To view the Article Manager, either click the icon of the same name on the control panel, or select Article Manager under the Content menu on your main admin nav bar.. The toolbar at the
Trang 11 Log into the admin system of your site.
2 Select the Main Menu option from under the main nav option labeled Menus The
Main Menu’s Menu Item Manager opens in your web browser
3 Click the name of the menu item labeled Home The Menu Item Editing dialogue
opens
4 Under the Basic Parameters on the right side of the page, set the Columns to 1.
5 Set the # Leading Parameter to zero.
6 Set the # Intro Parameter to the maximum number of items you want to show on
the page.
7 Set the # Links Parameter to the number of links you want to display at the bottom
of the page.
8 Click the Save icon The system saves the changes, closes the Menu Item Editing
dia-logue, and returns you to the Menu Item Manager
Working with Articles
Articles are the essence of your site Articles hold your text content, together with any pictures or media files you have attached The look and feel of your web site is largely influenced by your site administrator’s fluency with the Article Manager and the associated parameters
Using the Article Manager
The Article Manager provides access to all the articles in your system, as well as the tools to create new articles and to copy, move, edit, delete, and archive them Taken all together, this is one of the most powerful and most important screens in your Joomla! system
To view the Article Manager, either click the icon of the same name on the control panel, or select Article Manager under the Content menu on your main admin nav bar In either event, the Article Manager opens in your web browser, as shown in Figure 5.8
The toolbar at the top of the Joomla 1.5.x Article Manager provides quick access to the following functions:
l Unarchive: Select one or more archived articles from the list and then click this icon to
unarchive them
l Archive: Select one or more active articles from the list and then click this icon to archive
them
l Publish: Select one or more articles from the list and then click this icon to publish them.
l Unpublish: Select one or more articles from the list and then click this icon to unpublish
them
Trang 2l Move: Select one or more articles from the list and then click this icon to move the items
into a different category
l Copy: Select one or more articles from the list and then click this icon to make copies of
them
l Trash: Select an article from the list and then click this icon to move the article to the Trash.
l Edit: Select an article from the list and then click this icon to edit the article details.
l New: Click to add a new article.
l Parameters: Click to edit the Global Article parameters.
l Help: Click to access the online Help files related to the active screen.
FIGURE 5.8
The Article Manager interface in Joomla! 1.5.x, showing the default sample data installed
Below the toolbar and above the list of articles are five sorting and searching tools to help you manage long lists of articles:
l The Filter field on the left works like a search box Type a word or phrase into the field and then click Go The page reloads and displays the results of the search To clear the screen and return to a full listing, click the Reset button
Trang 3l The Select Section filter enables you to filter and display the articles according to the sec-tion to which they are assigned To reset this filter, change the combo box back to the default setting
l The Select Category filter lets you to filter and display the articles according to the cate-gory to which they are assigned To reset this filter, change the combo box back to the default setting
l The Select Author filter enables you to filter and display the articles according to the author associated with them To reset this filter, change the combo box back to the default setting
l The Select State filter on the far right allows you to filter and display the articles according
to whether they are published or unpublished The filter provides an easy way to identity all articles that are currently active on the site To reset this filter, change the combo box back to the default setting
The main content area of the screen contains a list of all the articles in your Joomla! site The col-umns provided are:
l # : An indexing number assigned by Joomla! This cannot be changed.
l Checkbox (no label): Click a radio button to select an article; this is needed if you wish
to use several of the toolbar options, referenced in the preceding list
l Title: This field displays the full name of the article Click the name to edit the article.
l Published: A green checkmark in this column indicates the publication state of the article
As indicated by the legend that appears at the very bottom of the Article Manager, the icon that is displayed indicates the publication state You can click the icon to publish or unpublish the article, depending on its state:
l A yellow dot beside an Article icon indicates the article is approved and scheduled for publication but is pending
l A green checkmark beside an Article icon indicates the article is currently published
l A red circle with an X beside an Article icon indicates the article was published but has expired
l A red circle with an X in it (without an Article icon) indicates the article is neither published nor scheduled for publication
l A gray circle with a crossbar (without an Article icon) indicates the article is archived
Tip
If you hover the cursor over the Published icon, the system displays the article’s start and stop publication dates.
l Front Page: A green checkmark in this column indicates that the article is assigned to
appear on the front page of the site A red circle with an X in it indicates the article is not assigned to the front page Click the icon to toggle between the two states
Trang 4l Order: The number indicates the order of the article, relative to the other articles You can
reorder the articles by either clicking the green arrows to move an item up or down in the order, or by entering numbers for the order and then clicking the save icon at the top of the column
l Access Level: Shows the access level set for that article The options are Public,
Registered, and Special Click the word to change between the three options
l Section: Shows the name of the section to which the article is assigned Click the name of
the section to open the section editing dialogue
l Category: Shows the name of the category to which the article is assigned Click the name
of the category to open the category editing dialogue
l Author: Shows the name of the author of the article Click the name of the author to open
the User editing dialogue for the author
l Date: Shows the date the article was created.
l Hits: Shows the number of times the article has been viewed.
