FLEXIcontent menu item

Hello.
I just added FLEXIcontent and got the message "you didn't create any FLEXIconent menu item, etc." I read some of the other posts and saw how you responded - with the suggestion of getting rid of the mod_content (?) component. I understand you can't or shouldn't use both.

My site is called www.pan-america.org . You will see that the FLEXIcontent appears in the main menu. I am removing it so it's not there anymore. If you click on an article, like the one below under the Architecture category, "Pritzker Prize," you see all the warnings you get at the header.

What do I have to do to resolve this? And more importantly, will getting rid of mod_content screw up my entire structure. As you can see, I have 8 specific Sections (after the HOME button) that organize my entire site. All the articles fit neatly into the categories under these sections. I am sorry to be such a novice, but will FLEXIcontent let me maintain this type of structure? I mainly wanted to be able to control the different Article pages and create a number of templates for each one. I am also wondering how FLEXIcontent will effect my JA_Frontpage News module where you see the Sections and Categories below each.

I appreciate your help with his query.

Hello,

I went on this page www.pan-america.org/index.php?op ... Itemid=393 and saw no warning.
But good news for you : I use the same JA template than you and it works with Flexicontent.

First, make sure all your categories are displayed in the back-end of Flexicontent. If not, you must import the com_content structure or recreate the categories.

For the frontpage, you have to tell the JA News Modules (JA news 2 and JA news Frontpage) to work with com_flexicontent and not com_content.
Try that with the files "blog_item.php" :
change "ContentHelperRoute" by "flexiContentHelperRoute".

(In a general way, when a module doesn't "connect" with flexicontent, you can try that or replace in the code "com_content" by "com_flexicontent")

As for your menus, the "magazine menu" for example, they all must be Flexicontent menus (select the "category" type).
You might meet the problem of menus like "Art & Architecture" (several sub-level menues). On the demo JA template, when you click on this menu, the page displays items of all the sublevels menus (other categories). There are no such menus available in flexicontent. To solve the problem, you will have to create a category "art & architecture" but with no items in it. Then create another JA NEWS module with the categories you want (Arts, Architecture, Design, Graphic and Digital Arts,Photography) and make this module display just for the menu "art & architecture".

I hope I could help you. good luck !

Emmanuel,

Thank you for your personal response to my query. I am responding in ALL CAPS so you can see it clearly.

I went on this page www.pan-america.org/index.php?op ... Itemid=393 and saw no warning. But good news for you : I use the same JA template than you and it works with Flexicontent. YES. I DID SOMETHING AND THE WARNING WENT AWAY. OF COURSE, I DON'T REMEMBER WHAT I DID. HAHA. GOOD TO HEAR YOU ALSO USE THIS TEMPLATE - IT IS SO FLEXIBLE AND CONVENIENT. YOU SEE THEN HOW LARGE IT CAN GET. THIS WAS ONE OF MY CONCERNS WITH STEPPING OUT OF THE SECTION-CATEGORY-ARTICLE MODEL - I WILL END UP WITH SOMEWHERE CLOSE TO 2000 ARTICLES. THE THREE PART MODEL WAS GOOD AS IT HELPED ME TO KEEP IT ALL ORGANIZED. DO YOU STILL THINK I CAN MAINTAIN THIS LEVEL OF CLARITY AND ORGANIZATION IN THE BACK-END WITH FLEXI?

First, make sure all your categories are displayed in the back-end of Flexicontent. If not, you must import the com_content structure or recreate the categories. RIGHT NOW ALL MY CATEGORIES APPEAR IN THE CATEGORY MANAGER AND I SEE THEIR AFFILIATED SECTIONS ON THE FAR RIGHT. IF I GO TO THE CATEGORIES FOLDER IN FLEXI'S BACK END, I SEE THE EXISTING SECTIONS AND CATEGORIES. THIS IS WHERE I'M A LITTLE CONFUSED AND A BIT WEARY ABOUT MAKING THE CHANGES. IS THIS WHERE THE EXISTING SECTIONS DISAPPEAR? AS YOU NOTE BELOW, NOW "ART & ARCHITECTURE" WILL SIMPLY BECOME A MENU ITEM. AND NOW "PHOTOGRAPHY" IN THAT SECTION WILL REMAIN A CATEGORY. I'M ASSUMING THAT THE TWO ARTICLES WOULD BE POINTED TO "PHOTOGRAPHY" AND I WOULD SEE TWO VIEW ITEMS. IF I DO THIS, THEN ALL MY CATEGORIES WOULD BE LISTED ALPHABETICALLY - AND I WOULD HAVE TO REMEMBER WHAT SECTION THEY WERE ONCE A PART OF.

For the frontpage, you have to tell the JA News Modules (JA news 2 and JA news Frontpage) to work with com_flexicontent and not com_content.
Try that with the files "blog_item.php" :
change "ContentHelperRoute" by "flexiContentHelperRoute". I FOUND BLOG_ITEM.PHP AND CAN SEE HOW I WOULD MAKE THIS CHANGE (IN SEVERAL PLACES, I SEE). MY CONCERN IS THAT NOW FRONTPAGE DISPLAYS THE SECTIONS, CATEGORIES, AND ONE SAMPLE ARTICLE - WILL I LOSE THIS? WHAT WILL APPEAR ACROSS THE GRAY BAR AT THE TOP WHERE YOU SEE "ART & ARCHITECTURE" RIGHT NOW

(In a general way, when a module doesn't "connect" with flexicontent, you can try that or replace in the code "com_content" by "com_flexicontent")

As for your menus, the "magazine menu" for example, they all must be Flexicontent menus (select the "category" type). I'M NOT SURE HOW I CREATE A FLEXICONTENT MENU. WHEN I CHANGE IT, WILL I LOSE THE CURRENT DESIGN? DO I CHANGE THIS BY GOING TO THE MAGAZINE MENU UNDER MENUS? OR AM I CREATING SOMETHING ENTIRELY NEW IN FLEXI'S DASHBOARD. WILL I STILL HAVE THE FLEXIBILITY TO CHANGE THE SUBMENU OPTIONS, WHICH COME WITH THIS TEMPLATE (DROPLINE MENU, MOO MENU, ETC), AND MAINTAIN THE COLORS? BASICALLY, WILL IT ALL STILL LOOK THE SAME?


