The Joomla! Forum™

I set the preferences in the article manager to now show the pdf/print icons etc.  First on save, there was no indication the data was saved, the preferences window stayed active, i had to hit cancel and reopen preferences to veryify the changes had taken.

Then i went into my article and ensured the icon properties were set to "Use Global", but the icons still showed.

Actually, even setting these explicitly in the article itself does not appear to make a difference.  icons still show with both article params turned off, and also the article manager preferences.

Pls check menu item parameters also.

ack, that was it, however there is not an option to use global on the menu item properties.  just on or off, so seems this overrides the global article manager preferences, and also the article's preferences itself when linking straight to an article.  The question becomes what is the expected behaviour?

There may be bugs in the system but it is supposed to work as follows

You setup the base component configuration.  This is default behavior for the component in any scenario.

A menu item allows you to define a specific configuration for a component.  This at its core is the most basic principle of what a menu item is.  A specific configuration for a component.  Because of this you are allowed to override the base component configuration.

The last step in the cascade of parameters is the specific data model for that request.  In the case you are talking about that is the article parameters.

The idea is that an article can override anything that it needs to over even the menu item configuration.  You will find that the ability to use global is still present at this level of configuration.  This will revert to the menu item configuration for the component if an Itemid is given or the component configuration if no Itemid is given.

Hope that makes sense.

There are 3 configuration field. Menu item parameters, article preferences, and each article's preferences. I think article preferences must be discarded. Only Menu item parameters and each article's preferences are enough to configure.

There are some situations where you don't have a menu item to go off of... in those situations you want a default configuration.  Also you want to have a base set for all menu items to work from. This gives you that possibility.

Louis

Changing article preferences doesn't affect each menu item's preferences. So, why do we need it?

For example, If I change Show UnAuthorized Links to yes in article preferences, it doesn't change menu item preferences to yes. So, I have to go and change each menu item manually.

louis.landry wrote: There are some situations where you don't have a menu item to go off of... in those situations you want a default configuration.

Louis

Should this be forwarded to user doc team to clear up any misunderstanding?

Ian

louis.landry wrote: The idea is that an article can override anything that it needs to over even the menu item configuration.  You will find that the ability to use global is still present at this level of configuration.  This will revert to the menu item configuration for the component if an Itemid is given or the component configuration if no Itemid is given.

Louis, i have experimented with the new framework of the component configuration, and i think that there are some mix of concepts, missed parameters and possible related bugs. I know that this is a work in progress anyway, and i will do a broader review in the next days.

At present, i would like if you can clarify the expected effect of the component configuration parameters on the menu items, regarding the sentence quoted.

For example:
Have a look to the Standard Category Layout. Now the "Title Column" on the output table is set through the "Show Article Title" parameter at Component Configuration (the specific scenario), but the "Linked Titles" parameter have no effect on this output. Too, if you click over a Article Title, the output for the new page takes Article Manager Preferences (Base Component Configuration) as the default for article parameters.

A thought. Maybe we must distinguish better between 1) parameters used in the standard layout level and 2) parameters used in the advanced layout level.

Leandro

I am not sure I follow you

perhaps skype is a better medium for figuring each other out.... but I will try to clarify what I think the question is centered around.

The component configuration for any given component is a common grouping of configurable options.  You can set these and they are the base settings that govern how the component will act.

For any given menu item you are presented again with the component configuration (in a separate slider) that is pre-populated with your base component configuration.  You can modify the component configuration for this menu item however you choose.  For any request of the site that uses this Itemid (menu item) as a base, the component configuration defined in the menu item takes precedence over the base component configuration.

For any request of the site that does NOT include an Itemid thus not defining an active menu item, the component will revert to using the base component configuration.  It is also worth noting that if you were to use the component logic in another setting such as XML-RPC the base component configuration would be used as well.

