Displaying a Client’s Banners in Joomla

To display your client’s banners on your web site, take the following steps:

Upload the client’s banner image file to the banners folder of the Media Manager.
Create a category for the banner using the Banner Category Manager.
Create a banner client using the Banner Client Manager.
Create a banner using the Banner Manager.
Use the Banners module to display the banner on the web site.

1. Uploading the Client’s Banner Image File

To display the client’s banner on your web site, you must upload its banner image to the banners folder of the Media Manager. To do so, click the banners folder in the Folders list in the Media Manager to make it the active folder. You’ll see all the banner images it already contains (provided as sample data by Joomla), as shown in Figure 4-7.

Let’s assume that you want to display the banner for the Chirag Camera Store client, and that its banner image file is on your local computer and is named ChiragCamera.png. You’ll upload it into the banners folder of your joomla_root/images directory using the Upload File section.

The default banner size is 468 pixels wide and 60 pixels high. So to maintain compatibility, it is best to make the banner using the same dimensions for your clients, too.

You can upload the banner image file just as you uploaded the camera image earlier. Once you upload it, you can see it in the banners folder of the Media Manager, as shown in Figure 4-8.

The full–size banner image is shown in Figure 4-9.

After uploading the banner image, your next step is to define a category for it. You can categorize banners so that similar banners can be found in one place.

2. Creating a Category for the Banner Using the Banner Category Manager

The idea behind creating a banner category is to categorize similar banners. For example, you can keep all banners advertising the latest cellular phones in a category named Cellular Banner and all banners advertising the latest cameras in a category named Camera Banner. You can also create banner categories with names that describe their sizes, such as Standard Banner, Half Banner, Narrow/Wide Skyscraper, Box, Rectangle, and so on.

To create categories for banners, open the Banner Category Manager using either of two methods. The first method is to open the Banner Manager (by selecting Components ➤ Banners ➤ Banners from the menu bar); then from the Banner Manager, click the Categories link. The second method is to open the Banner Category Manager directly by selecting Components ➤ Banners ➤ Categories from the menu bar.

Let’s open the Banner Category Manager via the Banner Manager. From the menu bar, select Components ➤ Banners ➤ Banners. But before you go further, let’s take a quick look at the Components menu and its options.

The Components menu helps you invoke different components in your web site. Components are the content elements that help add various features to your web site; they include banners, contacts, news feeds, polls, and web links. These components increase the functionality of Joomla and their main purposes are the following:

Advertise for the clients
Get feedback from visitors
Develop interaction with visitors
Share data from other providers in the form of RSS feeds
Provide links to other similar web content

Now return to the banner category–creation process. When you select Components ➤ Banners ➤ Banners, the Banner Manager opens, as shown in Figure 4-10. You can see that the Banner Manager lists no banners.

The Banner Manager deals with banners that are used for displaying content provided by clients or sponsors for the purpose of advertisement. In Joomla, you can easily configure banners. You can set the banner placement, set it to display for either an unlimited or a defined number of user clicks, and define the categories in which banners of similar types can be stored.

If you click the Categories link, you’ll see Category Manager: Banners, also called the Banner Category Manager (see Figure 4-11). It displays a list of banner categories. By default, Joomla provides the banners of the Uncategorized category, but you can unpublish it if you don’t want it to appear.

2.1. Creating a Banner Category

Let’s create a category named Camera Banner for storing banners that advertise the latest cameras of different clients. Click the New icon in the toolbar. You’ll see a screen for entering information about the new banner category, as shown in Figure 4-12. The screen shows four tabs: Category, Publishing, Permissions, and Options. You will first learn how to use the Category tab.

Enter Camera Banner as the title for this banner category. The Alias field is for a sort of secondary name or internal name of the item. Usually it is left blank, but if specified, it has to be lowercase and cannot include spaces. If you leave it blank, Joomla creates an alias for you out of the title by lowercasing it and replacing the spaces with hyphens. That is, if you leave this field blank, Joomla will create the alias

camera-banner for you. The alias is used in the URL when the SEF concept is activated. It is the concept by which your web site links are presented and optimized so that search engines can access more of your site.

