Create Splash Page with Joomla 1.5

[muddauber]

Create Splash Page with Joomla 1.5 and never come back to it

I have a Joomla 1.5 install in the www root directory, and I need to have the index.html
as a splash/welcome page. I've read and used the splash/redirects but still seem
to need the path of directory as the live site directory, which results in "home"
being the splash page. I don't want visitors to see it at all once they are in the site,
and I don't want it listed in the Main Menu. As it is, I create another "Home" menu
item that takes you to the index.php and have a menu link "Welcome Page" which
send you to the index.html. If I remove the "Welcome" from the menu scheme, the menu and links
all break.

I know I can do a reinstall and put Joomla in a sub-directory, but I really don't want to
do all that work. Any suggestions?

[user deleted]

Hi,

For a splash page see http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f ... 6#p1288333


Moderator note; moving to General questions

[muddauber]

I read that thread, but I already have the direct of domain going to index.html FIRST and then
the link to the Joomla index.php. The problem is getting the Main Menu to behave.

I made HOME go to the FrontPage, but without a menulink to the domain live site ,
mydomain.com (which takes it to the index.html) the menu doesn't work. I want to
REMOVE the menu link to the live site default, which would go to the index.html.

[user deleted]

It should not be a problem to remove that menu item, I've used this method a few times myself.

[muddauber]

I'm using 1.5 and followed your instructions, created the .htaccess line,
created a link to the frontpage module and moved the original home to
be welcome screen ( default domain)

When I removed the previous home, the link either reverts to the default home ,
which is the default domain with the index.html, or the menu fails, giving message
error.

I noted in my config file it states $live_site = '' ';

I want to have a menu that does not go back to the opening page/splash page.
The changes did not work and the main menu module will not work without
a link going to the index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage
which still goes to splash page.
I even tried to create an external URL with http://mydomain/index.php?option=com_co ... e&Itemid=1
and it would work and could be set as default. But as soon as I remove/unpublish
the original home with the index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage
setting it forces the default page to become the old frontpage setting.

[Dorgo]

I have the exact problem. No matter what i do the Home link on the main menu always serves the index.html splash page.
I am not even using the frontpage as my homepage. Just an ordinary article.

Does anyone have any ideas?

EDIT:
Solution:

• create a dummy menu item and set it as default
• link your splash page to your homepage via its new link (not just index.php) ... mine was simply href="home" with SEF URLs

[christophe2095]

Hi Everybody,
First : Sorry for my english.. i m french !
I'm newbie on Joomla and got the same problem described before :

I create a splash page with a link to index.php (by using 404SEF). But the problem is with the main menu, when clicking on "Home" i go back to the splash page.

Here is my website : Take care there are erotic contents !!
www.nuitspourpres.com

Someone detailed the creation of a dummy menu etc.. is it possible to explain it more, because i really don't know how to do that.

Of course if you got ideas to amliorate my website i'm ok !!!!
Thanks you all

[Macsimice]

Try this: make a menu item for the page you want to be the frontpage, and unpublish it. Then change the menu type for 'home' to alias, and point it to the menu item you created before.

[christophe2095]

I m not sure to undestand everything....
I can create a new menu and duplicate all élements contained in my mainmenu into.. then unpublish everything in my "dummy menu".. and then ?

[Macsimice]

Sorry if I'm unclear! No, that's not what I meant.

The 'Home' button in the main menu is a menu item like any other, except it links to the root of your website. It's menu item type merely assigns a component's view (and layout) to it (by default this view is the frontpage blog layout).

As I'm sure you know you can change the menu item type through the menu manager.

I believe that changing the menu item type to a different layout (or component) would not change the primary behavior of this 'internal link' (namely, go to the root).

If you however set it to a particular uri (either by changing the menu item type to 'External Link' or to 'Alias') you should be able alter that behavior.

To use the menu item type 'Alias' you need another menu link to alias to. As you don't want two identical menu items in your menu, you unpublish one of them.

Alternatively, you could of course just as easily replace it with a new one Just call a new menu item 'Home' and unpublish the old one.

You can do all of this within your existing menu.

I haven't tested any of this, but I'm quite sure it would work. Hope this was a little more clear!

[christophe2095]

urgh unfortunatly i can't put a print screen here !
But here are my menus :
The mainmenu is the N°1 and the new i create by copying mainmenu is N°6 home. I unpublish all the élements of the Home menu.

1 mainmenu mainmenu 17 8 28 2 1
2 menubas othermenu 1 2 1 1 2
3 topmenu topmenu 4 3 - 1 3
4 usermenu usermenu 5 - - 1 4
5 Menu principal menuprincipal 7 - 1 1 5
6 home external-link - 20 - 1 6

I 'm on the good way ?

