In Joomla! an Article is a piece of content consisting of text (HTML), possibly with links to other resources (for example, images). Articles are the basic units of information in the content system and the bottom level in the content hierarchy.
In Joomla! 1.5 and earlier versions, an Article was the third level in the hierarchy Sections -> Categories -> Articles.
Create an article in Joomla! 1.5
You can access the Article:[New] page either by pressing the Add New Article button on the Control Panel or by clicking the New button on the Article Manager.
Title. The Title for this item. This may or may not display on the page, depending on the parameter values you choose.
Published. Whether or not this item is published. Select Yes or No from the radio button group to set the Published state for this item.
Alias. The internal name of the item. Normally, you can leave this blank and Joomla! will fill in a default value. The default value is the Title or Name in lower case and with dashes instead of spaces. You may enter the Alias manually. The Alias should consist of lowercase letters, and no blank spaces are allowed. Use a hyphen (-) instead. The Alias will be used in the URL when SEF is activated.
Front Page. Select No or Yes from the radio button group to indicate whether this Article will show on the Front Page.
Section. Select the Section for this Article from the drop-down list box. Note that you can select Uncategorized if you do not want this Article associated with a Section or Category. This can be used for Articles that are displayed in an Article Layout as static content.
Category. Select the Category for this Article from the drop-down list box. If you selected Uncategorized for the Section, the Category will automatically be Uncategorized.
Edit window - TinyMCE editor
The default editor for both front-end and back-end users in Joomla! is the TinyMCE editor.
TinyMCE is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor that allows users a familiar word-processing interface to use when editing Articles and other content.
Image, Pagebreak, and Read More Buttons
Three buttons are located just below the edit window.
Image. This button provides an easy way to insert an image into an Article. Images may be inserted from the images/stories folder and may also be uploaded.
Pagebreak. This button allows you to insert a pagebreak inside an Article. A pagebreak allows for page navigation when the article is displayed on a layout. This is useful for long articles.
Read more... This button inserts a Read more... break in the Article. This shows as a red dotted line across the Article. If an Article has a Read more... break, only the text before the break, called the Into Text, will initially display, along with a Read more... link. If the User clicks this link, either the entire Article or just the part after the Read more... link is displayed. This depends on the setting of the Intro Text parameters for the Article and in the Global Configuration. The Read more... break allows you to save space on pages by just showing the Intro Text. Note that the Read more... break only shows in the Front Page, Section, and Category Blog layouts. If you want to insert breaks for an Article shown in an Article Layout, use the Page Break button.
Parameters - Article
This section allows you to enter parameters for this Article. These entries are optional. Joomla! automatically creates default entries for these values.
Author. Select the Author from the drop-down list box. Default is the current user.
Author Alias. This optional field allows you to enter in an alias for this Author for this Article. This allows you to display a different Author name for this Article.
Access Level. Who has access to this item. Current options are:
Public: Everyone has access
Registered: Only registered users have access
Special: Only users with author status or higher have access
You can change an item's Access Level by clicking on the icon in the column.
Created Date. This field defaults to the current time when the Article was created. You can enter in a different date and time or click on the calendar icon to find the desired date.
Start Publishing. Date and time to start publishing. Use this field if you want to enter content ahead of time and then have it published automatically at a future time.
Finish Publishing. Date and time to finish publishing. Use this field if you want to have content automatically changed to Unpublished state at a future time (for example, when it is no longer applicable).
Parameters - Advanced
This section allows you to enter additional parameters for this Article. These parameters allow you to override the parameters set in the Parameter/Global Configuration setup in the Article Manager and the Parmeters - Component settings in the Menu Item Manager.
A value of Use Global means that either the setting from the Menu Item or the setting from the Global Configuration will control the action. A setting other than Use Global will always control the action and override settings from these other areas. The setting here takes top priority. The setting in the Menu Item is second priority. The setting in the Global Configuration controls if both of the other setting are set to Use Global.
Show Title. (Use Global/No/Yes). Whether or not to show the Article's Title.
Title Linkable. (No/Yes/Use Global) Whether or not the Title of the Article will be a hyperlink to the Article.