It is enabled from the SEO tab in the Global Configuration section (discussed in Chapter 10). Aliases are used when SEF is activated, which makes Joomla produce friendly URLs rather than normal database-generated URLs.

In the Description box, you can write an introductory description of the category. Several tools are provided for formatting the description.

Because it is a new independent banner category and not a subcategory of any existing category, leave the Parent combo box to its default value: No parent.

In the Tags box, enter one or more optional tags or keywords to distinguish this banner category from others. Tags are also used to relate a banner category with other content, such as articles, contacts, and so on.

Set the Status combo box to the Published option to make the banners of this category visible on your web site. The Access Level field is used to specify which level of users can access this banner category.

As usual, the access levels are as follows:

Public: Everybody can access this category.
Guest: Category can be accessed by the users who are not logged in.
Super Users: Category can be accessed by the user(s) who have highest level of authorization.
Registered: Only registered users can access this category.
Special: Only users with author or higher status can access this category.

Set the Access level of this banner category to Public because you want it to be viewed by every visitor to your web site.

From the Language combo box, select the language of the banner category. If you are creating a multilingual site and want to show certain banners in any specific language, choose it from this combo box. Meanwhile, leave the default value All for this field.

The Note (optional) field is for the administrator to write a reminder note for this banner category. Leave it blank for now. The Version Note (optional) field is used to identify the version of this banner category. Again, leave this field blank.

The Publishing tab shows information such as the date when this banner category was created, the username of who created it, when it was last modified, the username of who modified it, the count of the hits (views) on this banner category, the unique identification number, the ID for this banner category that is automatically generated by Joomla, and so on (see Figure 4-13).

The screen also allows you to enter some meta information related to the banner category. In the Meta Description (optional) field, enter a short description of this banner category to appear in the search engine results. In the Meta Keywords (optional) box, enter some keywords, separated by commas, that will help display this banner category when related content article, contacts, and so on have been viewed by the user. For example, enter night vision and zoom as meta keywords in this box. Now whenever any article (or other content) being viewed has either of these keywords, this banner category will show up. You can enter the name of the author for this banner category in the Author field.

As you did in Chapter 3 when creating the article category, choose the desired Robots from the combo box. Recall that robots help you make your site visible to search engines. The available options are Use Global/Index, Follow/No Index, Follow/Index, No Follow/No Index, No Follow. The meanings of Index and Follow are repeated here for your reference:

Index: Determines whether you want a search engine to index the contents of this page
Follow: Determines whether you want a search engine to follow and crawl the links on this page

The Permissions tab shows the combo boxes that enable you to modify permissions related to the current Banner category. Permissions are usually inherited from the Global Configuration settings, but you can override them through this tab (see Figure 4-14). Using the available combo boxes, you can determine the following:

Whether to allow or deny Create permissions for the users in the Public group
Whether to allow or deny Delete permissions for the users in the Public group
Whether to allow or deny Edit permissions for the users in the Public group
Whether to allow or deny Edit State–Published State permissions for the users in the Public group

The Options tab helps assign an image to the banner category. After clicking this tab, you see the screen shown in Figure 4-15. The Alternative Layout combo box can be used for overriding the current layout. When the Select button is clicked, the Media Manager will open and show the images that are already uploaded in it. You can upload new images if required. Select any of the images by clicking the Insert button to represent the current banner category.

After entering the information for the new category, as discussed previously, click the Save & Close icon to save it. You’ll see the message Category Successfully Saved; and the new category, Camera Banner, will appear in the Banner Category Manager list, as shown in Figure 4-16.