[Macsimice]

I'll post an example for you, hang on...

[Macsimice]

Here's the only solution I could come up with that works.

First, make sure that the default 'Home' button (which is the menu item marked 'default' with the little star icon) is in a menu/module that is not published (you cannot unpublish the default menu item so this is the workaround). (see attachment 1)

Than, create a new menu/module and add a menu item named 'Home' (or what other name you want to give your home buttun. Mine is called New Main Menu and the button is called Home (see attachment 2).

Make sure that the new menu item has 'External Link' as the menu item type and just type index.php as the link (see attachment 3).

Your new home button will now direct your viewers to the index.php.

[christophe2095]

First, i will thanks you for your interest to my problem !
Well, with that explain and with exemples it looks more easy for me.

There's also a point that is not very clear, what about the default home page (witch have the yellow star). it should be in the new menu isn't it ? But if the new menu is not published you can't affect the yellow star... hmm?

If it can help you to see, i'm ready to give you an admin password to see it "in live" and i you promiss to kill nothing

[Macsimice]

There's also a point that is not very clear, what about the default home page (witch have the yellow star). it should be in the new menu isn't it

No, that menu should be in the old unpublished menu.

If it can help you to see, i'm ready to give you an admin password to see it "in live" and i you promiss to kill nothing

Sure (I promise ) but don't publish that data here, send me a pm instead!

[christophe2095]

Ok, but i need to write 5 more posts before using the PM.. so this is ONE !

[christophe2095]

the second.. (sorry for readers!)

[Macsimice]

Maybe I can send you one and then you can reply..

[christophe2095]

Wonderful ! It works... Macsimice found the solution. BIG BIG thanks to him.

[mattsop]

I'm having a similar problem. I'm trying to do my splash page as a separate template assigned only to the home page. The problem I'm coming across is that when a link is clicked within the site, my problem at this time is the account management link, it takes me back to that splash page, which does not show any of the info. Any idea of how I can fix this?

Thanks.

[bjornv]

Here's the only solution I could come up with that works.

This solution for creating a "first viewing only" splash page does seem to work.

Just a note that having a breadcrumb module enabled would give the user a 'home' link that takes them back to the splash page.

[romannumeralus]

I bet this is frustrating, but I came across a solution while searching online from a guy who represents a company called 'Outdoorbranding'. To clarify, once you have done the splash page thing and entered the website, this fix will make the 'home' menu items point to the index.php pages from now on rather than the index.html.

Your splash page index.html should be on the same root where your index.php is.

Open index.php and add the following lines of code in the top of index.php just after <?php

//////////////////Code Help From http://www.EyeConGraffix.com //////////////////////////////

if(isset($_SERVER["HTTP_REFERER"]) && $_SERVER["HTTP_REFERER"]!=”"){ } else { header(”Location:index.html”); }

//////////////////Code Help From http://www.EyeConGraffix.com //////////////////////////////

There you go.

-Wisdom

[guja]

I just want to say thanks for these answers from Macsimice. They really helped me. Thanks once more.

Greets, G.

[Macsimice]

My pleasure!

[bendraper]

works brilliantly - you solved the same problem that I was having

[HeyLord]

thanks for the posts. i have created the splash page and the home menu button links to the index.php and not to index.html using the Macsimice method by creating a second menu and etc....

i have a problem with the home link in breadcrumbs module. that "home" takes me to the index.html page and not to index.php page. i tried to change the php code under the mod_breadcrumbs folder in file helper.php by changing the following coding:

"$item->link = JURI::base();"
to
"$item->link = JURI::base().JRoute::_('index.php');

but doesn't work.

any idea ?

thanx

[Macsimice]

JURI::base() leads to the root of the installation, which is your splashpage.

Try this instead:

Code: Select all

$item->link = JRoute::_('index.php?Itemid=1');

The home link always has Itemid 1.

Incidentally: it would be better to create a module overrid for this, otherwise you'll have to revision this every time you install a joomla security update as this will overwrite the mod_breadcrumbs folder.

[HeyLord]

thank you very much for your quick response

"it would be better to create a module overrid for this"

i don't understand

[Macsimice]

If you are making changes to core files, such as the mod_breadcrumbs module, then you risk losing your changes every time you do a security update to your joomla installation.

If you don't know how to do template overrides, than it's well worth your effort to investigate, it will open up a world of additional possibilities.

Check out this url for a great how-to: http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=304&t=305657.

[HeyLord]

If you are making changes to core files, such as the mod_breadcrumbs module, then you risk losing your changes every time you do a security update to your joomla installation.

If you don't know how to do template overrides, than it's well worth your effort to investigate, it will open up a world of additional possibilities.

Check out this url for a great how-to: http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=304&t=305657.

ok thank you very much for your support