tab to view options specific to each group.

Articles

• Choose a Layout. (Default) Use a different layout from the supplied component view or overrides in the templates.

• Show Title. (Show/Hide) Whether or not to show the article's Title.

• Linked Titles. (Yes/No) If the article's Title is shown, whether to show it as a link to the article.

• Show Intro Text. (Show/Hide) If set to Show, the Intro Text of the article will show when you drill down to the article. If set to Hide, only the part of the article after the "Read More" break will show.

• Position of Article Info. (Above/Below/Split) Puts the article information block above or below the text or splits it into 2 separate blocks, one above and the other below.

• Article Info Title. (Show/Hide) Displays the 'Article Info' title on top of the article information block.

• Show Category. (Show/Hide) Whether or not to show the Article's Category.

• Link Category. (Yes/No) If the category title is shown, whether or not to show it as a link to a Single Category menu item for the category.
  Note: You can set this to be either a blog or list layout with the "Choose a layout" option in the Category Options.

• Show Parent. (Show/Hide) Whether or not to show the Article's Parent Category.

• Link Parent. (Yes/No) If the Article's Parent Category is shown, whether to show it as a link to a Category layout (list or blog) for that Category.

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• Show Associations. (Show/Hide) Show or hide the associated article's flags or URL Language code.
  Note: Multilingual only.
• Use Image Flags. (Yes/No) Display language choice as image flags.

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• Show Author. (Show/Hide) Whether to show the author of the Article.

• Link Author. (Yes/No) If the author is shown, whether or not to show it as a link to the Joomla user.
  Note: This will only show as a link if there is a Contact associated with this user. Also, a link will not show if there is an Author Alias value for the article.

• Show Create Date. (Show/Hide) Whether or not to show the Article's create date.

• Show Modify Date. (Show/Hide) Whether or not to show the Article's modify date.

• Show Publish Date. (Show/Hide) Whether or not to show the Article's start publishing date.

• Show Navigation. (Show/Hide) Whether or not to show a navigation link (for example, Next or Previous article) between articles.

• Show Voting. (Show/Hide) Whether or not to show the a voting icon for the Article.
  Note: The Plugin Content - Vote has to be enabled.

• Show "Read More". (Show/Hide) Whether or not to show the "Read More..." link to link from the part of the article before the "Read More..." break to the rest of the Article.

• Show Title with Read More. (Show/Hide) Whether or not to show the article title as part of the Read More link. If set to Show, the Read More link will be in the format "Read More: [article title]". If set to Hide, the Read More link will be "Read more...".

• Read More Limit. (100) If the title is included with the Read More text, the maximum number of characters from the title to include. This can prevent the Read More text to become excessively long if the article has a very long title.

• Show Tags. (Show/Hide) Show or hide the tags for each article.

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• Show Icons. (Show/Hide) If set to Show, Print and Email will use icons instead of text.

• Show Print. (Show/Hide) Show or hide the Print Article button.

• Show Email. (Show/Hide) Show or hide the Email Article button.

• Show Hits. (Show/Hide) Show or hide the number of times the article has been viewed (called hits).

• Record Hits. (Yes/No) Record the number of hits.

• Show Unauthorised Links.
  • Yes: The Intro Text for restricted articles will show. Clicking on the "Read More" link will require users to log in to view the full article content.
  • No: Articles that the user is not authorised to view (based on the viewing access level for the article) will not show.
• Positioning of the Links. (Above/Below) If there are links associated with this article, whether to show them above or below the article.

Editing Layout

• Allow Captcha on submit. (Use Global (- None Selected -)/- None Selected -) Select the captcha plugin that will be used in the article submit form.
  You may need to enter required information for your captcha plugin in Plugins.
  If 'Use Global' is selected, make sure a captcha plugin is selected in Global Configuration.

