Help25:Menus Menu Item Weblink Category

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How To Access

To create a new Categories Menu Item:

• Select Menus → [name of the menu] from the drop-down menu on the back-end of your Joomla! installation (for example, Menus → Main Menu).
• Click New to create a new menu item or click on an existing item to edit.
• Click the Menu Item Type Select button and then click the List Web Links in a Category link under Weblinks.

To edit an existing Weblink Category Item, click its Title in Menu Manager: Menu Items.

Description

Used to show a list of Web Links in a Category. Categories are shown in a hierarchical list, parent with child (sub) categories. Depending on the selected layout options, click on a category Title to show the Web Links in that category or sub categories.

Screenshot

Details

Required Settings

This layout requires a category selection. This is done in the list box shown above in the screenshot. All child categories of the selected category will show in the layout if sub categories are shown.

• Choose a category. Select one Category from the list box.

Category Options

Category Options control the appearance of the screen when you click on a category link. The following options are available.

• Category Title. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the title of the category.

• Category Description. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Description of this category, which can optionally be displayed in the front-end.

• Category Image. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the category image.

• Subcategory Levels. (Use Global/All/1-5) The number of levels of subcategories to show in the layout. Select All to show all levels in the subcategory hierarchy.

• Empty Categories. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the categories that contain no content items or subcategories.

• Subcategories Descriptions. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the category description of subcategories.

• # Weblinks in Category. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the count of weblinks in each category.

List Layout Options

The List Layout Options control the appearance of the category drill-down page when that is presented as a Category List. The following options are available: File:Help25-Menus-Menu-Item-Web-Link-Categories-list-layout-options-parameters.png

• Display #. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the Display # control that allows the user to select the number of items to show in the list. An example is shown below.
  
  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.

• Table Headings. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Table Headings show a heading above the article list, as shown below.
  
  If set to Show, this heading will show about the list. Otherwise the list will show with no headings.

• Links Description. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide the description of the weblink.

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

• Pagination. Hide or Show Pagination support. 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. An example is shown below.
  
  The following options are available.
  • Use Global: Use the default value from the component options screen.
  • 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. Hide or Show the current page number and total pages (e.g., "Page 1 of 2") at the bottom of each page. Use Global will use the default value from the component options.

Integration Options

The Weblink Category layout has the following Integration Options.

These determine whether a news feed will be available for the page and what information it will show.

• Show Feed Link. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to Hide or Show a link to a news feed (RSS Feed). If set to Show, a Feed Link will show up as a feed icon in the address bar of most modern browsers).

Common Options

See Menu Item Manager: New Menu Item for help on fields common to all Menu Item types, including Details, Link Type Options, Page Display Options, Metadata Options, and Module Assignments for this Menu Item.

Toolbar

At the top right you will see the toolbar:

The functions are:

• Save. Saves the menu item and stays in the current screen.
• Save & Close. Saves the menu item and closes the current screen.
• Save & New. Saves the menu item and keeps the editing screen open and ready to create another menu item.
• Save as Copy. Saves your changes to a copy of the current menu item. Does not affect the current menu item. This toolbar icon is not shown if you are creating a new menu item.
• Cancel/Close. 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

• Categories can be "nested" into levels, similar to folders on a disk drive. In theory there is no absolute limit on the number of levels you can have. However, as a practical matter it is recommended to keep the levels to a minimum. The Show All Categories layout may not work correctly if the number of levels shown is greater than five.
• If you set up category titles as linkable, the user can drill down on the category. If there is a pre-existing menu item for this category (for example, a Category List menu item), then that menu item will show in the drill down and the options set for that menu item will control the page display. Otherwise, the options set for the current Show All Categories menu item will control the page display.
• You can set the option to drill down to a list in two places.
  • In Web Links Manager Options you can set the default value for all categories.
  • In Category Manager: Edit A Web Links Category you can set a value for a specific category. If this is set, it overrides the default value.

Related Information

• Categories are created using Category Manager: Edit A Web Links Category.