Individual articles also have the ability to re-define certain characteristics such as show/hide pdf icon, etc.  No matter the base component configuration or the menu item configuration an individual article's settings will always take precedence and override component/menu configuration.  This is an approach that allows cascading configuration options from the broadest scope down to the most fine grained scope

There are also for any given menu item parameters that are specific to that menu item.  While working through this I endeavored to reduce the number of these as much as possible.  The idea is to create as much simplicity as possible by moving long lists of choices that are rarely modified into a place out of view.  There were a great number of parameters in several places that were never used.  Those are now gone.  I consolidated a few others, and renamed nearly all of them to have semantic meaning in the code.

I hope that clears some of it up... happy to answer questions and am available on skype if you want to go in depth

I am sure there are some bugs, but this had to happen before beta 2 or it was not going to happen and also most of the bugs stem from the name changes of parameters.  If you re-save most things which then sets the correct parameter names, most everything works.

Louis

I understand the logic behind the new framework for component configuration. But i have some doubts regarding the next quote:

louis.landry wrote: Individual articles also have the ability to re-define certain characteristics such as show/hide pdf icon, etc.  No matter the base component configuration or the menu item configuration an individual article's settings will always take precedence and override component/menu configuration.  This is an approach that allows cascading configuration options from the broadest scope down to the most fine grained scope

I have checked that the behaviour is some different. For example: In the Blog Category Layout the article settings don't override the menu item configuration in the blog view. This happens too if you choose the Standard Article Layout.

[Anyway, perhaps we must contact by skype]

There were issues with that yesterday, but they should be resolved now I believe ... are you on the latest SVN version?

Could be you found a bug

Louis

I had updated today by SVN, and i have updated again now (there were a lot of new changes ) to the 7322 build.

The behaviour is the same as reported above: the article settings don't override the menu item configuration on the blog view (this only happens when you access to an specific article from the blog layout...).

And there is another possible bug when you access to an article and you have set previously to show: "Section Name", "Section Name Linkable", "Category Name", "Category Name Linkable" at article advanced parameters. The screen displays the following error message:

Fatal error: Undefined class name 'contenthelperoute' in mysite.com\components\com_content\models\article.php on line 519

Warning: mysql_real_escape_string(): 47 is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in mysite.com\libraries\joomla\database\database\mysql.php on line 169

Warning: mysql_real_escape_string(): 47 is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in mysite.com\libraries\joomla\database\database\mysql.php on line 169

Warning: mysql_real_escape_string(): 47 is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in mysite.com\libraries\joomla\database\database\mysql.php on line 169

get 7324

Louis

Ok. The article settings DO override the menu item configuration on the blog view .

But now there are errors regarding another parameters:

Rating

Notice: Undefined property: rating in mysite.com\plugins\content\vote.php on line 36

Notice: Undefined property: rating in mysite.com\plugins\content\vote.php on line 39

Notice: Undefined property: rating_count in mysite.com\plugins\content\vote.php on line 44

Category and Section Titles

Notice: Undefined property: section in mysite.com\components\com_content\views\category\tmpl\blog_item.php on line 54
-
Notice: Undefined property: category in mysite.com\components\com_content\views\category\tmpl\blog_item.php on line 63

Perhaps others remain hidden. We have to catch them (I will continue reviewing the parameters).

Maybe you can have a look to this report too:

[7140] Category Blog Layout: Selecting more than one category

There are another issues that i have noticed. But i must do a global report (i have talked with Andy about this on UDT).

Thanks very much, Louis.

Hi Louis,

I have done a review of Article parameters and verified the framework in two scenarios: 1) By accessing to an article via Menu Item and 2) via Module, to check if the flow of parameters configuration works well.

I have found some issues. I will highlight in green when the behaviour is correct and in red when the behaviour is incorrect (Note: Some specifics issues will be highlighted in blue, then i will comment them at the end of the report).