• Show Publishing Options. (Show/Hide) If Hide, the Publishing Options slider in the Article Screen will not show. This means that Backend users will not be able to edit the fields:
  • Start Publishing,
  • Finish Publishing,
  • Created Date,
  • Created by,
  • Created by alias.
    These fields will always be set to their default values.
• Show Article Options. (Show/Hide) If Hide, the Article Options slider in the Article Screen will not show. This means that Backend users will not be able to edit the fields in this slider. These fields will always be set to their default values.

• Enable Versions. (Yes/No) Whether or not to save version history for articles and categories.
• Maximum Versions. The maximum number of versions to store.
  • If a article or category is saved and the maximum number of versions has been reached, the oldest version will be deleted automatically.
  • If set to '0', then versions will never be deleted automatically. Also, specific versions may be flagged as "Keep Forever" and will not be deleted automatically.
    Note: Versions may be deleted manually using the 'Delete' button in Version History.

• Frontend Images and Links. (Show/Hide) If Show, the Images and Links fields will show in the Frontend article editor screen. These fields allow users to optionally enter 2 images and 3 links in an easy-to-use form in the Frontend. When used with a single-article override, this can allow the site administrator to create a simple form for users to create standard article layouts.

• Administrator Images and Links. (Show/Hide) If Show, the Images and Links slider will show in the Article Screen.

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• URL A Target Window. Sets the default value for the target for the first Link in the article. Choices are:
  • Open in parent window: Opens the in the main browser window, replacing the current Joomla article.
  • Open in new window: Opens the link in a new browser window.
  • Open in popup: Opens the link in a pop-up browser window (without full navigation controls).
  • Modal: Opens the link in a modal pop-up window.

• URL B Target Window. Sets the default value for the target for the second Link in the article. Same options as URL A.

• URL C Target Window. Sets the default value for the target for the third Link in the article. Same options as URL A.

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• Intro Image Float. (Right/Left/None) Sets the float attribute for an Intro Image selected in the Intro Image field.

• Full Text Image Float. (Right/Left/None) Sets the float attribute for an Full Article Image selected in the Full Article Image field.

Category

Category Options control how articles will show when you drill down to a Category to view its articles.

• Choose a Layout. (Blog/List) This lets you select the default layout to show when you click on a Category link. If you create an alternative layout, you may select that as the default.

• Show Subcategories Text. (Show/Hide) If Show, the 'Subcategories' will show as a subheading on the page.
  Note: The subheading is usually displayed inside the H3 tag.

• Category Title. (Show/Hide) If Show, the Category Title will show as a subheading on the page. The subheading is usually displayed inside the H2 tag.

• Category Description. (Show/Hide) Show or hide the description of the category.

• Category Image. (Show/Hide) Show or hide the image of the category.

• Subcategory Levels. (None/All/1-5) The number of subcategory levels to display. Select 'All' to show all levels in the subcategory hierarchy.

• Empty Categories. (Show/Hide) Show or hide categories that contain no articles and no subcategories.

• No Articles Message. (Show/Hide) If Show, and if Empty Categories is Show, a message "There are no articles in this category" will show if a category contains no articles.

• Subcategories Descriptions. (Show/Hide) Show or hide the subcategories descriptions.

• # Articles in Category. (Show/Hide) Show or hide the number of articles in each category.

• Show Tags. (Show/Hide) Show or hide the tags for the category.

Categories

Categories Options control the display of the List All Categories menu item.

• Top Level Category Description. (Show/Hide) Show description of the top level category or alternatively replace with the text from the description field found in the menu item. If using Root as a top level category, the description field has to be filled.

• Subcategory Levels. (None/All/1-5) The number of subcategory levels to display. Select 'All' to show all levels in the subcategory hierarchy.

• Empty Categories. (Show/Hide) Show or hide categories that contain no articles and no subcategories.

• Subcategories Descriptions. (Show/Hide) Show or hide the subcategories descriptions.

• # Articles in Category. (Show/Hide) Show or hide the number of articles in each category.

Blog/Featured Layouts

These options control the layout of the Category Blog and Featured Articles layouts.

