227 CHAPTER Managing the Front Page of Your Site IN THIS CHAPTER Controlling front page layout Publishing articles on the front page Publishing components on the front page Publishing modules on the front page T he front page of your web site is your first impression to visitors. Because the front page has such an important role, Joomla! creators have provided site owners with dedicated tools for managing the page and the contents that appear on it. Gaining command of those tools is the goal of this chapter. Using the tools in the admin system, you can assign articles to your front page, as well as component output and module output. Although controlling the contents that appear on the page is the easiest way to make your front page effective, you can also work with the layout of the page to achieve more variety. The controls on the Menu Item and Article parameters give you a measure of control over the layout, and if you want to do even more, you can assign a unique template to provide the front page with its own distinct look and feel. Controlling Front Page Layout Your default Joomla! site comes with only one Menu Item Type tailored for use as the front page of your site. That Menu Item Type, named Front Page Blog Layout, has several options that allow you to customize the appearance of the front page to suit your needs. The Menu Item Type options, together with the parameters associated with the articles that are displayed on the page, give you basic content layout control. Part II: Working with Content and Users 228 Note In addition to content items, modules assigned to the front page also impact your site’s appearance. The options in this area are limited by the availability of module position holders in the particular template that you are using for the front page. Publishing modules to the front page is discussed later in this chapter. Understanding the default content layout options The front page you see in the default Joomla! installation is created from the Menu Item Type named Front Page Blog Layout, as shown in Figure 9.1. As noted, this is the only Menu Item Type provided specifically for the front page. The unique nature of the Front Page Blog Layout Menu Item Type is a key factor, because the front page management tools in the system are all dependent upon your use of the Front Page Blog Layout Menu Item Type. In other words, if you select an alternative Menu Item Type for your front page, the Front Page Manager and the option to assign articles to the front page via the Article Manager are not available to you. Although the loss of those tools is not fatal to successful management of your site, they are convenient to use and you should think twice before foregoing these useful utilities. In the following section, we focus on how to get the most out of the default system by using the default Front Page Blog Layout. Cross-Reference See Chapter 8 for a complete discussion of the layout choices available for Joomla’s many Menu Item Types. The chapter also includes screen shots showing the impact of each of the options. To view the key parameters that contribute to the layout you see in the default site, access the menu item that controls the front page by following these steps: 1. Click on the Main Menu option under the man nav choice named Menus. The Main menu Menu Item Manager opens in your browser. 2. Click on the menu item named Home. The Menu Item Editing dialogue opens in your browser. The basic parameters on the Menu Item Editing dialogue, shown in Figure 9.2, provide the key layout options that impact the layout you see on your default front page. The four parameters here set the number of items displayed, the number of columns used to hold the articles, and the num- ber of links shown at the bottom of the screen. Chapter 9: Managing the Front Page of Your Site 229 FIGURE 9.1 The default Joomla! Front Page in Joomla! 1.5.x. This shows the sample data installed. Part II: Working with Content and Users 230 FIGURE 9.2 The default Joomla! Front Page in Joomla! 1.5.x. This shows the sample data installed with callouts. Lead article Intro articles Links Chapter 9: Managing the Front Page of Your Site 231 In the default configuration, the front page is configured to show one leading article, four intro articles, two columns, and four links. Here’s how that translates into the display you see in Figure 9.1. l # Leading: A leading article is positioned at the top of the content area and spans the width of the content area. In the default configuration, the value of this parameter is set to one. The leading article is not impacted by the setting of the Columns parameters. If you set this value to zero, then no leading article is used and the first articles that appear are the intro articles. l # Intro: The value in this parameter sets the number of articles that appear after the lead- ing articles. Note that the intro articles are subject to the settings in the Columns parame- ter. If you set this value to zero, no intro articles are shown. l Columns: Controls the number of columns used to display the intro articles. Note that the value needs to be set between one and three. l # Links: Controls the number of links that are shown at the bottom of the content area of the page. Set the value to zero if you do not want to use this feature. As a content manager, one of the issues that you have to be aware of is the need to keep track of the number of articles that you have assigned to the front page at any point in time. Regardless of your settings in the Menu Item parameters, the system does not automatically limit the number of items that can be assigned to the front page. For example, in the default configuration with the sample data installed, the settings in the Menu Item Type parameters provide for the display of no more than five articles on the front page. However, the default sample data in the system has seven articles assigned to the front page. As a result, the default site shows five articles on the front page, and then creates a second page to hold the additional two articles. When this happens, the front page displays pagination controls at the bottom of the Front Page (refer to Figure 9.1). While the ability to push articles onto additional pages may be desirable in a blog-type site, you may not want this format on your site. A different issue arises if you fail to publish a sufficient number of articles to the front page. Looking again at the default configuration, if you publish