Chapter 5: Managing Content FIGURE 5.17 This Joomla! article from the sample data has been split into multiple pages Note the Table of Contents to the right of the article and the text navigation links below the article Managing Existing Articles If you site is large or active, the management of the existing articles on your site can take up a considerable amount of your time In this section, I cover the most common tasks you will perform Publishing and unpublishing articles Articles can be published and unpublished in any of three ways: l You can access the Article Manager and click the icon in the Published column; clicking the icon toggles between published and unpublished l You can click the checkbox next to the article’s name in the Article Manager and then click the Publish or Unpublish icon on the toolbar at top right l You can edit an article and modify the control marked published 107 Part II: Working with Content and Users If you want to publish or unpublish more than one item at a time, you may so by clicking the checkbox next to each article in the Article Manager and then clicking the Publish or Unpublish icon on the main toolbar at the top right Publication normally begins immediately and lasts indefinitely You can, however, set an article to start and stop publication on specific dates The start and stop publishing controls are located on the Article Parameters tab inside the Article Editing dialogue Note The ability to publish an article depends on the user’s privileges Users belonging to user groups below the level of Publisher have no say in publication Articles created by lower-level users must be published by higher level users Cross-Reference Publishing articles from the front end of the web site is discussed in Chapter Modifying articles An existing article can be edited at any time by accessing the Article Manager and either by clicking the article name, or by clicking the checkbox next to the article name and then clicking the Edit icon on the Article Manager toolbar Changes made to articles are applied to the article immediately when you click either the Save icon or the Apply icon Note Joomla does not support Article versioning, that is, maintaining a record of changes to the articles There are, however, third-party extensions that provide limited functionality in this area Copying articles The Article Manager enables you to create copies of articles When you copy an article, the system makes an exact duplicate, changing only the article name During the copy process you are given the chance to assign the new article to whatever section and category you desire, as shown in Figure 5.18 The new article will inherit the old article’s publication state and access level You can copy more than one article at a time, but when you select multiple articles to copy they must all be assigned to the same section and category 108 Chapter 5: Managing Content FIGURE 5.18 The Copying Article dialogue in Joomla! 1.5.x To copy an article, follow these steps: Access the Article Manager Select the article you want to copy by clicking the checkbox next to the article’s title Click the Copy icon on the Article Manager toolbar The Copying Article dialogue opens Assign the article to the section and category you desire Click the Save icon on the toolbar at the top right to save your new article The dialogue closes and returns you to the Article Manager Moving articles You can move articles between categories by using the Move command in the Article Manager, or by editing the article and reassigning it to a different section and category The end result of both processes is the same, but working from the Article Manager is faster and also allows you to move multiple articles simultaneously 109 Part II: Working with Content and Users To move an article, follow these steps: Access the Article Manager Select the article you want to move by clicking the checkbox next to the article’s title Click the Move icon on the Article Manager toolbar The Move Articles dialogue opens, as shown in Figure 5.19 Assign the article to the section and category you desire Click the Save icon on the toolbar at the top right to save the change The dialogue closes and returns you to the Article Manager FIGURE 5.19 The Move Articles dialogue in Joomla! 1.5.x 110 Chapter 5: Managing Content Deleting articles The deletion of articles in Joomla! is a two-step process The first step involves moving the article to the Trash, where it is held until you take the second step and permanently delete the article Articles held in the Trash Manager can be restored at any time prior to deletion Overview of the Articles Trash Manager The Trash Manager feature of Joomla! provides you with a way to clean up and remove articles from the general admin areas of the site Sending an article to the Trash will result in the article being removed from the Article Manager and moved to the Articles Trash Manager Articles moved to the Articles Trash Manager are held there indefinitely The items can be restored or deleted at the option of the administrator Restored items are moved back to their original locations, but deleted items are permanently removed from the system and cannot be restored Note Though articles can be left in the Trash Manager indefinitely, the Article Trash is distinctly different from the Archive Manager Moving articles to the Trash Manager should not be confused with archiving articles, as discussed in the following section In Joomla! 1.5.x, you can view the contents of the Trash Manager at any time by clicking the option named Article Trash under the Content Menu Clicking that option displays the Article Trash Manager in your browser, as shown in Figure 5.20 The toolbar at the top of the Articles Trash Manager provides quick access to the following functions: l Restore: Select one or more articles from the list and then click this icon to restore them and remove them from the Trash l Delete: Select one or more articles from the list and then click this icon to delete the items permanently l Help: Click to access the online Help files related to the active screen Below the toolbar and above the list of articles is the Filter field The Filter works like a search box Type a word or phrase into the field and then click Go The page reloads and displays the results of the search To clear the screen and return to a full listing, click the Reset button 111 Part II: Working with Content and Users FIGURE 5.20 The Article Trash Manager interface in Joomla! 