Joomla/C2/Categories-in-Joomla/English

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Visual Cue Narration
Show Slide 1:

Categories in Joomla.

Welcome to the Spoken Tutorial on Categories in Joomla.
Show Slide 2

Learning Objectives: Same as narration

In this tutorial, we will learn about:
  • Category Manager in Joomla.
  • Creating and editing categories
  • And creating sub-categories
Show Slide 3

Learning Objectives continued: Same as narration

We will also learn how to:
  • Assign articles to categories
  • Move or copy articles to a different category.
  • And delete or unpublish a category.
Show Slide 4

Versions and OS

This tutorial is recorded using:
  • Ubuntu Linux OS 14.04
  • Joomla 3.4.1
  • Apache, MySQL and PHP obtained through XAMPP 5.5.19
Show Slide 5

Prerequisites

  • Learner of this tutorial should know how to create an article in Joomla
  • If not, pls refer to the relevant Joomla tutorials on the Spoken Tutorial website.

Switch to the browser with Joomla Control Panel open.

Let’s switch to the Joomla control panel.
Click on Article Manager Click on Article Manager in the left menu.
We currently have 2 articles - Vitamin A and Benefits of Sodium.
In order to understand categories in Joomla, let’s create a few more articles.
Show Slide 6:

Assignment1

Create Articles:

*Vitamin B

*Benefits of Nutrients

*Fish

*Green Vegetables

Pause this tutorial and do this assignment.
  • Open the assignment-text file provided with this tutorial.
  • Follow the instructions to create 4 new articles:
    Vitamin B
    Benefits of Nutrients
    Fish and
    Green Vegetables
Scroll down to highlight all the articles.
  • We now have 6 articles in Article Manager:
    Vitamin A
    Vitamin B
    Benefits of Sodium
    Benefits of Nutrients
    Fish and
    Green Vegetables
The 2 articles on Vitamins are similar in content.

So, we should group them together.

Categories in Joomla help to organize the articles in a logical order.
Click on Categories

Click on Content → Hover over Category Manager

Click on Categories in the left menu.

Alternately, click on Content Menu at the top and then on Category Manager.

Highlight Search and Search Tools Notice that the Category Manager has a similar layout as that of the Article Manager.

It has a Search box and Search Tools button to filter the Categories.

Highlight Uncategorized. By default, we have one category called Uncategorized.

Recollect that all our articles appeared as Uncategorized.

Click on New To create a new category, click on the New button on the top left.
The only mandatory field to create a category is the Category Title.
Write Vitamin in the title textbox I will write Vitamin as the title in the title textbox.
Click on Save and Close Click on Save and Close.
Highlight the new category You can see that the new category has now been created.
Click on Vitamin To edit or rename a category, click on the title of the category.
Edit Vitamin to Vitamins I will rename the title to Vitamins.
Click on Save and New


This time let’s click on Save and New button.
Type Minerals in the title textbox.

Select Nutrients in Parent drop-down

We are prompted to add a new category.

Let’s type Minerals as the title.

Click on Save and Close Then click on Save and Close.
Now, Minerals and Vitamins are nutrients that our bodies need.

Let us put them in a broader category Nutrients.

Click on New.

Write Nutrients in the title textbox.

Click on New and type Nutrients as the title.
Click on Save and Close. Then click on Save and Close.
Let us put Vitamins and Minerals under the category Nutrients.

A category under another category is called subcategory.

Click on check-box next to Vitamins and Minerals Select the two categories by clicking the check-box to the left of the status column.
We can batch process these 2 categories.

Batch processing means working on things in groups.

Click on Batch Click on Batch button in the toolbar at the top.
A new window with the title Batch Process the Selected Categories opens.

It has many options.

Select Nutrients in Select Category for Move/ Copy drop-down For now, we are only going to change the parent category of these categories.

So, select Nutrients in the Select Category for Move/ Copy drop-down.

Highlight Copy and Move. There are 2 radio buttons below the drop-down, namely:
  1. Copy
  2. Move

Copy will make a copy of the selected categories in the selected category.

Move will move the category from their previous category to the selected category.

Click on Move radio button >> Click on Process. Let's select Move and then click on Process.
Highlight the - Notice a hyphen in front of Vitamins and Minerals categories.


This indicates that they are subcategories of the main category Nutrients.

Show Slide 7.

Assignment 2.

Pause the tutorial here and do this assignment.
  • Create a new category Carbohydrates.
  • Click on Parent drop-down on the right and select Nutrients.
  • Click on Save and Close.

Notice that this is another way to assign categories and subcategories to a parent category.

Highlight the category tree. Now, we have a Category tree.

There are 2 main categories:

  • Uncategorized
  • and Nutrients.

Under Nutrients. we have 3 sub-categories:

  • Vitamins,
  • Minerals and
  • Carbohydrates
Now, let us learn how to organize various articles under different categories.
Click on Articles From Category Manager, click on Articles in the left menu.
Click on check-box next to Vitamin A and Vitamin B. Select the two vitamin articles by clicking the check-box to the left of the Status column.
Click on Batch Click on Batch button in the toolbar on top.
A new window with the title Batch Process the Selected Articles opens.
Select Vitamins in Select Category for Move/ Copy drop-down Select Vitamins in the Select Category for Move/ Copy drop-down.
Click on Move radio button >> Click on Process. Let's select Move and then click on Process button.
Highlight the category Notice that the category for our articles Vitamin A and Vitamin B has changed.
Let us change the category of Benefits of Sodium to Minerals.
Click on Benefits of Sodium Click on the title Benefits of Sodium.
Select Minerals in category drop-down.