fewer than five articles to the front page, the layout may not be so pleasing to the eye. You can see the impact of this on the second page where the additional front page items are displayed, as shown in Figure 9.3. The system shows two items on this page, which leaves a blank spot in the layout where a third article would appear in the second column. Single-column layout If you prefer for your site to use a single-column layout (see Figure 9.4), you can apply two differ- ent approaches to create this look with the default Menu Item Type. One option is to set the Columns parameter to a value of 1, in which case you can use both the #Leading and #Intro to control the number of articles shown. Alternatively, you can set the Intro Articles parameter to the value zero and use only the Leading Articles parameter to set the number of articles displayed. No matter which option you choose, the visual output on the front page is the same. Part II: Working with Content and Users 232 FIGURE 9.3 The second front page that shows in the default installation. Because only two articles are on this page, the layout is not as pleasing. Chapter 9: Managing the Front Page of Your Site 233 FIGURE 9.4 Creating a single-column layout. Part II: Working with Content and Users 234 Multicolumn layout The default system uses a hybrid layout, with a single column leading article followed by the intro articles displayed in two columns. Common variations to this layout include using one or more of the following modifications to the parameters: l Use more than one leading article l Change the number of intro articles l Change the Columns parameter to display three columns Alternatively, if you want to create a multicolumn layout throughout the front page content area, you can do so by setting the value of the #Leading parameter to zero. This configuration results in only the intro articles being displayed. You can then set the Columns parameter to display the intro articles in either two or three columns. Tip The Advanced parameters for this Menu Item Type include options to control the order of multiple columns — either ordering them down or across. Using a distinct template for the front page Although the default Joomla! system uses only one template to display all the pages on the site, you can easily change this and assign a distinct template to serve as your front page. Many sites employ more than one template, often for the purpose of providing a unique look and feel for the front page. Because the front page of your web site sets the tone and provides the first impression for your visitors, creating a template that is specifically designed to present the Front Page in the most optimal fashion is often judged to be worthwhile. A separate template, or templates, can then be used for the internal pages. The assignment of templates to pages is handled by Joomla!’s Template Manager. To set a separate template for the front page, follow these steps: 1. Log in to the admin system of your Joomla! site. 2. Click on the Template Manager option, located under the Extensions menu on the main admin nav. The Template Manager loads in your browser. 3. Click the radio button next to the name of the template you want to assign to the front page of your site. 4. Click the Edit icon on the top-right toolbar. The Template Editing dialogue opens in your browser. 5. Click the radio button Select From List. 6. Select from the Menu Selection combo box the menu link that identifies your front page. For many sites, and in the default installation, that option is named Home. 7. Click the Save icon on the top-right toolbar. The system now associates the template with the front page, closes the Template Editing dialogue, and returns you to the Template Manager. Chapter 9: Managing the Front Page of Your Site 235 FIGURE 9.5 A completely multicolumn layout, in this case created by setting the #Leading parameter to zero. Part II: Working with Content and Users 236 Note Before you can begin, you must move the template files to your server, by using either FTP, your hosting ser- vice’s file manager, or the Install function in Joomla’s Extensions Manager. After the template files are on your server, you can complete the process. Cross-Reference To find out how to add more templates to your system, see Chapter 20. Publishing Articles on the Front Page If you are using the default front page features, you can control the articles that appear on your front page via the Article Manager and the Front Page Manager. The Article Manager gives you the ability to assign pages to the front page. The Front Page Manager allows you to manage the articles assigned to the front page. Joomla! 1.6 Joomla! 1.6 does not include the Front Page Manager feature, instead providing for the management of the front page items via the Featured Article Manager. The new Featured Article Manager functions in essentially the same fashion as the old Front Page Manager and can be found under the Components menu, under the sub- heading articles. Setting an article as Featured will result in that article appearing on the front page and also appearing inside the Featured Article Manager. Working with the Front Page Manager The Front Page Manager holds only those articles that you have assigned to the Front Page. When an article is unassigned to the Front Page, you can remove it from the Front Page Manager. The Manager enables you to see all the articles assigned to the Front Page in one place and to perform basic management tasks, such as reordering the articles or moving them to the Article Archive. Cross-Reference Working with articles and the Article Manager are discussed in Chapter 5. Article Archives are covered in Chapter 2. The Front Page Manager is located under the Content menu on the main admin navigation bar; clicking on that option opens the Front Page Manager in your browser, as shown in Figure 9.6. . 9 .1 The default Joomla! Front Page in Joomla! 1. 5 .x. This shows the sample data installed. Part II: Working with Content and Users 230 FIGURE 9.2 The default Joomla! Front Page in Joomla! 1. 5 .x. . The Front Page Manager allows you to manage the articles assigned to the front page. Joomla! 1. 6 Joomla! 1. 6 does not include the Front Page Manager feature, instead providing for the management. templates to pages is handled by Joomla! ’s Template Manager. To set a separate template for the front page, follow these steps: 1. Log in to the admin system of your Joomla! site. 2. Click on the