2.2. Category Manager Toolbar

Short descriptions of the icons shown in the toolbar at the top in the Banner Category Manager are the following:

New: Creates a new banner category.
Edit: Edits an existing banner Select the desired banner category and click this icon to open it in edit mode.
Publish: Select one or more banner categories from the list and then click this button to publish them. Publishing a banner category will make the banners in that category visible on the front end of the web site, provided that the banners in that category are also published.
Unpublish: Select one or categories from the list and then click this button to unpublish Unpublishing a category will make the banners in that category invisible from the front end of the web site.
Archive: Select one or more categories from the list and then click this button to move them to the archive.
Check In: Select the required number of categories from the list and click this button to close them and mark them as Check In. No editing can be performed on the opened banner In an opened state, a banner category is blocked from use by other administrators. To make it editable, a banner category has to be closed and marked as Check In.
Trash: Moves the selected banner category(ies) to the trash.
Batch: Used to apply batch processing on a set of selected categories. To copy or move certain selected categories, or to apply actions such as assigning tags, setting language, setting access level, and so forth on a set of categories, select them from the list and click the Batch button. A pop-up dialog box will open, as shown in Figure 4-17. The action selected from the combo box(es) will be applied on the selected categories as a batch.

Rebuild: Rebuilds the category table. Usually used when several operations are performed on categories, and you want to see the outcome of those operations in the category list.
Help: Opens the new browser window and navigates to the online help files related to the active topic.
Options: Opens the Banner Manager Options that can be used to configure the For example, you can use it to track impressions and number of clicks on the banner, determine the purchase type of the banner, and so on.

Now you need to define the client for whom you’ll be displaying the banner on your web site.

3. Creating a Banner Client Using the Banner Client Manager

The banner client stores the information for the organization whose banner you’re going to display on your web site. To create clients for your banners, use the Banner Client Manager. To open the Banner Client Manager, either click the Clients link in the Banner Category Manager or select Components ➤ Banners ➤ Clients from the menu bar. You’ll see the Banner Client Manager, as shown in Figure 4-18. It displays a list of all the banner clients and their information, if any, and lets you add new clients, or edit or delete existing clients. Currently, the list is empty because there are no banner clients provided by default. Remember that you have to define at least one Banner Client and one Banner Category prior to starting to add the first new Banner.

The icons in the Banner Client Manager toolbar are fairly self-explanatory. For example, the Trash icon is used to delete a banner client. Users just need to select the check box of the client to delete and then click this icon. Similarly, the Edit icon is meant for editing client information (client name, contact name, e-mail ID, and so on). The New icon is used to create a new banner client: it displays a screen for entering information about the client. The Help icon is used for displaying help screens from Joomla’s help server.

3.1. Creating a Banner Client

To create a new client, click the New icon in the toolbar of the Banner Client Manager. You’ll be shown a screen for entering the client’s information (see Figure 4-19).

The screen shows two tabs: New Client and Metadata. First, focus on the New Client tab. In the Name field, enter the company or organization name whose banner you will publish. Enter a dummy banner client name: Chirag Camera Store. In the Contact Name field, specify the name of the authorized contact person in the organization. Enter the name of the person who will be contacted for payments and other purposes in this field (I entered Chirag Harwani). In the Contact email field, enter the e-mail address of the contact person. Assuming that the e-mail address of Chirag Harwani is chirag@gmail.com, enter the same in this field. This e-mail ID can be used to tell clients about contract expiration, remind them about contract renewal, and so on.

From the Purchase Type combo box, select the period to display the client’s banner. The available options are Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, and Unlimited. Select Yes from the Track Impressions field to count the impressions and display the number in the Banner Tracks. Or leave it to its default value of No if you don’t want impressions to be tracked. Similarly, select Yes from the Track Clicks field to count the clicks on the banner and display it in the Banner Tracks. In the Additional Information (optional) field, enter additional information related to the client. Set the Status to Published to display the client’s banner on the site.

Version Note (optional) is for entering the version number of the banner client.

The Metadata tab displays the fields that help make the client’s banner visible on the basis of the content being viewed by the user. The screen that appears after clicking the Metadata tab is shown in Figure 4-20. In the Meta Keywords field, enter the keywords that relate to the client’s banner(s). For example, night vision, zoom is entered in this field. Now whenever users view the content that contains either of these keywords, the client’s banner will appear on the web site. Select Yes from the Use Own Prefix field if you want to apply a prefix to the meta keywords. In that case, you also need to enter the required prefix in the Meta Keyword Prefix field. If you enter the prefix advt_ in the Meta Keyword Prefix field, you also need to modify the meta keywords to appear as advt_night vision, advt_zoom. Applying the prefix on meta keywords improves the searching and hence enhances the performance. If you don’t want to apply a prefix on the meta keywords, select No in the Use Own Prefix field.

