Joomla Submenu Module

Description

When - in Joomla - you create a parent menu with submenu entries, the parent menu is just a place holder, a so called "text separator" that has no action assigned. When the visitor of a web site clicks or taps such a text separator menu item, nothing happens - which is irritating.

Web Site Visitor

JOOMLM001011 (mod_submenu) is a Joomla module that automatically generates a list of links from the submenu entries down to a level to be defined by the web site administrator.

When a visitor clicks a menu which is a branch with submenus and/or menu items, a corresponding link list is shown. This also happens when a visitor clicks a menu link from e.g. the breadcrumb.

Picture:  Overview

Picture: Breadcrumb

The picture above shows the standard menu (in blue) and the generated list of links (in red).
In this example the menu entry "More…" has submenus "News", "Weather Forecast", "World Times" "Live Images", and "Miscellaneous". A part of these (branches) again have submenus, giving a tree structure. Others are menu items without submenus (leaves).

The module "mod_submenu" automatically detects the current menu and its submenus and menu items. Submenus and menu items are shown indented to reflect the menu structure. In this example, the entries are alphabetically sorted.

Web Site Administrator

The administrator view shows the usual panels "Details", "Options", and "Menu Assignment".

Details

Picture: "Details" panel

On the "Details" panel you can choose whether a title should be shown above / below the menu links. Thru the parameter "Position" you decide where in the page(s) the menu link list should be displayed.

Note: To display the list where usually the content is displayed, we recommend do also use the module "m2c" (module-to-content) written by Douglas Machado, or similar.

Options

Picture: "Options" panel

The "Options" panel has these parameters:

Sort

"Yes":   The menu items are alphabetically sorted.

"No":    The menu items are listed as found in the database.

Show icon

"Yes": An icon is displayed together with the title.

"No": Just the title is displayed.

Menu ID as title

"Yes":   The menu name is taken as title.

"No":    The title (see "Details") is taken.

Target

Select how the page should be shown if the visitor clicks / taps a link from the list: in the same (parent) window, or in a new window.

Menu sublevels

The number of submenu levels (relative to the current menu) to add to the list. Choose one from the drop-down list or enter a value.

Description

Text to display together with the list of menu links.

Description position

Declares the position, relative to the link list, where the description should be displayed. Choose either "above" or "below".

Containter style

If necessary, you can provide CSS style definitions to be used for the containing box. Make sure the definitions are syntactically correct; otherwise they will interfere with the standard definitions.

Style level 1

CSS style definitons for the 1st-level entries. Make sure they are syntactically correct.

Style level n

CSS style definitons for the subordinate level entries. Make sure they are syntactically correct.

Menu Assignment

Picture: "Menu Assignment" panel

Here you select for which menu entries mod_submenu should show a submenu link list. In most cases only "text separator" menu branches – in the example above "More", "Live Images", and "Miscellaneous" - should be selected. In rare cases, you might wish to display (e.g. on a non-content position) the menu link list together with the content – even for menu leaves.