Joomla 3: Creating Menus and Menu Items

Joomla provides a simple user interface to allow the users to create menus and its menu items. Also, through the Joomla interface, we can set what action is to be performed when the user clicks on the menu item. This article explains the steps to perform this.

Step 1. Log in to Joomla as an administrator. Joomla will display “Control Panel”.

Step 2. Click on the “Menu manager” link which is usually on the left side of the page. Joomla will display the “Menu Manager: Menus” page.

Step 3. Click on the New button. Joomla will display the “Menu Manager: Add Menu” page.

Step 4. Now under “Menu Details”:

• Provide the title of the menu in the Title field. The title will be displayed on the “Menu Manager: Menus” page in the menus list.
• Provide menu type in the “Menu type” field. This is the internal name of the menu.
• Provide menu description in the Description field. This tells the purpose of the menu.

Step 5. Once you provide the details, click on the “Save & Close” button. Joomla will create a menu and display the “Menu Manager: Menus” page. Observe that the newly created menu will be displayed here.

Now we have successfully created a Menu. Now we can create Menu Items. Keep that in mind; in order to create a menu item, we should select a menu. Now I am going to show you how to create a menu item for our newly created menu.

Step 6. Click on our menu “Custom Menu” from the “Menu Manager: Menus” page. Joomla will display the “Menu Manager: Menu Items” page. This is the page where Joomla will display menu items of the selected menu. We have not yet created any menu items for our menu “Custom Menu”; hence showing no menu items.

Step 7. Now we need to create a menu items for our menu. Click on the New button. Joomla will display the “Menu Manager: New Menu Item” page.

Step 8. From “Menu Manager: New Menu Item” page:

• Provide menu title in the “Menu Title” field. This is a mandatory field to fill. This title will be displayed on the menu when the menu is published and positioned in the proper place.
• Now important field we need to select is “Menu Item Type”. This tells the type of menu item we are going to create. Either it points to an external link or it points to an internal Joomla component etc.,. Joomla doesn’t allow you to enter anything directly into this field. We should enter the value to this field; through the Select button only.
• Click on the Select button. Joomla will display the list of menu item types in a separate dialog. Here we are going to create a link that points to our CodeSteps.com website. So, select the “System Links” link. Joomla will expand the link and display its sub-items. Select the “External Link” item.

  

• Depending on the menu item type we selected, the rest of the fields will be populated. Here we have selected, “External Link” as a menu item type. So, we need to provide an external link this menu item is going to point to in the Link field.
• Keep default values in the rest of the fields. Make sure you have selected the proper menu in the “Menu Location” field.
• Provide the note if anything you want to provide for the menu item in the Note field.

Step 9. Once you made the necessary changes; click on the “Save & Close” button. Joomla will create a menu item and display the “Menu Manager: Menu Items” page. Observe that our menu item is displayed here.

Now we have a menu with one menu item created. Now does Joomla display the menu item? Not yet. Because we are not yet added a module to our menu type. Yes, we need to add a module for our menu type “Custom Menu”. Then how do we add a module for menu type? Good. Follow the below steps.

Step 10. Go to our “Menu Manager: Menus” page; where you will find our “Custom Menu” entry.

Step 11. Click on the “Add a module for this menu type” link which is next to our “Custom Menu”. Joomla will display the “Module Manager: Module Menu” page.

Step 12. From “Module Manager: Module Menu” page:

• Provide title in Title field.
• Select the position as “Top [position-1]” from the Position field. This tells Joomla to display this menu in “position-1” in the selected Joomla template (theme) which is usually a menu bar area.
• Keep the rest of the field values as they are.

Step 13. Click on the Save button to save the changes.

Step 14. Now we are ready to test our custom menu.

• Go to our site’s home page.
• You will find the link “Link to CodeSteps.com” on top of the default menu.

  

• Click on the link and you will see codesteps.com is opened.

It seems our “Custom Menu” is working fine. We have successfully created a working menu in Joomla 3.

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