■ Note If you use Meta Keyword Prefix, the Banners module will ignore all the keywords except those that have the prefix advt_. Searching for the desired banner will be more efficient and will hence result in better performance.

After entering the information for the client, click the Save & Close button to save it. You’ll see the message Client Successfully Saved; and the client organization’s name, Chirag Camera Store, will appear in the Banner Client Manager list, as shown in Figure 4-21.

To understand the usage of each column of the Banner Client Manager, see Table 4-1.

Now that you’ve created the client (Chirag Camera Store) and the banner category (Camera Banner), you can open the Banner Manager to actually create a banner for your client.

4. Creating a Banner Using the Banner Manager

The banner is the actual content that you’ll display on your web site and for which the client will pay you. The banner is in the form of an image file (uploaded in the Media Manager) with a hyperlink attached to it that navigates the visitor to the client’s home page if the banner is clicked. A banner is associated with a banner category and a banner client, so both must exist before you create a banner. Let’s open the Banner Manager to create the client’s banner.

From the menu bar, select Components ➤ Banners ➤ Banners to see the Banner Manager, as shown in Figure 4-22. It displays a list of existing banners, if any. Currently, the list is empty because there are no current banners.

4.1. Creating a Banner

Let’s create a banner. Click the New icon in the toolbar, and you’ll see a screen for entering information about the banner you want to create, as shown in Figure 4-23. The screen shows three tabs: Details, Banner Details, and Publishing. Initially, you will focus on the Details tab that opens up by default.

In the Name field, enter the name of the banner. It is better to assign names that resemble their client’s name to distinguish them easily. Specify the name as Chirag camera banner because you will make this banner for your banner client, Chirag Camera Store.

As mentioned, the Alias field is used in the URL when SEF is activated (again, SEF enables the search engines to access the desired content in an optimized way). Specify the alias as chirag-camera-banner.

From the Type combo box, you can select either of the following options:

Image: Used if you want to upload any banner image.
Custom: Used if you want to copy and paste the code provided by your If you choose this type, the following Image Selector field will be replaced by the Custom Code field, in which you can paste the supplied banner code.

4.2. Using Banners

There are two ways to use banners. One popular and conventional way is to display a banner image that, when clicked by visitors, sends them to the client’s URL. For this method, you need to specify the banner client’s URL in the Click URL field. This method is preferred when only one banner of a particular client is being displayed. However, you may want to place banners supplied by advertising companies such as Trade Doubler, Commission Junction, or Google’s AdSense. If so, you should know that these companies provide the HTML code that contains the banner images and the URLs of the respective clients. You just need to copy and paste the HTML code provided by them into the Customer Code field, and several small banner images will appear on your web site, each pointing to its respective client. In that case, leave the Click URL field blank.

Let’s select the Image option from the Type combo box. From the Image Selector field, select the image file to be displayed as the banner. The image is loaded from the joomla_root/images/banners folder, so the client’s banner image must be preloaded into this folder using the Media Manager (see Figure 4-24). For this example, specify the client banner image fileChiragCamera.png, which you uploaded into the Media Manager at the beginning of this chapter. The Banner Image box displays the preview of the selected client’s banner image file. Select that image and click Insert button.

In the Width and Height fields, you can enter the width and height for the banner, or leave these fields blank to make the banner appear in its original size. If you have selected Image from the Type field, you can also enter some text for the image in the Alternative Text field. The text entered in the Alternative Text field appears when the mouse hovers over the banner.

In the Click URL field (refer to Figure 4-23), enter the URL of the client for whom this advertising banner is being made. The visitor will be navigated to this URL if the banner is clicked. Assume that the web site of your client, Chirag Camera Store, is http://chiragstore.com and enter the same in this field.

