Customised menus

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Kunena 1.6 comes with powerful new feature, which allows you to create customised instances of Kunena.

Kunena uses Joomla menus to build its own menu. Default menu can be found in menu manager: Kunena Menu and there's a module instance with the same name published in custom menu position: kunena_menu. Using Joomla menu system has some great advantages which allow you to easily customise and move menu into another position in your template. It also allows you to build complex routing rules with separate forum instances around your site.

Contents

Basic Configuration

Default menu structure in Kunena 1.6
Default menu structure in Kunena 1.6

First time you install Kunena 1.6, it attempts to create basic menu structure, which allows users to navigate inside Kunena. Basic menu structure can be seen from the right: it consists of Kunena Menu and menu alias in your default menu pointing to it.

Default navigation can be restored/recreated from Kunena Control Panel >> Create Menu. Option can also be used to change Kunena Menu language: just log using your new language and create menu. WARNING: Currently Create Menu will break all but default menu alias/link pointing to Kunena Menu.

Using Kunena Menu to navigate in your forum

Advantages:

  • No need to create submenu for Kunena
  • Kunena has its own menu -- easier to manage
  • Allows menu highlighting (compared direct link to Kunena Entry page)
  • Can be used as a solid base for more complicated menu structures

Disadvantages:

  • Works only for one menu item (others point to default location defined in Kunena Menu)
  • If you're not familiar with Joomla menu aliases, it may take some time to fully understand how it works

Default configuration is the simplest way to create working menu inside Kunena. As the Kunena navigation already exists, you do not need to do anything else than to create new menu alias which points to Kunena Menu:

  1. Go to Menu Item Manager: Menus >> Main Menu (or your own menu)
  2. In Toolbar: New (or edit existing item)
  3. Select Menu Item Type: Alias
  4. Parameters (Basic) >> Menu Item: Kunena Menu - Top >> Forum

Changing URL / Menu Alias

If you want to change menu alias (www.domain.com/forum to something like www.domain.com/discussions), you cannot change it by just renaming your own menu item. In order to do that, you need to change menu alias directly from the Kunena Menu:

  1. Go to Menu Item Manager: Menus >> Kunena Menu
  2. Edit Forum
  3. Change Alias

PS. If you want to keep your forum highlighted, you should use the same alias in both Kunena Menu and your main menu item.

Changing Default Landing Page in Kunena

Kunena allows you to change default landing page in your menu. This allows you to have control on what people will see when they enter to the forum.

  1. Go to Menu Item Manager: Menus >> Kunena Menu
  2. Edit Forum
  3. Change Type: Kunena Forum / Entry Page
  4. Parameters (Basic) >> Default Menu Item: Kunena Menu - Top >> Forum >> Profile (or anything else under the same menu)

Showing and Hiding Menu Items

Just publish and unpublish your menu items in Kunena Menu. You can also restrict access to certain pages by changing Access Level of the menu item.

Warning: Hiding different views from the menu do not hide them from resourceful users. Users can still find a way to access all the different views, but they cannot see posts in restricted categories.

Using Local Menu in your Forum

Advantages:

  • You can create different menu for each Kunena instance
  • Keeps users in the same section in your site (Cats vs Dogs)
  • Allows you to keep distinct themes, menus and modules

Disadvantages:

  • Usually adds many new menu items to one menu, making it hard to read
  • There's currently no way to create fully separated forums

Kunena 1.6 allows you to customise every forum instance in your menus. You can make instances to look very different from each other.

Cloning Kunena Menu

Easiest way to add custom Kunena instance is to close existing menu before customizing it.

  1. Go to Menu Menager -> Kunena Menu
  2. Select ALL items and copy to Main Menu
  3. Menu Menager -> Main Menu -> Kunena Forum (or whatever you call it)
  4. Basic Parameters - change Default Menu Item to Index.
  5. Customise it

Creating Kunena menu items from scratch

  1. You MUST create a main menu item of type "Entry Page"
  2. If you want your main menu item to point to a specific view of the forum (ex: a category)
    • Create a submenu item of (ex) Category
    • Choose the category you want to show
  3. In the main menu item created in step 1 set the "Default Menu Item" choose the desired submenu item.

Note: DON'T create a single main menu item of a type other than "Entry Page" or else you will get the "Warning: Using direct link to Kunena component. No suitable menu item found." error.

Menu Types

Kunena provides a few different views that can be added to Kunena Menu. Those are:

  • Rules / Help - Show forum rules or help.
  • Entry Page - Entry page for Kunena instance.
  • Recent Topics - Show recent topics or posts.
  • Index - Show category index page.
  • New Topic - Create new topic.
  • Profile - Show user profile.
  • Search - Advanced search.
  • Category - Show topics in a category.

Entry Page

Entry Page is container to your own Kunena Menu. It has two parameters:

  • Default Menu Item - Default view that you will see inside Kunena. Usually points to menu item which is a child of Entry Page.
  • Allowed Categories - List of categories in this menu defaulting to all. Categories not listed in here are redirected to default Kunena Menu.

Recent Topics

Shows a list of recent topics or posts. There are many different layouts to pick from:

  • Recent Topics - Shows recent topics
  • My Topics - Shows topics from the current user (My Favorites and My Posts)
  • No Replies - Shows topics which haven't been answered
  • My Subscriptions - Shows subscriptions from the current user
  • My Favorites - Shows favorites from the current user
  • My Posts - Shows posts from the current user
  • Unapproved Posts - Shows unapproved posts
  • Deleted Posts - Shows deleted posts

Index

Category index page showing all the categories in the forum.

  • Parent Category ID - Can be used to show only part of the category tree.

New Topic

Start new topic either in any category (defaults to first option) or only in one category.

Profile

Menu item to users own profile. If you want to restrict access only to registered users, use Access Level to do it.

  • Use Integration - Yes, if you want to get redirected to another component.

Category

Show topics in one category. This can be used to show categories in your menu.

Retrieved from "http://docs.kunena.org/index.php/Customised_menus"
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