• # Leading Articles. Number of Articles to show using the full width of the main display area.
  "0" means that no Articles will show when using the full width.
  If an Article has a "Read more..." break, only the part of the text before the break (the Intro text) will display.

• # Intro Articles. Determines the number of Articles to display after the leading Article.
  These Articles will display in the number of columns set in the Columns parameter below.
  If an Article has a "Read more..." break, only the text before the break (Intro text) will display, followed by a "Read more..." link.
  The order in which to display the articles is determined by the Multi Column Order parameters below.

• # Columns. The number of columns to use in the Intro Text area.
  This is normally between 1 and 3 (depending on the template you are using).
  If 1 is used, the Intro Text Articles will display using the full width of the display area, just like the Leading Articles.

• # Links. The number of Links to display in the 'Links' area of the page.
  These links allow a User to link to additional Articles, if there are more Articles than can fit on the first page of the Blog Layout.

Down
article 1
article 2	article 4	article 6
article 3	article 5	article 7
Across
article 1
article 2	article 3	article 4
article 5	article 6	article 7

• Multi Column Order. In multi-column blog layouts, whether to order articles Down the columns or Across the columns.
  • Down: Order articles going down the first column and then over to the next column.
  • Across: Order articles going across the columns and then back to the first column.

• Include Subcategories.
  • None: Only articles from the current category will show.
  • 1-5: All articles from the current category and subcategories up to and including that level will show.
  • All: All articles from the current category and all subcategories will show.

List Layouts

These options control the appearance of the Category List layout. These settings are referred to as 'Use Global' in menu items.

• Display Select. (Show/Hide) Show or hide the Display # control that allows the user to select the number of articles to show in the list.

• Filter Field. The Filter Field creates a text field where a user can enter a field to be used to filter the articles shown in the list. Options are:
  • Hide: Don't show a filter field.
  • Title: Filter on article title.
  • Author: Filter on the author's name.
  • Hits: Filter on the number of article hits.
  • Tags: Filter on article tags.
  • Month (published): Filter on month of published articles.

• Table Headings. (Show/Hide) If set to Show, this heading will show above the list. If set to Hide, the list will show with no headings.

• Show Date. This option allows you to show a date in the list. Options are:
  • Hide: Don't show any date.
  • Created: Show the created date.
  • Modified: Show the date of the last modification.
  • Published: Show the start publishing date.

• Date Format. Optional format string for showing the created, modified or published date. Related Information about Date Format.

• Show Hits in List. (Show/Hide) Whether to show or hide the number of hits for this article.

• Show Author in List. (Show/Hide) Whether to show or hide the name of the author.

Shared

These options are shared by a number of the articles menu item types.

• Category Order. Order of Categories in this Layout. The following options are available.
  • No Order: Articles are ordered only by the Article Order, without regard to Category.
  • Title Alphabetical: Categories are displayed in alphabetical order (A to Z)
  • Title Reverse Alphabetical: Categories are displayed in reverse alphabetical order (Z to A)
  • Category Order: Categories are ordered according to the Order column entered in Categories.

• Article Order. Order of articles in this Layout. The following options are available.
  • Featured Articles Order: Articles are ordered according to the Order column entered in Featured Articles.
  • Most Recent First: Articles are displayed starting with the most recent and ending with the oldest.
  • Oldest First: Articles are displayed starting with the oldest and ending with the most recent.
  • Title Alphabetical: Articles are displayed by Title in alphabetical order (A to Z).
  • Title Reverse Alphabetical: Articles are displayed by Title in reverse alphabetical order (Z to A).
  • Author Alphabetical: Articles are displayed by Author in alphabetical order (A to Z).
  • Author Reverse Alphabetical: Articles are displayed by Author in reverse alphabetical order (Z to A).
  • Most Hits: Articles are displayed by the number of hits, starting with the one with the most hits and ending with the one with the least hits.
  • Least Hits: Articles are displayed by the number of hits, starting with the one with the least hits and ending with the one with the most hits.
  • Random Order: Articles are displayed in random order.
  • Article Order: Articles are ordered according to the Order column entered in Articles.
  • Article Reverse Order: Articles are ordered reverse to the Order column entered in Articles.

