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Joomla - Modules Open on Home Page

We love Joomla, but sometimes things can be confusing. One of those things is when module links are linking to Home page (front-page article section) and in the component section the linked article is opened, but with all modules from Home page.

Ok, the problem here is caused from the lack of a menu item for this exact Joomla article. This is because Joomla is based on menu items. In order to have a page, you need to have a menu item for it. Once you have a menu you can assign modules to this menu item and extend the page however you like.

The problem - let's say that you want to have a module on Home page which will display different articles with links to these articles. So you set the module and you add your articles to it, but once you click on a link from this module, the article is opened again on Home page with all Home page modules. If you have a longer Home page with many different modules and sections this can confuse the user, who will expect to see the article that he wants to read after clicking the link.


Joomla article opens on the same page

The solution - there is a simple solution for this issue, you only need to create a menu item for this article (or articles, depending on the content you have). We will use the so-called "Hidden Menu" method - this way the newly created menus won't be visible on your site, but they will work as expected and will link correctly to the articles you want.


Joomla article opens on the same page

Let's break it down a bit with different examples:

Fix for a single article - if you have a single article that you want to link from a module, but it inherits all Home menu modules, go to Joomla admin > Menus > Manage > Add New Menu and fill in the details for the new menu, per exampe:


Joomla article opens on the same page

Title *: Hidden Article Menu
Menu Type *: hiddenarticle
Description: Hidden menu for proper links

Joomla article opens on the same page

Once you create the menu, you need to create a menu item - again Joomla admin > Menus > Hidden Article Menu > Add New Menu Item > and the most important thing is to choose, in this case, Menu Item Type > Articles > Single Article, and choose the article you want to link (in our case this will be the Services article);


Joomla article opens on the same page

Joomla article opens on the same page

After you create the menu for this article you can simply click on the module link and check if everything is working correctly. It should be if everything is set properly :)

Fix for multiple articles - let's say that you have many articles that will be displayed in a module on the Home page, but you don't want those articles to open on the same page and inherit all Home menu modules. Here's what you need to do...

The best recommendation is to first create a category for all those articles and put the articles in it. In our case the category will be called Blog (Joomla admin > Content > Categories > Add New Category > );


Joomla article opens on the same page

If you have created the category and have assigned all articles to this category, you can create the hidden menu, again Joomla admin > Menus > Hidden Article Menu > Add New Menu Item > the most important thing is to choose, in this case, Menu Item Type > Articles > Category Blog, and choose the category that you have created in the previous step (in our case this will be the Blog category).


Joomla article opens on the same page

Test the module links - all articles should link to new pages without any modules (except the modules that are published on all pages - per example like the header and footer modules).

Something more - you already have the hidden menus you need, now you can add additional modules to this menu - per example advertisment banners, sidebar modules or any other module you like.

This solution will work for all type of modules like RokSprocket, News Show SP2, News Show Pro, etc.

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