Joomla! Documentation™

Overview

The Web Links Manager allows you to manage links to other web sites and organize them into categories.

How to Access

Select Components → Weblinks → Links from the drop-down menu of the Joomla! Administrator Panel, or select the "Links" link on the Web Links Category Manager screen.

Description

The Web Links Manager allows you to add, edit and remove links to other web sites on your Joomla! web site, and organize them into categories. You can then display these links on your site, and optionally let visitors add new links.

Screenshot

Column Headers

• 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 item. For a Menu Item, the Title will display in the Menu. For an Article, Section, or Category, the Title may optionally be displayed on the web page. This entry is required. You can open the item for editing by clicking on the Title.

• Published. Whether the item has been published or not. You can change the Published state by clicking on the icon in this column.

• Category. The Category this item belongs to.

• 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.

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

• Hits. The number of times an item has been viewed.

• Language. Item language.

• 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.

List Settings

Filter by Partial Title

You can filter the list of items by typing in part of the Title or the ID number.

• Filter. In the upper left corner just above the column headings is a Filter field and two buttons, as shown below:
  
  If you have a large number of items on the list, you can use this filter to find the desired item(s) quickly. Enter either part of the title and press 'Go' to display the matching items. You can enter in whole words or part of a word. For example, "ooml" will match all titles with the word "Joomla!" in them. You can also search for a specific item id by entering "id:" followed by the id number. For example, "id:123" will find the item with an id of '123'.

Filter by Access, State, Category and Language

In the upper right area, above the column headings, are 4 drop-down list boxes as shown below:

The selections may be combined. Only items matching all selections will be displayed in the list.

• Access. TBD

• Select Status. Use the drop-down list box to select the published state: Published, Unpublished, Trashed, or All. For Articles, you may also select Archived. Important: With the default setting of -Select Status-, the screen only shows Published and Unpublished items. If you have the filter set to -Select Status- and you change items to Trashed, the Trashed items will disappear from the screen. However, they have not been permanently deleted. To do that you need to:

1. Change the filter to Trashed. The Delete icon will now show in the toolbar.
2. Select the items you want to permanently delete.
3. Click on the Delete icon.

You can see all items, regardless of their published state, by selecting All for this filter. You can also re-publish Trashed items by selecting them and clicking on the Publish icon in the toolbar.

• Select Category. Use the drop-down list box to select the desired Category. Only items in this Category will display.
• Language. TBD

Number of Items to Display

Below the list you'll find:

• Display #. The number of items to display on one page. If there are more items than this number, you can use the page navigation buttons (Start, Prev, Next, End, and page numbers) to navigate between pages. Note that if you have a large number of items, it may be helpful to use the Filter options, located above the column headings, to limit which items display (where applicable).

Toolbar

At the top right you will see the toolbar:

• New. Click on this button to create a new item. You will enter the New page for this item.

• Edit. Select one item and click on this button to open it in edit mode. If you have more than one item selected (where applicable), the first item will be opened. You can also open an item for editing by clicking on its Title or Name.

• Publish. To publish one or more items, select them and click on this button.

• Unpublish. To unpublish one or more items, select them and click on this button.
• Archive. TBD
• Check In. TBD
• Trash. TBD

• Parameters. Click this button to open the Global Configuration window. This window allows you to set default parameters for this type of item. See Global Configuration.

• Help. Opens this Help Screen.

"Web Links" / "Categories" Links

At the top left, above the Filter, you will see two links as shown below:

• Web Links. This link is disabled, since we are already in the Web Links page.

• Categories. Press this link to go to the Web Links Category Manager page.

Global Configuration

Click the Options button to open the Web Links Manager Options window which lets you configure this component.

Save / Cancel

• Save. Press Save to save your settings.

• Cancel. Press Cancel to cancel your changes.

Display Tab

The first tab, shown below, contains display options. These parameters are the default values for Web Links menu items. These setting can be overridden with settings in the Menu Item Manager - New/Edit / Parameters - Component for Web Links screen.

File:Help16-components-weblinks-links-options-display.png

• Description. Show or Hide the Web Links Introduction below.

• Web Links Introduction. Optional text to display above the first Category on the Web Link Category List Layout.

• Hits. Whether to Hide or Show the number of hits for each Web Link.

• Link Descriptions. Hide or Show the Link Description for each Web Link.

• Other Categories. Show also other categories. Note: there must be at least one item assigned in the other category/categories to show it!

• Table Headings. Hide or Show column headings above the fields for the item.

• Target. How to open the link. Options are:
  • Parent Window with Browser Navigation. Open the link in the current browser window, allowing Back and Forward navigation.
  • New Window with Browser Navigation. Open the link in a new browser window, allowing Back and Forward navigation.
  • New Window without Browser Navigation. Open link in a new browser window, not allowing Back and Forward navigation.

• Icon. The Icon to be displayed to the left of the Web Links URL. Select an image file from the drop-down list box. The images are listed from the 'images/M_images' folder.

Permissions Tab

The "Permissions" tab, shown below, lets you specify who can perform each type of action on this component:

The tree on the left shows the hierarchy of user groups that are available on your Joomla! site. To view or modify permissions, click on a group in the tree.

The table on the right side of the window contains 3 columns:

• Actions. The various actions for which you can specify permissions for the currently selected user group.
• Component Settings. The permission option set at the component level, which can be changed with the dropdown control. Options are:
  • Inherited. The permission for this group/action is inherited from the site's Global Configuration.
  • Allowed. Allows this action for this user group and for child groups.
  • Locked. Denies this action for this users group and for child groups.
• Calculated Settings. The effective permission, based on current options in the site's Global Configuration. Note: After making changes, Save options and open them again to view updated Calculated Settings.

Actions available in this component are:

• Configure. Grants users the right to edit this component's Options.
• Access Component. Grants users the right to open this component's main screen ("Manager" screen).
• Create. Grants users the right to create new objects (for example: users, menu items, articles, weblinks, and so on).
• Delete. Grants users the right to delete existing objects.
• Edit. Grants users the right to edit existing objects.
• Edit State. Grants users the right to change existing objects state (Publish, Unpublish, Archive, Check In and Trash).

For more information, please refer to:

• ACL Tutorial for Joomla 1.6
• What You Need to Know About Joomla 1.6. Part 3: Access Control Levels

Displaying Links on your Site

One way of displaying links on your site is to use the Weblinks module to list links from a specific category. Another method is to create a menu item of type Weblinks - List All Web Link Categories or Weblinks - List Web Links in a Category to have a page display all Web Links categories, or all inks withing one Web Links category.

Letting Visitors Submit Links

You might also wish to let visitors submit new Web Links. To do so, simply add a Submit or Edit a Web Link menu item to one of your menus.

Quick Tips

• You need to add at least one Category for Web Links before you can add your first Web Link. Categories are added using the Web Link Category Manager.

Related Information

• To add or edit Web Links: Web Link Manager - New/Edit
• To work with Web Links Categories: Web Link Category Manager
• Web Links-related menu items: Weblinks - List Web Links in a Category
• Weblinks module: Weblinks module