1.5.x The main content area of the screen contains a list of all the articles in the Trash Manager The columns provided are: l # : An indexing number assigned by Joomla! This cannot be changed l Checkbox (no label): Click a checkbox to select a menu; this is needed if you want to use several of the previously referenced toolbar options l Title: This field displays the name of the article l ID: This is a system-generated ID number for the item and cannot be changed l Section: The section that the article is assigned to l Category: The category that the article is assigned to, if any Finally, at the bottom of the screen, below the content area, is the Display # option Change the value in the combo box control to alter the number of articles that are displayed on the page The default value can be altered by changing the List Length option on the Global Configuration Manager 112 Chapter 5: Managing Content To move an article to the Trash, follow these steps: Click the Article Manager option under the Content menu The Article Manager opens in your browser Click in the checkboxes next to the articles you want to remove Click the Trash icon on the top-right toolbar The system removes the articles to the Trash Manager Note Any articles moved to the Trash will be instantly unpublished and not visible to site visitors Restoring articles from the Trash Articles moved to the Trash are held there indefinitely until further action is taken by the administrator Any article can be restored at any time The process of restoring an item is simple and the result instantaneous: the article is removed from the Trash Manager and returned to where it was located when it was moved to the Trash Articles restored from the Article Trash are moved back to the section and category where they were located at the time they were moved to the Trash The articles are returned to the previous location but will be unpublished and will be moved to the bottom of the order of articles To manage the articles, access them under the Article Manager To restore an article from the Trash, follow these steps: Access the Article Trash Manager by clicking the option Article Trash under the Content menu The Article Trash Manager loads in your browser Click the checkbox next to the article you want to restore Click the Restore icon on the top right toolbar The Restore Confirmation dialogue opens, as shown in Figure 5.21 Check the information; if correct, click the Restore button, or click the Cancel icon A confirmation window opens Click OK The system removes the article from the Trash, restores it to its previous location, and then returns you to the Trash Manager 113 Part II: Working with Content and Users FIGURE 5.21 The Restore Confirmation dialogue Permanently deleting articles Articles and menu items held in the Trash Manager can be removed from the system by deleting them Deleting an item from the Trash Manager results in the item’s permanent removal from the system; it cannot be restored once deleted To permanently delete an article or menu item from the Trash, follow these steps: Click the checkbox next to the article or item you want to delete Click the Delete icon on the top-right toolbar The Delete Confirmation dialogue opens, as shown in Figure 5.22 Check the information; if correct, click the Delete button, or click the Cancel icon The system removes the article or item from the Trash, restores it to its previous location, and returns you to the Trash Manager 114 Chapter 5: Managing Content FIGURE 5.22 The Delete confirmation dialogue Archiving articles If you want to remove an article from the primary content area of your site, but not want to delete it, you can move it to the Article Archive By default, archived articles are not shown in the front end of the web site You can, however, make archived articles accessible by publishing the Archive Module Archived articles are stored in the Article Manager, though the color of the listing changes from the default blue to a light gray, and the published icon changes to indicate archived content, as shown in Figure 5.23 115 Part II: Working with Content and Users FIGURE 5.23 The Article Manager, showing at the top of the list a number of Archived Articles To archive an article, follow these steps: Access the Article Manager Click the checkbox next to the articles you want to archive Click the Archive icon on the top-right toolbar The system immediately moves the article to the archive and removes it from the general content area of the site Note Archived articles cannot be edited If you want to modify the content of an Archived Article you must unarchive it, edit it, and then archive it again Unarchiving articles Articles that have been moved into the archive can be restored to the general content area of your site by unarchiving the article Note that unarchived articles are restored unpublished 116 Chapter 5: Managing Content To unarchive an article, follow these steps: Access the Article Manager Click the checkbox next to the articles you want to unarchive Click the Unarchive icon on the top-right toolbar The system immediately unarchives the article The Archive module Articles that have been archived are not accessible to front-end site visitors unless the Archive module is published The Archive module contains links to the articles, organized for view by date The Archive module is, by default, unpublished You will need to publish the module and assign it to the position and pages you desire before it can be used by the site visitors This module is most often used in blog layouts where you want to group articles according to month published Figure 5.24 shows the output of the Archive module FIGURE 5.24 The Archive module in action 117 Part II: Working with Content and Users Cross-Reference The Archive module is discussed in more detail in Chapter 17 Global Check-in When articles are in use by another user, or when an article has been left open in an editing window or improperly closed, Joomla! prevents another user from editing the article This feature is designed to prevent users from overwriting each others’ work and creating conflicts between editors Articles that are blocked from editing produce an error message when you try to access them from the admin system If you need to access a blocked article for editing, you will need to force it to close In Joomla!, the process of forcing an article to close is achieved by selecting the Global Check-in option under the Tools menu Once you click on Global Check-in, all articles that are currently open and blocked for editing are forced to close Caution The Global Check-in feature is necessary, but it also presents the possibility for problems If your site has multiple administrators, be careful with this command because executing Global Check-in will check in all the articles; if someone else is working on an article at that time it can cause them to lose their unsaved work Summary In this chapter, we have covered the various tasks associated with managing the articles on your site You learned the following: l l How to create, edit, and delete articles l How to create various site content structures l How to configure the article parameters l How to schedule and control publishing l How to work with the Article Trash Manager l 118 How the Joomla! content hierarchy works How to work with archived content ... Save icon or the Apply icon Note Joomla does not support Article versioning, that is, maintaining a record of changes to the articles There are, however, third-party extensions that provide limited... Manager FIGURE 5.19 The Move Articles dialogue in Joomla! 1.5.x 110 Chapter 5: Managing Content Deleting articles The deletion of articles in Joomla! is a two-step process The first step involves... return to a full listing, click the Reset button 111 Part II: Working with Content and Users FIGURE 5.20 The Article Trash Manager interface in Joomla! 1.5.x The main content area of the screen