Joomla! Menu System
The Joomla menu system has many parts and sometimes it's very difficult for new designers to get an understanding.
In and of itself the Joomla menu system is really a component this component has access to the other components in Joomla and can also have links to external sites etc.
Now if you have installed the default data in the Joomla default installation you will see if you go to the back-end administrator Menus > Menu Manager that there are several menus.
A menu in itself is a container for links.
At its core a Joomla menu is made up of the
- Menu container.
- Links inside the container.
- Menu Module created by the menu container which displays the links in the container.
Menu Manager and some sample menu containers
If we take a look inside the links for menu container "Main Menu" via back-end Menus > Main Menu*
Here is a view of the default "Main Menu" links or Items in the Menu Item Manager made with the Joomla sample data.
Links inside "Main Menu" container
Every menu container created via the Menu Manager has a module also created at the same time with the same title given to the menu container.
The menu container has a module corresponding to its title name inside of the Module Manager.
Module created by the "Main Menu" container
A simple menu creation flow would be.
1. Create Menu Container
This would be done via the Joomla administrator back-end with the Menu Manager.
2. Add links to Menu
This would be done via the Joomla administrator back-end with the Menu Item Manager
by selecting the menu you link to add links to.
3. Edit Module
This would be done via the Joomla administrator back-end Module Manager
by selecting the module with your menus title. Menu modules are just like any other modules and have modules
chrome wrappers plus the menu itself has a ton of parameter settings.
Joomla Menu Concepts
A Menu container can hold many links.
There are no limits to the amount of containers made or links inside a menu container.
Every menu container has a Menu module created with the menu container title name in the Joomla Module Manager.
Menu modules display a menu container linked items and are called by the Joomla front-end template with a module include name position code.
The same rules apply to menu modules as to any other module in Joomla and a assigned a module name position on the grid.
Joomla's menu system is one of many powerful components in Joomla
and it takes a bit of thinking out side the box to understand it.
The Joomla Menu system is the core of Joomla in many ways.
The menu system controls the structure of your site and a lot more.
The Joomla menu system is the flow and information management controller
for most of Joomla's parts.
Looking at this from a front end templates stand point.
As you have seen Joomla Templates are dependant on module include position names and one component include
inside the Joomla template.
There is a feature or Parameter called Menu Assignment this can be seen in both Modules and Templates.
The image above is a cut out of a Module parameter Menu Assignment and if you look inside the Menu selection: it
has a Menu container names and there links grouped by menu container name.
It would be fair to say that we all agree that a website menu's are its structure.
So the question to ask is what does Menu Assignment do?
In short it shows and hides a module based on a Menu container links selected.
Another question comes up.
What if I did not have the default data installed are there no menus set?
Joomla always has the MainMenu menu container and the "Main Menu" module set by default.
Joomla menus are dependant on modules modules are dependant on menu containers.
A Joomla website structure is dependant on the menu containers and the links inside the menu container.
I also mention that Menu Assignment parameters are seen for both Modules and Templates.
I'm not going to get into template assignment fully right now but I do want you to see the concept
and power of Joomla's menu system.
Joomla can have more then one template installed for the front end.
Template assignment works almost like they do in modules parameters settings with a Menu Assignment.
Above is a cut out of the Joomla template Menu Assignment parameter.
In short it shows and hides a template based on Menu container links or link selected.
This means that you can show and hide any number of installed templates for each link or menu container.
Please note: That you need to have more then one front-end template installed for this feature to work.
Another super power full feature is that all modules are dependant on menu containers links or links.
When designing a Joomla template one adds module name positions code to the template your designing.
By using the Menu Assignment parameters in a module one can hide and show a module based on
Joomla's menu system in the Joomla template itself.
In more advanced templates you can use what's called conditional logic.
To show or hide something at the template level.
Which is based off the Menu Assignment parameter to a module that is dependant on the menu system.
Next I will discus Joomla's menu containers Menu Item Manager aka "link manager".
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