Part III: Working with Components, Modules, and Plugins 376 Cross-Reference I cover the use of modules to bring external content into your site in more detail in Chapter 7. The News Feeds component is covered in Chapter 14. Footer module The Footer module type serves no purpose other than to generate and display a Joomla! copyright notice, as shown in Figure 17.14. The module cannot be controlled other than to limit its display to particular positions or pages. The default Joomla! installation comes with a Footer module, published in the Footer module posi- tion on each page. Note The system name for this module type is mod_footer. The Parameters section contains only one option: Caching, as shown in Figure 17.15. This control allows you to exempt a specific module from the site’s caching, as set in the Global Configuration. Select the option No Caching to prevent the contents of this module from being cached. The default setting is Use Global. FIGURE 17.14 The Footer module, viewed from the front end of the site. Footer module Chapter 17: Working with the Site Modules 377 FIGURE 17.15 The Footer module parameters. To add an Archive module to your site, follow these steps: 1. Go to the Extensions menu and select the Module Manager option. The Module Manager loads in your web browser. 2. Click the New icon on the toolbar at the top of the Module Manager. The New Module dialogue opens. Refer to Figure 17.2. 3. Select the option Footer and then click the Next button. The Footer Module dialogue loads in your web browser. 4. In the Title field, type a name for the module. This field is required. 5. Set the option Enabled to Yes. 6. Set the Position control to assign the module to a position on the page. 7. Set the Menu Assignment to specify the pages upon which the module will appear. 8. Select any additional options or parameters you wish; all other fields are optional. 9. Click the Save icon on the toolbar at the top right to save your new module. The sys- tem creates the module, closes the dialogue, and returns you to the Module Manager. Part III: Working with Components, Modules, and Plugins 378 Tip If you want to display your own footer content, unpublish this module and then create a new Custom HTML module containing your own content. Assign your new Footer module to the Footer module position. Latest News module The Latest News module displays a list of the most recent articles on the site, as shown in Figure 17.16. Using the parameters, you can control the content selected for display, showing for exam- ple, only those articles belonging to a particular section, category, or author. The default Joomla! installation comes with a Latest News module, published in the User1 module position on several pages. Note The system name for this module type is mod_latestnews. The parameters section is divided into two sections: Module parameters and Advanced parameters, as shown in Figure 17.17. FIGURE 17.16 The front-end output of the Latest News module. In this case the module is assigned to the template’s User1 module position where it is showing a list of articles from the Joomla! sample data. The Latest News module Chapter 17: Working with the Site Modules 379 FIGURE 17.17 The Latest News module parameters. The Module parameters section contains the following options: l Count: Specify an integer value to control the number of items displayed by this module. The default value is 5. l Order: The setting of this control allows you to specify what the system considered to be the latest: either the most recently added, or the most recently modified. The default is Recently Added First, meaning the module will display the most recently created items. l Authors: This field provides a filter to select articles by author. The options here are Anyone, Added or Modified by Me, Not Added or Modified by Me. l Front Page Articles: Set this filter to determine whether the module includes articles that are also assigned to the Front Page. l Section ID: Enter a Section’s ID number to limit the display to articles of a particular sec- tion. You can list multiple Section IDs, separating them with commas. Part III: Working with Components, Modules, and Plugins 380 l Category ID: Enter a category’s ID number to limit the display to articles of a particular category. You can list multiple category IDs, separating them with commas. l Module Class Suffix: This field allows you to specify a suffix that will be automatically appended to all CSS styles that affect this module. The use of a specified suffix makes it possible for you to style this module individually. Tip To find a section’s ID number, view the section in the Section Manager. To find a category’s ID number, view the category in the Category Manager. In both cases the ID number appears in the far right column, labeled ID. The Advanced parameters section contains two caching controls: l Caching: This control allows you to exempt a specific module from the site’s caching, as set in the Global Configuration. Select the No Caching option to prevent the contents of this module from being cached. The default setting is Use Global. l Cache Time: The time, in minutes, you want the contents to be cached. Enter an integer value here. The default value is 900 minutes, meaning that after 900 minutes the system will re-create, or refresh this module. Note this control is only meaningful if the caching for the module is enabled. To add a Latest News module to your site, follow these steps: 1. Go to the Extensions menu and select the Module Manager option. The Module Manager loads in your web browser. 