The Description box is used to enter a small description for the banner. This description is not displayed on the web page.

From the Category combo box, select the category to which the banner belongs. Select the banner category you just created: Camera Banner.

Leave the Status combo box value at its default value (Published)to make the banner visible on your web site. You can set the Sticky option to Yes to specify that the banner be sticky. Sticky banners take priority over banners that are not sticky, and their frequency of display is higher. Because you currently have just a single banner, keep this option set to No.

From the Sticky field, choose Yes if you want to mark the banner as sticky. Sticky banners are given preference over non-sticky banners. That is, sticky banners always show in their specified position and do not rotate impressions with other banners.

To configure impressions, total clicks (on banner), client and purchase type of banner, select the Banner Details tab. You’ll see the screen shown in Figure 4-25.

In the Max. Impressions box, enter a number that defines how many times this banner will be displayed on your web site. For example, if you enter a value of 1,000 here, it means that this banner will be displayed 1,000 times, after which it will disappear from your web site. Leave this field blank if you will select the Unlimited check box, which allows you to display the client’s banner an unlimited number of times.

The Total Impressions field displays the count of the times the banner has appeared on the site. For the new banner, the field displays the value0. Use the Reset Impressions button to reset the value of this field to 0. The Total Clicks field displays the number of times this banner has been clicked by visitors. The Reset clicks button is used to reset the number of clicks to zero.

From the Client combo box, select the client to whom this banner belongs: Chirag Camera Store. From the Purchase Type field, choose the banner subscription selected by the client. The available options are Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, or Unlimited. The chosen option determines the period for the banner impressions or clicks.

From the Track Impressions field, select Yes to count the banner impressions (i.e., the number of times the banner has appeared on the site) and display that count in the Banner Tracks. From the Track Clicks field, select Yes to count the clicks on the banner and display that count in the Banner Tracks.

4.3. Defining Publishing and Meta Info for the Banner

To view publishing information for the new banner and define its meta keywords, select the Publishing tab in the New Banner screen. The publishing information of the new banner will display, as shown in Figure 4-26.

From the Start Publishing field (optional), choose the date from which you want to publish the banner.

Leave the field blank to publish the banner immediately. From the Finish Publishing field (optional), choose the date on which you want to unpublish the banner. Leave the field blank to publish the banner indefinitely. The Created Date field is automatically filled with the creation date and time for the banner. In the Created by field, you can specify the user who created the banner. If clicked, the user icon on the right of the field displays the existing users in your Joomla system. In the Created by alias field (optional), you can enter an alias for the user who created the banner. The Modified Date field automatically displays the date when the banner was last modified. The Modified by field automatically displays the username of who modified the banner last. The Revision field automatically displays the count of the number of times the banner has been revised. The ID field displays the auto generated ID for this banner that is used internally by the Joomla system.

The Meta Keywords box is an optional field used for displaying specific banners based on the content of the article being viewed. If you choose Yes to Use Own Prefix, you need to mention the prefix in the Meta Keyword Prefix box. If you enter the prefix as advt_, you have to define the tags in this field with the prefix advt_. These tags will be matched with the keywords of the articles being viewed by the visitor, and the banner whose Tags field matches the keywords of the article will be automatically displayed onscreen. Usually tags refer to important features of the product, and you can have any number of tags, separated by commas.

4.4. Applying Meta Tags and Keywords to Banner

Recall the concept of tags from Chapter 3. Tags are keywords composed of a few words that briefly highlight important information about an article. When you created the article “Latest Cameras” in Chapter 3, you used the tags camera, zoom, night vision, and higher megapixel resolution (see Figure 4-27). These tags appear in front of your web site under the Popular Tags section. When a visitor clicks any tag, all content that matches the selected tag appears in the front.

The meta keywords are meant for search engines. Though most of the search engines have become smarter, meta tags are used by certain search engines to locate web site content. The meta tags are also used to display related banners based on the article being viewed. To relate banners with the “Latest Cameras” article, set its meta keywords as shown in Figure 4-28.

