Help4.x:Menus
From Joomla! Documentation
Description
Menus allow a user to navigate through the site. A menu is an object which contains one or more menu items. Each menu item points to a logical page on the site. A menu module is required to place the menu on the page. One menu can have more than one module. For example, one module might show only the first level menu items and a second module might show the level 2 menu items.
The Menus list provides an overview of the menus available on a Joomla site. This includes the details of each individual menu's number of items published, unpublished and trashed, and the names of linked modules.
The process for adding a menu to the site is normally as follows:
- Create a new menu (using this screen).
- Create one or more new menu items for the menu. Each menu item will have a specific menu item type.
- Create one or more menu modules to display the menu on the site. When you create the modules, you will select which menu items (pages) the modules will show on.
How to Access
- Select Menus → Manage from the Administrator menu.
Screenshot
Column Headers
Clicking on the title of a column will sort the table view by the column. A down arrow next to the column title means ascending order and an up arrow means descending order. The default sort is by ID# in ascending order.
- Checkbox. Check this box to select one or more items. To select all items, check the box in the column heading. After one or more boxes are checked, click a toolbar button to take an action on the selected item or items. Many toolbar actions, such as Publish and Unpublish, can work with multiple items. Others, such as Edit, only work on one item at a time. If multiple items are checked and you press Edit, the first item will be opened for editing.
- Title. The name of the menu.
- # Published. Number of published menu items in this menu.
- # Unpublished. Number of unpublished menu items in this menu.
- # Trashed. Number of trashed menu items in this menu.
- Linked Modules. Lists any menu modules associated with the menu. The column shows the module's name, access level, and position on template.
- 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.
Toolbar
At the top of the page you will see the toolbar shown in the Screenshot above. The functions are:
- New. Opens the editing screen to create a new menu.
- Edit. Opens the editing screen for the selected menu. If more than one menu is selected (where applicable), only the first menu will be opened. The editing screen can also be opened by clicking on the Name of the menu.
- Delete: Deletes the selected menus. Works with one or multiple menus selected. Deleting a menu also deletes all the menu items it contains and any associated menu modules. On clicking Delete you will be asked to confirm that you want to delete the selected menus. Clicking OK button will delete the menus. Click Cancel to abort the deletion.
- Rebuild. Reconstructs and refreshes the menu table. Normally, you do not need to rebuild this table. This function is provided in case the data in the table becomes corrupted.
- Options. Opens the Options window where settings such as default parameters can be edited. See Menus Configuration.
- Help. Opens this help screen.
Quick Tips
- It is expedient to give a descriptive title for new menus because, later, you will see it in the Backend Menus menu. It is a good idea to fill in the Description field with information about the menu. If you enter a short title in the Module title field, you can identify the menu's module using that title in the Module Manager.
- Though you can create a copy of a selected menu by clicking the Copy toolbar button, you can make another instance in the Module Manager as well.
- When you create a new menu, use only English alphanumeric characters without space in the Unique Name field. It is a good idea using only a-z, 0-9 and underscore (_) characters.
- If you don't enter a Module title, no module will be created and the menu cannot be displayed in the front end. However you can use the Module Manager later to create a new mod_mainmenu module, and assign it to the menu.
- If you delete an existing menu, do not forget that all the menu items of the respective menu will be also deleted.
- The Main Menu has your default menu item, so it should not be deleted. The default menu item is defines the page that is displayed when you visit www.yoursite.com, and your site will not function if it is deleted. It is usually your Home menu item but it can be set to any menu item including a menu item in a hidden menu. If you change the default menu item, make sure that you don't delete that menu item either! The menu with the default menu item is marked with an asterisk (*) in the Menus menu.
Related Information
- To add new Menus: Menu Manager New/Edit
- To set action permissions for menus: Menus Configuration
- To add or edit Menu Items: Menu Item Manager
- To add or edit Menu Modules: Module Manager