1) Access via Menu Item (Standard Article Layout)

• Show UnAuthorized Links: This parameter isn't present in the Article Advanced Parameters
• Show Article Title: Article Advanced Parameter setting overrides the Component Configuration / There is no Global setting in the Article Advanced Parameter
• Linked Titles: Article Advanced Parameter overrides the Component Configuration / Global setting is taken from Component Configuration
• Show Intro Text: Advanced Parameter setting overrides the Component Configuration / There is no Global setting in the Article Advanced Parameter

 

• Section Name: Doesn't work / There is no Global setting in the Article Advanced Parameter
• Section Name Linkable: Doesn't work / There is no Global setting in the Article Advanced Parameter
• Category Name: Doesn't work / There is no Global setting in the Article Advanced Parameter
• Category Name Linkable: Doesn't work / There is no Global setting in the Article Advanced Parameter

 

• Author Names: Article Advanced Parameter setting overrides the Component Configuration / Global setting is taken from Component Configuration
• Created Date and Time: Article Advanced Parameter setting overrides the Component Configuration / Global setting is taken from Component Configuration
• Modified Date and Time: Article Advanced Parameter setting overrides the Component Configuration / Global setting is taken from Component Configuration
• Show Navigation: Doesn't work / This parameter isn't present in the Article Advanced Parameters
• Read More Link: This parameter isn't present in the Article Advanced Parameters
• Item Rating/Voting: Error overriding the Component Configuration (When this parameter is setted as "Show" at Article Advanced Parameters and as "Hide" at Component Configuration => The result of voting are hiden)

• Icons: This parameter isn't present in the Article Advanced Parameters (Note: When a specific (PDF, Print, Email) Icon parameter is setted as "Show" in Article advanced Parameters and the "Icons" parameter is setted as "Hide" in Component Configuration, the Layout shows the text of the PDF link but not the the icon)
• PDF Icon: Global setting is taken from Component Configuration
• Print Icon: Global setting is taken from Component Configuration
• Email Icon: Global setting is taken from Component Configuration
• Hits: This parameter isn't present in the Article Advanced Parameters

2) Access via Module (Latest News)

• Show UnAuthorized Links: This parameter isn't present in the Article Advanced Parameters
• Show Article Title: Article Advanced Parameter setting overrides the Article Preferences
• Linked Titles: Global value is taken from Component Configuration instead of Article Preferences
• Show Intro Text: Article Advanced Parameter setting overrides the Article Preferences

 

• Section Name: Doesn't work
• Section Name Linkable: Doesn't work
• Category Name: Doesn't work
• Category Name Linkable: Doesn't work

 

• Author Names: Global setting is taken from Component Configuration instead of Article Preferences
• Created Date and Time: Global setting is taken from Component Configuration instead of Article Preferences
• Modified Date and Time: Global setting is taken from Component Configuration instead of Article Preferences
• Show Navigation: Doesn't work / This parameter isn't present in the Article Advanced Parameters
• Read More Link: This parameter isn't present in the Article Advanced Parameters
• Item Rating/Voting: Global setting is taken from Component Configuration instead of Article Preferences

 

• Icons: This parameter isn't present in the Article Advanced Parameters (this involves some problems with specific Icon configuration, see above)
• PDF Icon: Global setting is taken from Component Configuration instead of Article Preferences
• Print Icon: Global setting is taken from Component Configuration instead of Article Preferences
• Email Icon: Global setting is taken from Component Configuration instead of Article Preferences
• Hits: This parameter isn't present in the Article Advanced Parameters

***** Manual signatures are NOT allowed *****_

Comments regarding the issues highlighted in blue:

1) Parameters which aren't present in the Article Advanced Parameters:

• There are parameters as for example "Hits" which are specific from a menu item layout (in this case: Standard Category Layout => The old "Table: Category Content"). I think this parameters must be cleaned from the Component Configuration and Preferences.
• There are another parameters as for example "Show Navigation", "Read More Link" and "Show UnAuthorized Links" which affect to the view of articles in both scenarios, but there is not possibility to set it individually for each article. These parameters styling the articles as group.

2) Parameters which haven't a "Use Global" option in the Article Advanced Parameters:

• These parameters stay out of the logic behind the new framework, because the parameter settings at Component Configuration aren't used in the practice. The parameters settings at Article Advanced Parameters will always override the Component Configuration settings at Menu Item.