4.5. Understanding the Banner Manager Toolbar

Back to the Banners module. After entering the information for the banner, as discussed previously, click the Save & Close icon to save it. You’ll see a message that reads Item Saved, and a Chirag camera banner entry will appear in the Banner Manager, as shown in Figure 4-29.

The Chirag camera banner entry in the Banner Manager confirms that your banner has been made.

The toolbar of the Banner Manager has several buttons. Let’s have a quick introduction. The Edit button is used to edit the information about the banner that was entered when the banner was created. Information such as the banner name, image, category, and client name can be edited.

The Publish button is used to make banners visible on the web site. To publish a banner, simply select the check box of the banner(s) and click this button. Similarly, the Unpublish button is for making banners invisible on the web site. The Archive button is used to move the selected banners to the archive. The Check In button is used to mark the selected banners as Check In. No editing can be performed on the opened banners; only on the closed banners that are marked as Check In.

The Trash button is used to permanently delete a banner. The Help icon is for opening the Joomla help web site.

The Batch button is for applying batch operations on the selected banners. You can copy, move, and set the client and language for more than one banner through this button. Figure 4-30 shows the combo boxes that open up when Batch is clicked.

Use the Copy radio button to make copies of an existing banner. Select the check box of the banner for which you want to make a copy and choose the Copy radio button from the dialog box. It will make a copy of the banner with the original banner name with a suffix (2) added to its name. For example, if the banner name is Chirag camera banner, its copy will have the name Chirag camera banner (2).

The Options button opens the banner’s Global Configuration window, which allows you to set default parameters for banners, as shown in Figure 4-31. The screen shows three tabs: Client Options, History Options and Permissions.

4.6. Configuring Client Options for a Banner

First, you will focus on Client Options, which opens by default. The parameters that you set in this dialog box play a major role in deciding when to display a particular banner and how long it will be visible on your web site. The options are as follows:

Purchase Type: Choose the period for banner impressions from this combo The available options are Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, and Unlimited.
Track Impressions: Use this option to decide whether you want to count how many times a banner has been displayed. You should set this option to Yes if the client purchases a fixed number of impressions (wants the banner to be displayed a specific number of times), or set it to No if you want to display the banner an unlimited number of times.
Track Clicks: This option counts how many times a client’s banner is clicked. Assuming that the client’s banner will be displayed an unlimited number of times, set the values of both Track Impressions and Track Clicks to No.
Meta Keyword Prefix: All the banners of a particular client and category are usually displayed randomly. But sometimes you want to display only the banner that relates to the type of content (article) being viewed by the For example, if the visitor is reading an article on cameras, it is wise to display camera-related banners only. In this field, enter the prefix for the tags you will insert in the banner’s Tags field. Enter advt_ as the tag prefix to designate it as related to the advertisement. You will soon see how this field will help you choose to display the banner on the basis of the content being viewed on your web site.

4.7. Configuring History Options for a Banner

The History Options tab enables you to save or discard the banner version history. After clicking the History Options tab, you see the screen shown in Figure 4-32.

Set the Save History field to Yes if you want to save the version history for this banner. In the Maximum Versions field, enter the value that defines the maximum number of versions of the banner to store.

When the maximum number of versions will be reached, the oldest version will be deleted automatically. If the value for this field is set to 0, versions will not be deleted automatically.

4.8. Configuring Permissions Options

The Permissions tab shows the combo boxes that enable you to modify permissions related to the current banner. Permissions are usually inherited from the Global Configuration settings, but you can override them through this tab (see Figure 4-33). Using the available combo boxes, you can determine the following:

Whether to allow or deny Configure permissions for the users in the Public group. If allowed, users can edit banner options.
Whether to allow or deny Access Administration Interface permissions for users in the Public group. If allowed, users can access administration interface and apply desired modification.
Whether to allow or deny Create permissions for users in the Public group.
Whether to allow or deny Delete permissions for users in the Public group.
Whether to allow or deny Edit permissions for users in the Public group.
Whether to allow or deny Edit State–Published state permissions for users in the Public group.

