cannot get menus to display

[fossildoc]

I am a Joomla noob. I installed Joomla 5.1 on a hosting provider, and am working with tutorials and the default Cassiopeia template. I can make categories, articles, menus, and menu items. I cannot get the menus to display properly.

I want a menu display just like the one used on this forum's hompepage: with Home Services Reports Contacts Help About, etc., in one line across the top. When the user clicks on a menu, s/he sees the menu items associated with that menu.

That's what I want, but what I get is a list of menu items on the same line as Home. No matter how I manipulate the modules associated with my menus, I cannot get them to display properly.

The official documentation for Joomla is based on 3.1, and so is hopelessly out of date. I did find some Joomla 5 videos; the one on menus has no explanation of menu modules except vague language to the effect that modules interact with templates. Since Cassiopeia is the default template, the video tutorials should focus on that. Tutorials are for beginners, not for people who already know everything.

Can anyone point me to a definitive, thorough explanation of how menu modules work in Joomla 5.1? Or show me what I'm doing wrong?

[Per Yngve Berg]

Have you published a Menu Module in the Menu Position?

[fossildoc]

Yes. I've tried Cassiopeia Menu[menu] and Active Positions menu. The menu items still display on the same line as Home. I even tried a Cassiopeia banner position; the menu item displayed where the banner is (I found a document on the architecture of the Cassiopeia template).

I have no idea what Active Positions means. It's not explained in any video or written tutorial I can find.

It seems that the system is treating my menu items as menus.

I'm really good at reading. I need a definitive document that explains how all this works. I have been a programmer for 63 years (that's right) and I know that programmers do not like to document. "Let them eat cake" is their motto.

[carlitorweb]

Did you check to change the layout of the Menu module?

There are 4 different layouts for the menu module:

• From Module
  • Collapsible Default Menu -> you will get a menu without submenus and that collapses (hamburger menu) in mobiles
  • Default -> you will get a menu without submenus and without hamburger, the menu will display vertically on mobiles (e.g. in position "menu")

• From Cassiopeia Template
  • Collapsible Dropdown -> you will get a menu with submenus and that collapses (hamburger menu) in mobiles
  • Dropdown -> you will get a menu with submenus, the menu will display vertically on mobiles (e.g. in position "menu")

collapse.png

Note: If you want to have an horizontal menu on another position than "menu", you can add the class "menu-horizontal" to your module.

horizontal-menu.png

[fossildoc]

carlitorweb: thank you for your reply.

I'm confused about some terminology. You say "another position". What exactly does that mean? It's ambiguous to me; it could mean menus otherwise display horizontally, vertically, in a circle, etc.. If position means row, I don't want a horizontal menu on another (row) position than "menu"; I want it on the same (row) position.

You show a window with Menu Class. How do I get that window?

You have not explained why my Menu Items are displayed instead of Menus. Clearly the instructions for assigning modules are not clear.

The visitors to my site will not use mobiles, so I don't care what happens to my menus in that case.

All of the beginner tutorials are organized bass akwards. Templates and modules should come before menus. If the installation default is Cassiopeia and that template is not suitable for learning, then changing the template should be the first order of business. I understand that there are millions of Joomla web sites, but how many are using Joomla 5? I cannot understand how anybody can learn this from the documentation available.

Please, somebody send me a link to definitive documentation on how Joomla 5 works.

[Per Yngve Berg]

There are many good articles in the Joomla Magazine.

https://magazine.joomla.org/all-issues/ ... the-basics

[ceford]

You could try this: https://jdocmanual.org/jdocmanual?manua ... ew-menu.md