Click on Save and Close

In the Category drop-down on the right, select Minerals, then click on Save and Close.
Highlight the category Note that the category of Benefits of Sodium has been changed to Minerals.
Show Slide 8:

Assignment 3.

Pause the tutorial here and do this assignment.
  • Click on Benefits of Nutrients article.
  • Change the category to Nutrients.
  • Click on Save and Close.
Now it’s time to check all these changes on the Digital India webpage.

Before that, ensure that Show Category is set to Show for the articles.

Click on Options Click on Options button in the toolbar at the top right corner.
Select Show in Show Category.

Select Yes in Link Category.

Set Show Category to Show and Link Category to Yes.
Click on Save and Close. Click on Save and Close.
Click on Digital India Now, click on the Digital India link at the top right.
Highlight the Category in the articles. Notice that the articles have different Category names in their header.
Click on Nutrients Click on the Category Nutrients in the article header of Benefits of Nutrients.
Scroll down to highlight the article and subcategories. Observe that it lists one article and 2 subcategories

Vitamins and Minerals.

This is how we had organized the categories.

Highlight Subcategories Note that the category Carbohydrates is not visible here.

A category having neither articles nor subcategories is an empty Category.

And hence it is not visible on the webpage.

Can we relax this restriction?

Let us see how to change the settings to get the empty categories displayed.

Switch to Article Manager webpage Switch to the Article Manager webpage.
Click on Categories. Click on the Categories in the left menu to go to the Category Manager.
Click on Options button. Click on Options button in the toolbar on right.
Highlight the title. Note that the Category Manager Options page is the same as Article Manager Options.

Even the title says Article Manager Options.

There are tabs in this page to control the settings of articles, categories, menus etc.
Click on Category tab. Click on the tab Category.
The tab will show the settings of the page, which shows all articles under a particular category.
Scroll down. Highlight Empty Category

Select Show.

Scroll down to see the option Empty Categories.

Set this as Show.

Click on Save and Close Click on Save and Close
Switch to ‘Digital India’ webpage. Press F5 Switch to the ‘Digital India’ webpage and refresh it.
Highlight Carbohydrates Look, the Carbohydrates subcategory is now visible.
Switch to Category Manager webpage Go back to the Category Manager webpage.
Point to Carbohydrates The subcategory Carbohydrates does not have any articles under it.
Point to Unpublish and then to Delete. We can either:
  • Unpublish it or
  • Delete it.

Let’s understand the difference between the two options.

Show Slide 9:

Unpublishing a Category

When we unpublish a category:
  • No new article can be assigned to that category.
  • All its subcategories are automatically unpublished and
  • Articles under the category are no longer visible on the website, even if they are published.
Show Slide 10:

Deleting a Category

When we delete a category:
  • It is moved to Trash, along with all the articles under it.
  • A deleted category can be restored again or the same could be trashed permanently.
Switch to Article Manager Come back to the Category Manager webpage

Since we are not using the category Carbohydrates, let's unpublish it for now.

Select Carbohydrates Locate the category Carbohydrates from the Categories Manager page.

Now select it by clicking the check-box to the left of the Status column.

Click on Unpublish Click on the Unpublish button in the toolbar on top.
Highlight the message Immediately, a success message appears.
Highlight the status Observe that the status of the category Carbohydrates has changed to Unpublished.
Let us go back to the Digital India webpage and verify this.
Switch to the Digital India webpage. Click F5 Switch to the Digital India webpage and refresh it.
Notice that the category Carbohydrates is no longer visible.

This is because it has been unpublished.

<<PAUSE>>

Let us summarize.

Switch to Slide 11:

Summary: Same as narration

In this tutorial, we learnt about:
  • Category Manager in Joomla.
  • Creating and editing categories
  • And creating sub-categories
Switch to Slide 12:

Same as narration

We also learnt how to:
  • Assign articles to categories
  • Move or copy articles to a different category.
  • And delete or unpublish a category.
Slide 13, 14, 15 & 16:

Assignment 4:

Here is an assignment for you:
  • Create a new category Food Sources.
  • Create 2 subcategories Veg Sources and Non-veg Sources under the category Food Sources.
  • Assign the article Fish to Non-Veg sources.
  • Assign the article Green Vegetables to Veg Sources.
  • Refresh the Homepage.
  • Observe the changes and understand what has happened.
Assignment 5:
  • Delete the category Veg Sources.
  • Try to restore it back.

Hint: Use the filter to see Trashed categories.

Assignment 6:
  • Edit the category Vitamins to add a description.
  • Change the settings to show the description and number of articles in a category.
  • Refresh the Homepage.
  • Observe the changes and understand what has happened.
Show Slide 12:

(About Spoken Tutorial Project)

The video at the following link, summarizes the Spoken Tutorial project.

Please download and watch it.

Show Slide 13:

(About Spoken Tutorial Project)

The Spoken Tutorial Project Team
  • conducts workshops and
  • gives certificates on passing online tests.

For more details, please write to us.

Show Slide 14:

(Acknowledgement)

Spoken Tutorial Project is funded by NMEICT, MHRD, Government of India.More information on this mission is available at the link shown.
This is Priyanka signing off. Thank you for joining.

Contributors and Content Editors

Itspriyanka, Nancyvarkey, Nirmala Venkat