The columns in the Banner Manager (refer to Figure 4-29) display information about the existing banners of your Joomla web site. The Status column specifies whether the banner is in the published, unpublished, archived, or trashed state. The check mark signifies that the banner is in the published state, and the red X signifies that the banner is in the unpublished state. The Name column displays the name of the banner. Below the banner name is the category in which this banner is placed. The Sticky column specifies whether the banner is set to sticky mode (the frequency of appearance of sticky banners is greater than non-sticky ones). The Client column displays the client name (organization or company name) to whom the banner belongs. The Impressions field displays the number of times the banner has appeared on the web site since it was created. Figure 4-29 shows the impressions of the Chirag camera banner as 0 of Unlimited, which means that the banner has appeared 0 times out of the unlimited number of times assigned to it.

The Clicks column displays the percentage of clicks that were made on a banner in relation to the number of impressions (appearances on the web site) that have taken place. The Language column displays the language assigned to the banner, if any. The ID column displays the unique banner identification number that Joomla has assigned for internal maintenance.

Next, you’ll learn about using the Banners module when displaying a banner on your web site.

5. Using the Banners Module to Display the Banner on the Web Site

Until now, you’ve been dealing with the Banner component: You made a category for the banner, created clients for the banner, and finally created the banner. Now you need the help of the Banners module to display the banner on the web site.

By using the Banners module, you can configure several settings of the banner—for example, which pages of your web site will display the banner, its position, its access level, and so on. The Banners module is also used for selecting which category of which client’s banner will be visible. The Banners module is accessible through the Module Manager.

From the menu bar, select Extensions ➤ Module Manager, and you’ll see a list of modules, as shown in Figure 4-34.

5.1. Understanding Module Manager Columns

Let’s see what information the columns of the Module Manager display. The Status column shows whether the module is enabled or disabled. A check mark signifies that the module is enabled and can be used in the web site, and a red X signifies that the module is disabled (temporarily suspended) and won’t be visible on the web site.

The Title column displays the name of the module. Joomla provides 20 standard modules and a facility to install more. Selecting a module name opens it in edit mode.

The Position column displays the position on the page where this module will be displayed (left or right). The templates that you use to give a dynamic look to your web site consist of styles and positions.

A template internally divides a web page into different positions, including left, right, header, footer, and so on. If the Position column displays the value position-2, the module will appear at the left position on the web page. You can change the display order of modules in a position by selecting the Position drop-down list.

The Type column displays the system name of the module. Recall that Joomla installs 20 standard modules, and each has a unique system name.

The Pages column displays the menu items in which the module will be displayed. The options are All for all menu items, None for no menu items, and Varies for selected menu items.

The Access Level column specifies the category of user that can access the module. The options are Guest, Public, Registered, Special, and Super User.

The ID column displays a unique identification number for the module, assigned automatically by Joomla to identify the module internally.

The toolbar icons in the Module Manager are fairly self-explanatory. For instance, the Publish icon is used to enable a module (if the module was unpublished earlier). Just select a module’s check box and click this icon to enable it. Similarly, the Unpublish icon is used to disable a module. Unpublished modules don’t appear on the web site. You can also toggle between the published and unpublished state by clicking the icon in the Status column.

Recall that you made a banner named Chirag camera banner and assigned it to the category Camera Banner for the Chirag Camera Store client. To make it appear on the web site, you opened the Module Manager. To activate the banner, you have to create a new module. Click the New icon from the toolbar to create a new module. You will be prompted to select the Module Type. From the list of module types, select the Banners type. A dialog box will open to enter information for the new module, as shown in Figure 4-35.

This screen contains four sections: Module, Menu Assignment, Module Permissions, and Advanced, which are discussed in the following sections.