Edit: Updated some issues descriptions and corrected typos (Tested on 7474 build | Xampp 1.6.0)

Thanks for the excellent report ! Gonna take a while to process this one 

Note : see also http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,163329.0.html

Q&T; marking as UNDER REVIEW

I have reviewed this topic in more detail and i found a new related issue: "it looks an unexpected interaction between SEF URLs and the new Component Configuration Framework".

1) Checking the new component configuration framework in two scenarios:

I have highlighted in my previous post (see message #18) some malfunctions with regard to the expected behaviour under the new component framework. Now i checked again those issues with the SEF URLs enabled to verify the output for the menu items and modules links.

a. With Sample Data installed:

Looking to the Latest News module at Front-end there are two type of URLs for articles:

- Those which include the Section and Category in the url. Example: index.php/more-about-joomla/30-the-community/21-joomla-facts
- Those which include only the Article in the url. Example: index.php/joomla-overview (Note: These articles are installed with a related menu item in the sample data).

The wrong behaviour for component configuration happened only with those articles under the second option: "URL without Category and Section". The access to these articles via menu item o via module results in a similar output: "global settings are taken from the component configuration at menu item in both cases".

b. Blank Installation:

After add a "Section", "Category", "Article" and "Latest News Module", the url of the Article at Latest News Module is:

- index.php/home/1-category-test/1-article-test

Then i have added a "Menu" and a "Standard Article Layout" Menu Item. Now the url of the article at Latest News module is

- index.php/menu-item-standard-article-layout-test (Note: The same that for the menu item).

This involve the same wrong behaviour for component configuration as mentioned above (Note: With SEF URLs disabled the behaviour remains incorrect).

2) Adding several menu items to the same content results in the same URL.

When adding a new "Standard Section Layout" menu item after of the "Standard Article Layout" (using the previous context: a blank installation with test content), the url of the article at Latest News module changes from:

- index.php/home/1-category-test/1-article-test
to
- index.php/menu-item-standard-article-layout-test
to
- index.php/menu-item-standard-section-layout-test

The URLs are chained, and arise the same issues with the component configuration.

I'm testing the latest SVN of Joomla 1.5 and I've noticed some awkward behavior whenever you enable SEF URL's.  This doesn't matter whether you're using mod-rewrite or not. 

If you enable SEF URL's and add then click a link in Joomla for a section layout (starting from the Home page), the URL's it uses are shorter than the working URL's.

For instance, I have a section named News with an alias of news.  I have a link in my top menu to the "News" setion in blog layout.  That takes me to mydomain.com/index.php/news/.  In the blog layout of the News section, all the links are broken.  The leading article has a URL of mydomain.com/index.php/news/1-welcome-to-joomla which takes you back to the same section layout, but it fixes all the URL's. 

The rest of the articles have dead links that look like this: mydomain.com/index.php/news/7-example-news-item-2.

The correct URL for that example is actually mydomain.com/index.php/news/1-latest-news/7-example-news-item-2.

1.  To replicate this problem, create a link in a menu to a section in blog layout.
2.  Visit the Home page and click the link in the menu for that section
3.  Click any of the links in that section

The leading articles take you to an updated (corrected) version of the same section layout.  The other URL's are all broken.

Should I drop this into the Tracker?

Hi,

I enabled the SEO and also the .htaccess file, and than when I click on "Read More" links in content on my front page, they work fine.

When I have menu item that takes me to a section layout, and there I click on "Read More" link, the URL has the section name in it, and gives me a 404.

I have tried with both 1.5 beta 2 and latest svn code revision 7442.

Vatsal

Mod note; topics merged from users vigyaan and LanceD

Rob,

The following reports seems related with the same issues of this thread:

http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,170943.0.html

http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,166549.0.html

Rob,

The following reports seems related with the same issues of this thread:

Thanks for spotting all the related issues, I just merged the two you found earlier.

Please check this again, it should now all work.

Q&T Note; works like expected now, moving to resolved