Intro Text. (Use Global/Hide/Show). Hide or Show the Article's Intro Text when the Read more... link is selected. Intro Text is the first part of the Article before a Read more... break. If this parameter is Show, when the User selects the Read more... link, the entire article will display. If this parameter is Hide, when the User selects the Read more... link, only the part of the Article after the Read more... link will display.
Section Name. (Hide/Show/Use Global) Whether or not the Section Name will display.
Section Title Linkable. (No/Yes/Use Global) Whether or not the Title of the Section will be a hyperlink to the Section page.
Category Title. (Hide/Show/Use Global) Whether or not the Category Title will display.
Category Title Linkable. (No/Yes/Use Global) Whether or not the Title of the Category will be a hyperlink to the Category page.
Article Rating. (Use Global/Hide/Show). Hide or show the Article Rating.
Author Name. (Hide/Show/Use Global) Whether or not to display the Author Name.
Created Date and Time. (Hide/Show/Use Global) Whether or not to display the date and time the Article was created.
Modified Date and Time. (Hide/Show/Use Global) Whether or not to display the date and time the Article was last modified.
PDF Icon. (Hide/Show/Use Global) Whether or not to display a button to allow the Article to be rendered in a new window in PDF format. This allows the User to view, print, or save the Article as a PDF file.
Print Icon. (Hide/Show/Use Global) Whether or not to display a button to allow the Article to be printed. This allows the User to print the current Article in a printer-friendly format.
E-mail Icon. (Hide/Show/Use Global) Whether or not to display a button to allow a link to the Article to be e-mailed. This displays a form that allows the user to send an e-mail with a link to the current Article.
Content Language. Language in which this Article is written. This is optional. If no language is selected, the default language for the site is assumed.
Key Reference. Optional text key that an Article may be referenced by.
Alternative Read more: text. Optional text to display next to the Read more... link. If no entry is made, the Article Title is used.
Metadata Information
This section allows you to enter Metadata Information for this Article. Metadata is information about the Article that is not displayed but is available to Search Engines and other systems to classify the Article. This gives you more control over how the content will be analyzed by these programs. All of these entries are optional. The entry screen is shown below:
Metadata Description. Optional Metadata Description for this Article.
Metadata Keywords. Optional entry for keywords. Must be entered separated by commas (for example, "cats, dogs, pets") and may be entered in upper or lower case. (For example, "CATS" will match "cats" or "Cats"). Keywords can be used in several ways:
To help Search Engines and other systems classify the content of the Article.
In combination with Banner tags, to display specific Banners based on the Article content. For example, say you have one Banner with an ad for dog products and another Banner for cat products. You can have your dog Banner display when a User is viewing a dog-related Article and your cat Banner display for a cat-related Article. To do this, you would:
Add the keywords 'dog' and 'cat' to the appropriate Articles.
Add the Tags 'dog' and 'cat' to the appropriate Banners in the Banner Manager New/Edit screen.
Set the Banner module Parameter 'Search By Tags' to 'Yes in the Banner Module Edit screen.
In combination with the Related Articles module, to display Articles that share at least one keyword in common. For example, if the current Article displayed has the keywords "cats, dogs, monkeys", any other Articles with at least one of these keywords will show in the Related Articles module.
Robots. Optional keywords for Robots. Robots are automated software programs that surf the web and catalog web content. If special keywords are desired for Robots to use, enter them here.
Author. Optional entry for an Author name within the metadata.
When done, click the button at the top right toolbar
Preview. Opens a popup window that displays a preview of the Article. This is normally not needed when using a WYSIWYG editor, such as TinyMCE. However, if you are using a plain text editor (for example, the 'No Editor' option), this preview lets you see what the Article will look like when shown on the web site.
Save. Save it and return to the main screen of the Manager.
Apply. Save it, but stay in the same screen. If you have been working on a screen for a long time and don't want to risk losing your work, pressing Apply saves your work and lets you continue working. If, for example, you lost your Internet connection, your work will be saved up this point.
Close. Return to the previous screen without saving your work. If you press Close while adding a new item, this new item will not be created. If you were modifying an existing item, the modifications will not be saved.
To edit an existing Article, click on the Article's Title, or click the Article's checkbox, and click on the Edit icon in the toolbar.
Videos tutorial How to create an article in Joomla! 1.5
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