2. Click the New icon on the toolbar at the top of the Module Manager. The New Module dialogue opens. Refer to Figure 17.2. 3. Select the option Latest News and then click the Next button. The Latest News Module dialogue loads in your web browser. 4. In the Title field, type a name for the module. This is a required field. 5. Set the option Enabled to Yes. 6. Set the Position control to assign the module to a position on the page. 7. Set the Menu Assignment to specify the pages upon which the module will appear. 8. Select any additional options or parameters you wish; all other fields are optional. 9. Click the Save icon on the toolbar at the top right to save your new module. The sys- tem creates the module, closes the dialogue, and returns you to the Module Manager. Chapter 17: Working with the Site Modules 381 Login module The Login module provides a Login Form to give site users a way to log in to the system and gain access to additional articles or functionality, as shown in Figure 17.18. In addition to the Login Form, the module also displays links to the password reminder and the username reminders. If the site is configured to allow users to register, the module will also display a link to the create a new user account function. Note The system name for this module type is mod_login. The Login module’s administration interface is shown in Figure 17.19. FIGURE 17.18 The front-end output of the Login module, seen here displayed in the Left module position and with the system configured to allow User Registration. The Login module Part III: Working with Components, Modules, and Plugins 382 FIGURE 17.19 The Login module, as it appears in the admin system. The Module parameters section contains the following controls: l Caching: This control allows you to exempt a specific module from the site’s caching, as set in the Global Configuration. Select the option No Caching to prevent the contents of this module from being cached. The default setting is Use Global. l Module Class Suffix: This field allows you to specify a suffix that will be automatically appended to all CSS styles that affect this module. The use of a specified suffix makes it possible for you to style this module individually. l Pre-text: Text entered into this box appears above the Login Form. l Post-text: Text entered into this box appears below the Login Form. l Login Redirection Page: If you want to redirect the user to a new page after they log in, you can select the page from the combo box beside this control. l Logout Redirection Page: If you want to redirect the user to a new page after they log out, you can select the page from the combo box beside this control. Chapter 17: Working with the Site Modules 383 l Greeting: Controls whether the system uses a greeting for users upon login. The default is Yes, which results in the greeting being printed in the module position after login. The default greeting is “Hi, username.” l Name/Username: This control determined whether the greeting shows the username or the real name of the user. This control is only relevant if the Greeting parameter is set to yes. l Encrypt Login Form: If the value Yes is selected, the system will encrypt the form using SSL. The default value is No. Warning Do not select the option to Encrypt Login Form unless your site is SSL-enabled and URLs with the https:// prefix are accessible. To add a Login module to your site, follow these steps: 1. Access the Module Manager. To do so, go to the Extensions menu and select the Module Manager option. The Module Manager loads in your web browser. 2. Click the New icon on the toolbar at the top of the Module Manager. The New Module dialogue opens. Refer to Figure 17.2. 3. Select the option Login and then click the Next button. The Login Module dialogue loads in your browser. 4. In the Title field, type a name for the module. This field is required. 5. Set the option Enabled to Yes. 6. Set the Position control to assign the module to a position on the page. 7. Set the Menu Assignment to specify the pages upon which the module will appear. 8. Select any additional options or parameters you wish; all other fields are optional. 9. Click the Save icon on the toolbar at the top right to save your new module. The sys- tem creates the module, closes the dialogue, and returns you to the Module Manager. Cross-Reference More detailed information about creating user registration functionality can be found in Chapter 10. The Menu modules The Menu modules play a key role in the system and are closely tied to the Menu Manager. Each menu in the system has its own module. The Menu Modules are automatically created by the sys- tem each time a menu is created in the Menu Manager. A typical Menu module output is shown in Figure 17.20. Cross-Reference The Menu Manager is dealt with in detail in Chapter 8. . you to style this module individually. l Pre-text: Text entered into this box appears above the Login Form. l Post-text: Text entered into this box appears below the Login Form. l Login Redirection. 17 .16 . Using the parameters, you can control the content selected for display, showing for exam- ple, only those articles belonging to a particular section, category, or author. The default Joomla! . parameters, as shown in Figure 17 .17 . FIGURE 17 .16 The front-end output of the Latest News module. In this case the module is assigned to the template’s User1 module position where it is showing