You might meet the problem of menus like "Art & Architecture" (several sub-level menues). On the demo JA template, when you click on this menu, the page displays items of all the sublevels menus (other categories). There are no such menus available in flexicontent. To solve the problem, you will have to create a category "art & architecture" but with no items in it. Then create another JA NEWS module with the categories you want (Arts, Architecture, Design, Graphic and Digital Arts,Photography) and make this module display just for the menu "art & architecture".

AGAIN, THANK YOR FOR RESPONDING SO QUICKLY. I HAVE READ SO MANY WONDERFUL THINGS ABOUT FLEXICONTENT, AND I'M ANXIOUS TO GET IT TO WORK FOR ME. I'D BE CURIOUS TO SEE HOW YOU MANIPULATED YOUR WEBSITE WITH THE SAME TEMPLATE.

I hope I could help you. good luck !

Hi again,

First of all, I'm very flattered bu I'm not Emmanuel. Sorry... :lol:

The best way to answer all your questions is to try by yourself.
But yes with Flexicontent you can organize your articles very clearly and keep the same organization even in a better way. I have 1800 categories and subcategories and more than 4000 articles.
The greatest thing with Flexicontent is that you can have subcategories and that an item can be related to several categories.
During your import, your sections won't disappear, they just become categories
and the categories becomes subcategories.

About your JA NEWS module, you won't lose anything, it will remain exactly the same except that when you will click on an item or a category link, it will takes you to a flexicontent view. For the moment, when you click on an article title on the front page, you have this pathway /www.pan-america.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=393:pan-americrazy&catid=67:arts&Itemid=392
You must change the php files in the JA News modules so that your pathway become /www.pan-america.org/index.php?option=com_flexicontent&view=article&id=393:pan-americrazy&catid=67:arts&Itemid=392

Your Magazine menu will keep the same design, nothing at all will change on your front page. It's just the item view and the category view that will change.

To create a flexcicontent menu, it's really easy, the same way you create any joomla menu, go to MENU and create a new menu but select the "flexicontent" type menu then "category".

Sorry my web site is not yet on line.

Save your database if you're afraid to lose the organization of your articles but it should be ok.

Wow Viester - your website sounds huge! Thank you for your comments and confirmations. So I will begin by creating a new menu. I'm sorry to be dense about this. You write:

"To create a flexcicontent menu, it's really easy, the same way you create any joomla menu, go to MENU and create a new menu but select the "flexicontent" type menu then "category"."

If I go to the Menu Manager, I see: Main Menu, User Menu, Footer Menu, Resources, Example Pages, Key Concepts, and magazine. If I click on New+ here, I don't see the option to select flexicontent type and then category. I see these options appear only if I click New+ to create a new menu item within one of the existing menus: main menu, user menu, etc. So, what I did was to add a new Menu in the Menu Manager page - and I called this one Top Menu. Then within Top Menu, I created one item - and it is here where I was given the option to choose Flexicontent and then Category. Is this correct?

[attachment=0:35djgrmf]<!-- ia0 -->Menu Manager.png<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:35djgrmf][attachment=1:35djgrmf]<!-- ia1 -->Top Menu.png<!-- ia1 -->[/attachment:35djgrmf]
[attachment=0:35djgrmf]<!-- ia0 -->Menu Manager.png<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:35djgrmf]


Hello again. This is what I did. Don't know if you can see the pics - but the website (pan-america.org) show it. I had to disable the category Top Menu so it doesn't show up. As you can see, if you click on Home - you get a warning message. Also, I lost all the colors. Thanks for your help.

I have been working on the Top Menu I created. I deleted the first category - Top Menu - so it wouldn't appear in the navigation bar. Then I changed the default (gold star) to Home so I would go their first. Now I can't get to my website? What has happened?

Hello,

I am concerned that I was not ready to do this. As you can see in www.pan-america.org , my central section will need completely new rebuilding. I am not sure how and where to change the com_content to com_flexicontent to work with the multiple items I once had in the center of the website.

Furthermore, I don't know how to connect my content to my new Top Menu. When I go to the Items section, I see all my articles, but they are tied to my old categories. When I click on the drop-menu at the top I see my old categories listed. When I go to Dashboard and click on New Categories to create a New Category, if I look at the drop down menu titles Copy all parameters from: Select category - once again, I see all my old categories.

How do I create fresh new categories and link them to my new Top Menu. And, more importantly, how do I connect my existing articles to my new categories???? Please help me - I think I am way over my head now and I've lost a website that I really enjoyed.

You must put back the star where she was at first (home of magazine menu). Never change it. If you put it somewhere else, your JA Module won't appear.
When I said to "create new menus", it was in the case you want to add new menu but yours already exist so you just have to modify their type. You don't have to create another main menu.
Is it your first site with Joomla ? If it is, it might be not very easy to begin with new application like Flexicontent. It's a lot of things to learn in the same time.
If you give me your login and password (in private mesage of course), I can have a look to your back-end.

Thanks. I put the star back. It is my first website. Basically, I now have the original menu - called magazine - and a new one I created. So what are the steps to convert the existing menu? How do I convert my existing sections and categories into Flexicontent categories?