How to determine if the user is viewing the front page

Joomla 1.0

In Joomla! 1.0.x it was possible to determine if the user was viewing the front page by using code like this:

<?php
if ($option == 'com_frontpage' || $option == '') {
	echo 'This is the front page';
}
?>

Joomla 1.5

But in Joomla! 1.5.x the com_frontpage component is no longer present. This is how to achieve the same result in Joomla! 1.5.x

<?php
$menu = & JSite::getMenu();
if ($menu->getActive() == $menu->getDefault()) {
	echo 'This is the front page';
}
?>

This works by checking to see if the current active menu item is the default one.

Joomla 1.6 and 1.7

The same code that worked in Joomla 1.5 will work in 1.6 onwards. However, since PHP 5 is now a minimum requirement for Joomla 1.6 the ampersand (&) is no longer required on the first line. Use the following code for a site where all content is in the same language:

<?php
$menu = JSite::getMenu();
if ($menu->getActive() == $menu->getDefault()) {
	echo 'This is the front page';
}
?>

For multi-lingual sites the front page is dependent on the currently selected language, so you will need to use code like this:

<?php
$menu = JSite::getMenu();
if ($menu->getActive() == $menu->getDefault( 'en-GB' )) {
	echo 'This is the front page';
}
elseif ($menu->getActive() == $menu->getDefault( 'fr-FR' )) {
	echo 'Accueil';
}
?>

For multi-lingual sites, it could also be necessary to display a specific code/html for all Default Home pages.

<?php $menu = JSite::getMenu(); ?>
<?php $lang = JFactory::getLanguage(); ?>
<?php if ($menu->getActive() == $menu->getDefault($lang->getTag())) : ?>
etc.