5.2. Module Section

The Module section shows the fields in which you enter information about the new module. In the Title field, enter the name of the module: Camera Banner Module. From the Target combo box, choose where you want to open the link (i.e., when the visitor clicks the banner, the target can open in the same parent window, a new window, or a pop-up window). The available options are Open in Parent Window, Open in New Window, and Open in Pop-Up. In the Count field, enter the number of banners to display simultaneously (the default value is 5). From the Client combo box, select the client whose banners you want to display via this banner module. Select the banner client Chirag Camera Store to display its banner. From the Categories combo box, select the banner category to display: select the Camera Banner category created earlier. The default is All Categories (it will display all banner categories). Select Yes from the Search by Meta Keyword field if you want to display the banner on the basis of the content being viewed. That is, the banner whose meta keywords match with the content being viewed will automatically appear on the site. If this field is set to No, the banner will always display randomly, regardless of the content being viewed.

The Randomise combo box helps to determine the order of banner display. It displays the following two options:

Sticky, Ordering: Sticky banners will display sequentially, followed by a sequential display of non-sticky banners.
Sticky, Randomise: Sticky banners will display in random order.

In the Header Text and Footer Text fields, enter the text that you want to display before and after the banner group, respectively. Enter the text Widest Range in the Header Text field and Lowest Price in the Footer Text field. Set the Show Title button to Show if you want to display the module title along with the banner on the web site. The Position combo box helps determine the position in which you want the banner to appear on your web site. You can make the banner appear on the left, right, or footer positions (these positions are predefined in the implemented template). Set the Position field to position-7 to display the banner at the right top of the web page.

Set the Status state to Published to make the banner visible on your web site. In the Start Publishing field, enter the date and time from which you want to publish the banner. If left blank, the banner will publish immediately. Similarly, in the Finish Publishing field, enter the date and time on which you want to stop publishing the banner. Again, if left blank, the banner will publish indefinitely. The Access Level field specifies the level of users who can access the module. Select Public to make the banner visible to all visitors to your web site.

The Ordering combo box shows the ordering of all the modules in the chosen position (selected from the Position combo box). From the Language field, choose the language in which you want the banner to appear. Leave the default value: All. Enter a note or description related to the current module in the Note field if desired.

5.3. Menu Assignment Section

In the Menu Assignment section (see Figure 4-36), the Menus option allows you select the menus in which you want this banner to appear. The options are the following:

On all pages: Shows the banners in all menus and pages
No pages: Does not show the banner
Only on the pages selected: Shows the banner on the selected pages only
On all pages except those selected: Shows the banner on all pages except the ones that are selected

Because you want the banner to appear on all pages, choose the option On All Pages.

5.4. Module Permissions Section

In the previous versions of Joomla, the Module Manager did not include a Module Permissions tab. However, starting with Joomla version 3.2,you can now modify user group permissions for modules. This Module Permissions section shows the combo boxes that enable you to modify permissions related to the current banner module. You can override the Global Configuration settings using this section (see Figure 4-37).

Using the available combo boxes, you can determine the following:

Whether to allow or deny Delete permissions for users in the Public group
Whether to allow or deny Edit permissions for users in the Public group
Whether to allow or deny Edit State–Published State permissions for users in the Public group

5.5. Advanced Section

The Advanced section enables you to apply alternative layouts, styles, and tags to the banner module. The screen shows different combo boxes, as shown in Figure 4-38. From the Alternative Layout combo box, choose the desired alternative layouts for the module (applicable if you have defined alternative layouts in the template. In the Module Class Suffix field, you can define the suffix that you want to apply to the CSS class of the module. It is used to apply different CSS styles to the module. From the Caching combo box, choose the Use Global option to cache the module content. If you don’t want caching of this module, select No Caching in this field. In the Cache Time field, enter the time length in minutes before the module is recached. The default value is 900 minutes.

In the Module Tag field, you can specify the HTML tag for the module. By default, the div tag is used for the module. From the Bootstrap Size combo box, choose the width of the module that is supplied through the span element. The default value is 0. From the Header Tag combo box, choose the HTML tag to use for the modules header or title. Valid options are theh1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, and p tags. In the Header Class field, specify the optional CSS classes to add to the module’s header or title element. From the Module Style combo box, choose the style to override the templates style.

Source: Harwani B M (2015), Foundations of Joomla!, Apress; 2nd ed edition