Need To Edit Link In Menu

[peaceactionwest]

Our joomla-knowledge person has left and I am trying to manage our site with no previous experience. Using 1.0.16
I found some help files that say that links can be managed in the Components/Weblinks areas however when I go there, there are zero weblinks defined. I don't know the site is functioning without any links defined there, but somehow on the site when you press the menu, it correctly sends you to a now defunct page. Where do I find the text for where the link is sending the user so that I can change it to a new webpage.

I know this is rudimentary and I hope to learn more, but this is urgent and the help files are not matching what I am seeing.

Thank you
Donk!

[NathanHawks]

That's not how your menu is managed. Weblinks is for building a section of your site, that contains mainly links to other sites.

You manage your menus in Menu Manager. I'm about to use the word "menu" a lot, try to notice the proper names amid the haze

In the Admin section, there is a Menu menu (at least, I think so, in 1.0...). You build Menus which have Menu Items. Each Menu Item is of some Menu Item Type, which is how you use the features of Joomla to build each page. One of your Menus, contains the Menu Item you want to edit; by clicking on it, you'll get various options. Hopefully the thing you want to change, is one of those options

[peaceactionwest]

Thank you so much Nathan.

1) Where is the "Admin Section"? From my root Control Panel, there is no "Admin" that I can see. I do have a menu Menu/MenuManager. When I select that, it opens a screen with Menu Names. They are named things such as "bottom" "mainmenu" "othermenu" "topmenu" "usermenu" maybe those are names our previous person has named them. If I select any one of them, it pops up a MenuDetails screen with menu name and a field with the name in it, and a info popup, and nothing else.
Here is where I would expect to find things about this menu item such as to where it should link, but there are not even blank fields for that, just blank window.

[NathanHawks]

When you are looking at the Control Panel at (yoursite.xyz)/administrator/index.php you are in the "Admin Section"

You have found the right part of the admin, almost. Don't click on the names of the menus themselves; rather, click on the number of published items, which I believe appears in the row for each menu. (Apologies, I haven't seen J 1.0 in many years; I think that's how you reach the Menu Items interface).

[peaceactionwest]

Thanks. I managed to find it, I had to click a little button that I don't know what it is. To test I am doing the right thing, instead of modifying, I created a new menu item with the link. I published it, and saved it. and moved it. But the website does not update. Also when I modify any of the existing items they don't change either. And when I do a preview it shows the old way with no changes. What do I need to do to make changes appear on the live website or on the preview?

[NathanHawks]

Try the Tools menu (one of the menus that appears along the top of the Joomla Admin)

Tools -> Clear Cache

If you can't find that, it may have been added in 1.5; in that case just delete everything in the /cache/ folder in your main web-root folder (aka probably public_html; in it, you will see many folders, including administrator and cache) -- that is, delete everything in the /cache/ folder except for index.html.

Or just wait, and by now it's probably self-cleared, but sometimes they are set for longer durations.

Sometimes there are other caches in play including your browser cache, which you can also clear (Google it according to the name of your browser, e.g. how to clear cache in firefox), but maybe also including a pagecache run by your hosting provider which they may or may not let you clear via your hosting control panels.

There are other possibilities but this is by far the most likely.

[peaceactionwest]

Is there some reason for us to stay at this version? Is there a cost for upgrading? I'm confused on that since Joomla appears to be open source but there is a fee for using it?

[NathanHawks]

There's no fee for using it. Everything is done by volunteers, and so if you want things done by someone else, you will either get someone who needs to practice, or you will pay for professional services. Otherwise, you must put in the time to learn and administer it yourself, which is admittedly a profession unto itself after a certain point of involvement.

As to whether to stay, well here is the story. The upgrade path is not seamless. It involves several step-wise updates, each of which are not seamless, and each of which is necessary. Depending on the complexity of your site there may not be an exactly straight path forward with regard to extensions you currently have in use, or ways in which you are using base features.

So, you can do anything for free, if you learn it or are willing to do it on a timeline that involves seeking out and reading the documentation, figuring out what your questions are and either answering them via research or trial and error, and/or waiting for volunteer support, if it comes.

I gather you paid someone to set up a website for you about 9 years ago and were unclear about what it means to be the owner of a CMS-based site?

[peaceactionwest]

actually we had several people put it together and we are a non-profit and they have all left or been let go because of financial problems
but the organization will carry on, and as the sole remaining tech person here I am tasked with getting this up and running which means right now updating this link so it points to a live page
here is the page in question http://www.peaceeducationfund.org/
if you click WaysToGive it goes to a link that is now expired
it is desired to go to http://peaceeducationfund.plannedgiving.org/

see attached files
i let site percolate overnight but it did not update the live site or the preview

[peaceactionwest]

Note that Ways To Give shows up though it is unpublished, yet Ways To Give 2 does not show up though it is published. Something definitely broken somewhere! lol