Tip
You can change the result shown in the hit counter by changing the value in the parameter in the Article Edit dialogue.
l ID: The system-generated user ID number This is used internally by the system and
can-not be changed by the user
Finally, at the bottom of the screen, below the content area, is the Display # option Change the value in the combo box control to alter the number of articles that are displayed on the page The default value can be altered by changing the List Length option on the Global Configuration Manager
Creating articles
New articles are created by clicking the New icon on the toolbar at the top right of the Article Manager Clicking the New icon opens the New Article dialogue, as shown in Figure 5.9
The toolbar at the top of the New Article dialogue provides quick access to the following functions:
l Preview: Click to open a lightbox showing how the article will appear to a site visitor
Note that the article does not appear inside your site’s page template; the only way to see the article inside your site template is to publish it and view it from the front end
l Save: Click this icon to save your work, create a new article, and exit the New Article
dia-logue
l Apply: Click this icon to save you work without exiting from the New Article dialogue.
l Cancel: Cancels the task and exits the New Article dialogue.
l Help: Click to access the online Help files related to the active screen.
Trang 5The fields in the workspace are:
l Title: Type in this field a name for the article The value in this field will be used as the
article’s title This field is required
l Alias: Enter an alias for the system to use internally for this article Note that this field
only accepts lowercase letters without spaces If you leave this field blank, the system will modify the article’s title for use as the alias Note that in some cases the alias may appear
as part of the URL strings when SEF URLs are enabled
l Section: Select a section for the article This field is required.
l Published: Set to Yes to publish the article.
l Front Page: Set to Yes to display this article on the site’s front page.
l Category: Select a category for the article from the combo box.
l Text field (no label): Enter your content for the article in this box This field is required.
At the top right of the workspace, immediately below the icons, is a summary of key article infor-mation, including the article’s state, the number of hits it has received, the number of revisions, the creation date, and the date modified At the time of article creation, much of this information will
be blank
FIGURE 5.9
The New Article dialogue in Joomla 1.5.x
Trang 6Below the article summary are the article parameters, which I discuss later in this chapter.
To create a new article, follow these steps:
1 Log in to the admin system of your site.
2 Access the Article Manager by clicking on the Article Manager option under the
Content menu on the admin nav bar The Article Manager loads in your web browser.
3 On the Article Manager interface, click the New icon on the toolbar at the top of the
Article Manager The New Article dialogue opens (Refer to Figure 5.9.)
4 In the Title field, type a name for the article This field is required.
5 From the combo box labeled Section, select either a section for the article or the
Uncategorized option This field is a required
6 Type some text for the article This field is required.
7 Complete any other fields you wish; all other fields are optional.
8 Click the Save icon on the toolbar at the top right to save your new article The
dia-logue closes and returns you to the Article Manager
Setting the parameters
Articles in Joomla! include parameters that you can use to affect the article display and behavior Note that many of the parameter options are repeats of the same choices available in the Global Article parameters, or in the Menu Item Type parameters The settings you indicate in the Article parameters will take precedence over other parameter settings, thereby allowing you to tailor the display of individual articles
Global parameters
The Global Article parameters are accessed by clicking the Parameters icon on the Article Manager toolbar Clicking the icon causes a menu to appear, as shown in Figure 5.10 Set the options you wish; then click the Save button to set the changes and close the pop-up window
Options set through the Global parameters controls apply to all articles in the system, unless they are overridden by the individual article’s parameters
Note
Where there is a conflict between the Global Article Parameters and the individual article parameters, the set-tings in the article parameters are applied by the system.
Trang 7FIGURE 5.10
The Global Article Parameters pop up in Joomla! 1.5.x
The following parameters are included here:
l Show Unauthorized Links: This control determines whether users are shown links to
content for which they lack sufficient access privileges to view If set to Yes, the links appear, but when a user without sufficient privileges clicks on the link, they will be prompted to log in; if they do not log in, they will not be able to view the article The default state is No
l Show Article Title: Whether the article title is displayed along with the content The
default state is Yes
l Title Linkable: Set this parameter to Yes if you want the article title to be hyperlinked to
the full article The default state is No
l Show Intro Text: Determines whether intro text, if any, is displayed both as a teaser and
with the full article Set this to Hide to display the full article without the intro text, in other words, the teaser will not be shown in the full article view The default state is Show
l Section Name: Determines whether the section name is shown The default state is Hide.