• Date for Ordering. The date used when articles are sorted by date. Options are:
  • Created: Use the article created date.
  • Modified: Use the article modified date.
  • Published: Use the article start publishing date.
  • Use Global: Use the value set in Articles options.
• Pagination. Provides page links at the bottom of the page that allow the User to navigate to additional pages. These are needed if the articles will not fit on one page. The following options are available.
  • Auto: Pagination links shown if needed.
  • Show: Pagination links shown if needed.
  • Hide: Pagination links not shown. Note: In this case, Users will not be able to navigate to additional pages.
• Pagination Results. (Show/Hide) Show or Hide the current page number and total pages (e.g., "Page 1 of 2") at the bottom of each page.
• Featured Articles. Show, Hide or Only display featured articles.

Integration

These options control the display of other extensions.

News Feeds

• Show Feed Link. (Show/Hide) Show or hide an RSS Feed Link. A Feed Link will show up as a feed icon in the address bar of most browsers.

• Include in Feed. (Intro Text/Full Text) If Intro Text, only the article's intro text will show in the feed. Otherwise, the entire text of the article will show.

• Show "Read More". (Show/Hide) Show or Hide a "Read more" link in the news feed.

Routing

• URL Routing. This is configured for the Articles component.
  • Legacy: Ensures full comptability for existing sites.
  • Modern: Enables advanced features but may change your URLs.

Custom Fields

• Enable Custom Fields. (Yes/No) Enable the creation of custom fields.

Permissions

Manage the permission settings for user groups.

To change the permissions for articles, do the following.

1. Select the Group by clicking its title located on the left.

2. Find the desired Action. Possible Actions are:

• Configure ACL & Options. Users can edit the options and permissions of articles.

• Configure Options Only. Users can edit the options except the permissions of articles.

• Access Administration Interface. Users can access user administration interface of articles.

• Create. Users can create content of articles.

• Delete. Users can delete content of articles.

• Edit. Users can edit content of articles.

• Edit State. Users can change the published state and related information for content of articles.

• Edit Own. Users can edit own created content of articles.

• Edit Custom Field Value. Allows users in the group to edit any value of custom fields submitted in articles.

3. Select the desired Permission for the action you wish to change. Possible settings are:

• Inherited: Inherited for users in this Group from the Global Configuration permissions of this site.

• Allowed: Allowed for users in this Group. Note that, if this action is Denied at one of the higher levels, the Allowed permission here will not take effect. A Denied setting cannot be overridden.

• Denied: Denied for users in this Group.

4. Click Save in Toolbar at top. When the screen refreshes, the Calculated Setting column will show the effective permission for this Group and Action.

Toolbar

At the top left you will see the toolbar.

The functions are:

• Save. Saves the Article options and stays in the current screen.

• Save & Close. Saves the Article options and closes the current screen.

• Cancel. Closes the current screen and returns to the previous screen without saving any modifications you may have made.

• Help. Opens this help screen.

Quick Tips

• If you are a beginning user, you can just keep the default values here until you learn more about using global options.
• If you are an advanced user, you can save time by creating good default values here. When you set up menu items and create articles, you will be able to accept the default values for most options.
• For example, to show the 'Create Date' for an article in your Articles menu items, then set that option to "Show" here and it will be the default value.
• All values set here can be overridden at the menu item, category, or article level.

Related Information

• Date Format: For example, you can use D M Y for day month year or d-m-y for a short version eg. 28-12-16. If left blank, it uses DATE_FORMAT_LC1 from your language file. Learn more about format strings: PHP-Manual.

• To create and edit articles and article categories: Article Manager

• For more information about Joomla's Access Control List system: ACL Tutorial