Using Joomla!, 2nd Edition

Chapter 5. Creating Content

Because Joomla is a CMS, it goes without saying that content is at the heart of everything it does. Whoever said “Content is king” was very right. Attracting site visitors requires compelling content that is regularly updated.

The basic content type in Joomla is the article. In this chapter, we’re going to explore article content in depth as the basis for understanding how Joomla organizes content as a whole.

Joomla Pet Center Article Options Hierarchy

When we look at the frontend of Joomla Pet Center, we can see that each article has some data being displayed by the system. See Figure 5-1.

This information and the display of an article on your Joomla website is controlled by three sets of parameters: Global Article Options, Menu Item Article Options (see Creating Menu Items), and Article Options. In many cases, the same parameter can be specified for all three. A specific cascading hierarchy is used to determine which parameters are actually used when an article is displayed.

Global Article Options

The Global Article Options are accessible in the Article Manager. In the top toolbar, click the Options button. These parameters should be set to whatever you desire for the majority of your articles. Wherever you see Use Global within Article Options, Category Options, Menu Item Options, and even Permissions, it is pulling from the parameters that are set in the Global Article Options—thus the term Use Global in the drop-downs. You can override what is set in ...