AutoSimpleMenu for Joomla 1.5

[SimpleSi]

[EDIT]V1.1 (non-beta ) release now available[/EDIT]

AutoSimpleMenu

 

AutoSimpleMenu allows you as a webmaster, to create a menu that is automatically updated when your front-end users create articles in particular categories or sections. It is identical to the standard Latest News Module but with several simple additions to turn it into a useful automatic menu.

 

See http://www.st-leonards-pri.lancs.sch.uk to see it in action - all of the menus (apart from the main menu and the pupil zone class menu are automatic - any content added to the appropriate categories or sections is automatically indexed - no need for webmaster intervention

 

Features:

 

Article Sort Order

The articles can be listed in alphabetical instead of date or primary order.

 

Top Article

You can additional specify one article to appear at the top of the menu, regardless of what sort order is specified. This is useful to have as an introductory article to your menu items.

 

Styling

The module responds to normal menu CSS code and not its original Latest News CSS so that it merges seamlessly into existing sites.

 

How to use it

Install as normal module extension

 

It needs to be installed like a standard module and then linked to an existing menu item and hopefully these instructions will walk you through the process.

 

Need to do 3 things and do some off them with 2 admin windows open (I recommend using a browser like IE7/FF3 with mutiple tabs)

 

Open admin1 window in your browser

 

Create new AutoSimpleMenu module - name it, enable title and set publish to yes and then pause

 

Open admin2 window in your browser

 

Create a new section and/or category for your articles - note the category ID number and stick it in the category field in admin1 window

 

Create a "Welcome to here" type article in your category (or move an exising article into the category for this pupose) - note it's ID number and stick that into the Top Article field in admin1 window.

 

Select Apply in admin1 window (to save the module)

 

In admin2 window, go and select the menu you want the AutoSimpleMenu menu to be linked to.

 

Click on New, select Articles then Article Layout, enter a title and then use the Select button on Select Article and go and find the "Welcome to here" article you created earlier and click Save.

 

Adjust the order of where you want the new AutoSimpleMenu to appear.

 

In admin2 window, refresh the window (F5 or your browser refresh icon) and then goto the menu assignment section and change it to only be displayed on the new menu item you created in the last two steps above.

 

Press Save.

 

Your Done!!!!

 

regards

 

Simon

mod_autosimplemenu_1_1.zip

Edited January 25, 2009 by SimpleSi

[daboroe]

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[SimpleSi]

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Ta for feedback

 

I was hoping I wouldn't have any install issues but I couldn't pre-test on a real site as all my real working sites already have the module installed and Joomla extension installation is broken anyway on CLEO sites

 

But I thought I might be lucky

 

But obviously not

 

I'll see what I can do to sort it out

 

regards

Simon

[SimpleSi]

In think its not as easy to distribute a module extension as I thought

 

jeffy (ta!) reckons that the problem is that some of the files are not being automatically installed.

 

The module works if you try to install it as normal and then afterwards FTP all the missing files up.

 

I'm googling to find out what I need to do to get it to fully automatically install

 

regards

 

Simon

[jeffy]

screenshots attached.........

[SimpleSi]

4th attempt posted - its all jeffy's fault if this doesn't work

 

for info in my templates the module is styled using the same code as my normal fixed menus

 

a.mainlevel {
display: block;
padding: 4px 0 2px 28px;
margin-bottom: 3px;

background: url(../images/menu-bullet.png) 0 0 no-repeat;

}

 

regards

 

Simon

[jeffy]

Thanks for this......I am testing the waters with regard to allowing more contributors of articles to our sites. This extension saves me a great deal of time as I don't have to create menu items for each new article. Many thanks.......

Jeff

[SimpleSi]

I find it indespensible (and not because I made it - it just makes life so much easier if front-end users can add articles and they are just added atuomagically to a "menu") - I'd love to find a "proper" extension that does the same job but I gave up looking ages ago

 

The one thing I'd like to do with it would be to make the section/categoory/top article be selectable via a nice GUI rather than having to type in ids!

 

On some on my menus - I actually have a static true menu and then a autosimplemenu module directly below it and disable show header so that it appears as one single menu to anyone viewing the site.

 

Anyway - glad you find it useful

 

regards

 

Simon

[jeffy]

Well, it works nicely and I thank you. I have been asked to set up pages for teachers to post assignments and make announcements. Generally, I try to point people to Moodle to do that and a whole lot more.

 

But, your module plays a key role in this. I am using it in conjunction with JUGA, the first commercial extension that I have ever purchased. It is a nice ACL solution. Now, I can create a page for each teacher who wishes to have one, Set editing rights so that only they can edit their articles, and set up an AutoSimpleMenu on the teacher's "home page" that generates links to all of the pages that they create

 

I am only wishing to ind a way to set the module to publish on every page in the teacher's category and, do this automatically.:)Thanks again!

Jeff

[SimpleSi]

I am only wishing to ind a way to set the module to publish on every page in the teacher's category and, do this automatically

If the teacher category is reached via a static menu item then just assigning the module to that menu does that for me.

 

So my main menu has PupilWork and then I have middle "proper" menu that is assigned to the main menu and then the middle menu points to the welcome article for each year group/school council etc and then an autosimplemenu is assigned to the middle menu item.

 

see Euxton CE Primary School to see it in action

 

 

regards

 

Simon

 

PS My middle menu actually is one of the hybrids I talked about (no visible join ) with the top half being an autosimplemenu and the year groups being a normal joomla menu but the principles above apply.