Trang 8l Section Title Linkable: Set this parameter to Yes to hyperlink the section title to a list of
the section contents The default state is No Linkable titles can be good for SEO
l Category Title: Determines whether the category name is shown The default state is
Hide
l Category Title Linkable: Set this Parameter to Yes to hyperlink the category title to a list
of the category’s contents The default state is No
l Author Name: When set to Show, the name of the author of the article will appear on the
article The default state is Show
l Created Date and Time: When set to Show, the Article’s creation date and time will
appear on the article The default state is Show
l Modified Date and Time: When set to Show, the date and time the article was last
modi-fied appears on the article The default state is Show
l Show Navigation: Determines whether navigation options, such as the next and previous
controls, appear on the article The default state is Hide
l Read more… Link: Determines whether the Read more text will appear on the article
intro text The default state is Show
l Article Rating/Voting: Set this parameter to Show to display the rating option on the
arti-cles The default state is Hide
l Icons: Controls whether the PDF, Print, and E-mail Icons are displayed on the articles
This can be overridden by the controls that follow, or by the settings on the articles
l PDF Icon: Show or Hide the PDF Icon on the articles.
l Print Icon: Show or Hide the Print Icon on the articles.
l E-mail Icon: Show or Hide the E-mail Icon on the articles.
l Hits: Show or Hide the Hit count for each article.
l For each feed item show: If there is a feed item displayed, this parameter controls
whether the full item, or only the intro text, appears
l Filter groups: Select one or more groups for applying the content filtering You can select
multiple groups by holding down the Control key while clicking
l Filter type: Select from one of three options: Black List, White List, or No HTML The
default is Black List
l Filter tags: If the Filter type parameter is set to Black List, terms typed in this text field
are added to the default list of Black List tags If the Filter type parameter is set to White List, the tags typed in this field become the White List terms
l Filter Attributes: If the Filter type parameter is set to Black List, terms typed in this text
field are added to the default list of Black List attributes If the Filter type parameter is set
to White List, the attributes typed in this field become the White List terms
Trang 9Article parameters
Individual Article parameters (shown in Figure 5.11) are accessed via the Article Editing dialogue The Article parameters section of all articles contains the following options:
l Author: The combo box next to this field contains a list of users; select from this box to
specify the author of the article and override the default setting
l Author Alias: This field is normally left blank; enter text here if you wish to display a
name other than the name associated with the user in the system
l Access Level: Sets the access level for this article Select from one of three options: Public,
Registered, or Special The default is Public
l Created Date: The default value is the date and time the article is created Click the
calendar icon to the right of the field to override the default date to specify one of your choosing
l Start Publishing: By default, articles are scheduled to begin publishing immediately; use
this field to specify a publication date in the future
l Finish Publishing: Click the calendar icon to the right of this field to select a stop date for
the publication of this article The default value is Never
Any time you provide an opportunity for users to input HTML into your site, you create the possibility that harmful, or even malicious, code can find its way into your system In order to help prevent this from happening, Joomla! has added content filtering to the system The filtering works by assessing the HTML that is input by the users and checking it against a black list to see if the code is permitted Joomla! provides content filtering in the default system and applies it to all users except for the Super Administrator The default settings can be overridden by the Filter parameters contained in the Global Article Parameters, discussed previously
The default Joomla! system includes a pre-determined Black List that contains the following tags: applet, body, bgsound, base, basefont, embed, frame, frameset, head, html, id, iframe, ilayer, layer, link, meta, name, object, script, style, title, and xml The Black List also excludes the following attributes by default: action, background, codebase, dyn-src, lowsrc
Through the Global parameters, you can either add new terms to the Black List or you can create a White List that specifically allows certain elements to be used The parameters also give you a way to specify which users will be subject to the controls Note that setting a control for one user group auto-matically sets that control for all children user groups
Content filtering
Trang 10FIGURE 5.11
The Article parameters
Advanced parameters
Like the Article parameters, the Advanced parameters are accessed via the Article Editing dialogue,
as shown in Figure 5.12
The Advanced parameters section of all articles contains the options outlined below Note that the default value for all parameters is Use Global, which specifies that the system will apply the values set in the Global Article parameters Setting a contrary value will override the Global parameter setting:
l Show Title: Whether the article title is displayed along with the content.
l Title Linkable: Set this Parameter to Yes if you want the article title to be hyperlinked to
the full article