Joomla 3 – Linking articles and menu-items

Joomla allows to link articles with menu items. When you click on the menu items, Joomla will open associated articles. Joomla made it easy by providing simple user interface.

Step 1. Log-in into your Joomla based website as an administrator. Joomla will display an admin “Control Panel”.

Step 2. Click on “Menu Manager” item from left side of the page. Joomla will open “Menu Manager: Menus” page; where Joomla displays list of menus.

Step 3. Click on “Main Menu” menu link. Joomla will open “Menu Manager: Menu Items” page.

Step 4. Now we will create a menu item under “Main Menu” and link it to an article. When the user clicks on this menu item, Joomla will open an associated article.

Step 4.1. Click on New button to create a new menu item. Joomla will display “Menu Manager: New Menu Item” page.

Step 4.2. Provide name of the menu item in “Menu Title” field. This is displayed as a menu item title when Joomla will display “Main Menu” menu. Alias field value is automatically populated based on the value give in “Menu Title” field.

Step 4.3. We have to mention the type of menu item we are going to create in “Menu Item Type” field. To do this, click on Select button which is next to “Menu Item Type” text field. Joomla will open a dialog box where it displays list of menu item types.

Step 4.4. Click on Articles menu item type. Joomla will expand Articles item, display its sub-items.

Step 4.5. From list of Articles’ sub-items, select “Single Article” item. That means we are going to create a “Single Article” type menu item; which associates a single article to the menu item. Joomla will display list of articles dialog box.

Step 4.6. From list of articles, select the article you want to link to the menu item. In this example, we have selected “Sample Article”.

Step 4.7. Once you have selected the article, Joomla will display the relevant fields in “Menu Manager: New Menu Item” page and populate with the necessary values. For eg: “Link” field is populated with the link to the selected article.

See Step 4.1. for screenshot.

Step 4.8. Keep rest of the values as they are. And click on “Save & Close” button to create a new menu-item. Joomla will create a new menu item and display the “Menu Manager: Menu Items” page where Joomla displays list of menu items. Observe that the newly created menu item is listed here.

Step 5. Now go to home page of your site and find that “Sample Menu Item” is displayed in “Main Menu”. Click on “Sample Menu Item” menu item. Joomla will display the associated article.

We have successfully created a menu item and link an article to it. When we click on our menu item, Joomla displayed the associated article.

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