3 minutes reading time (685 words)

Helping out Yash by improving Joomla Menu Item workflow

Helping out Yash by improving Joomla Menu Item workflow

Let us suppose a new Joomla user, Yash. This article presents a simple idea how Joomla menu item workflow can be simplified for new users such as Yash. As a part of my project for Google Summer of code, I'll be discussing the current menu item workflow in Joomla, its disadvantages and how it can be improved for new Joomla users.

Watch the video below to understand this project

 

 

Brief Introduction of me:

Hi!

I am Shubham Rajput. I am form Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India and currently pursuing my B.Tech Degree in Computer Science And Engineering from VIT University, Chennai, India. I had a keen interest in Computer Science and Programming since JAVA language was first introduced to me  in 9th standard. From that moment on I knew, this field was meant for me.

I had heard about Joomla Before GSoC, but never got the opportunity of being a part of it. When Google Summer of Code organization list was announced, I selected Joomla as my organization and focused my efforts to understand its workflow and features during application period. I fixed some known issues and tested some of issues on Joomla Issues page. Through this I got more familiar with Joomla. And here I am, a proud member of Joomla community for GSoC’16. Through passage of time I hope to achieve more being part of Joomla.

Project Description

Current workflow to add an article and a menu.

In Joomla 1.0 it was possible in the administrator back-end to create a menu link to an article from within the article edit view. But Joomla 3.x does not have this feature anymore. Lets’s assume that a new Joomla user, let’s call him Yash, has to create some articles and menu buttons that link to those article. In Joomla 3.x to create an article and menu item in the administrator back-end, Yash has to:

1.Create an article

first

third

2.Create a menu link to the article

fourth

Choices available in edit menu dialogue box:

new option

So, to create an article and a menu item, Yash have to do a lot of steps on various places:

1. Navigate to Content > Articles.

2. Create a new article.

3. Navigate to Menus > Some Menu.

4. Create a new menu item.

4a. Choose a menu item type (Single Article) in the pop-up

4b. Choose an article to link to (the article you just created)

So much jumping from one place to another.

What if, we make it easy for Yash or any other new Joomla user by combining all these steps on a single place?
Now you will be starting to have an idea what we are trying to achieve for our new Joomla users through this project.

How to improve the workflow

Now this project focuses on combining both features as it was in Joomla 1.x. One of the glimpse of such feature can be:

menu final

A new menu option with the features of linking the article to that menu item is given directly in the article edit view.

Workflow Simplified!!!

Scope of the project:

This project will result in improving the workflow of Joomla And make it more user friendly for new user. It takes time for a new user to get acquainted with any new process. For a new Joomla User it will bring down confusion rate and for regular Joomla User it can help them by saving their time. The plugin used for this feature can also be used to attach this functionality to any other component of Joomla.

Right now I am getting familiar with the documentation of Joomla and with the Joomla Community. With the help from my mentors and from Joomla Community I intend to complete this project for GSoC’16.

I am thankful to my mentors Peter Martin, Gunjan Patel and Pedro Renan for guiding me to get a clear idea of the project and for there useful feedback. I also want to thanks Joomla team admins Puneet, Kala and Ana Barcellos for there periodic feedback and making me comfortable with Joomla community. It feels awesome to be a part of amazing Joomla community. 

 

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