Types of Layout
Types of Layout
Easy Layouts currently support the following types of layout - more are being added all the time so we apologise if this article isn't completely up to date.
Joomla content
These layouts relate to Joomla content items/article
Single Article
This controls the layout of a single article view - you can see an example of such a view on the demo site at https://demo.easylayouts.net/recipes/vegetarian/12-chicken-katsu-4 - the portion of the page being controlled by EasyLayouts is what you see in this image (or at this page https://demo.easylayouts.net/recipes/vegetarian/12-chicken-katsu-4?tmpl=component)
Category Blog/Category Blog Article
There are 4 layout type that can control a Category Blog layout - the "category.blog" layout controls how the overall series of blog items are displayed on a page and the "category.blog_item_intro", "category.blog_item_lead" and "category.blog_item" article layouts control how an individual blog entry is presented within the list of articles.
Key Point
You can use the category blog article layouts without customising and enabling the individual blog item layouts.
See the demo site at https://demo.easylayouts.net/recipes/vegetarian to see and example of the category blog layout in action. The following screenshot highlights (in red) an individual Category Blog Article.
Advanced Information
There are actually 3 types of article layouts that can be used for category blogs.
- category.blog_item_lead - this corresponds to Joomla lead items in the blog menu item configuration
- category.blog_item_intro - this corresponds to Joomla intro items in the blog menu item configuration
- category.blog_item - this is a default layout that will be used instead of the lead and intro layouts (if they are not published/selected).
You can also therefore use different layouts for the Lead Articles and Intro Articles in your Category Blog of use the same 'default' layout for both.
Featured Articles/Featured Articles Article
There are 2 layout types that control a Featured Articles layout - the Featured Articles layout controls how a series of featured articles are displayed on a page and the featured articles article controls how an individual featured article is presented.
Key Point
Both the Featured Articles layout and the Featured Articles Article layout must be be enabled to the individual blog item layouts to take effect.
Advanced Information
As with the Category Blog you can also use different layouts for the Lead Articles and Intro Articles in your Featured Articles page.
Articles by Category Module/Item
This is the layout that controls the output of the "Articles - Category" type module - this lists a series of articles from a specific category. With EasyLayouts we can change the default layout of this module as shown on the 'Similar Recipes' module at https://demo.easylayouts.net/recipes/vegetarian. In this case we have configured the module to show recipes from the same category as the recipe being viewed.
Again this output is controlled by 2 layouts - the Articles by Category (Module) and Articles by Category (Module) Article. So remember to create and enable both of these.
In the screenshot to the side we have chose to display the article title, hits counter, category and image as well as the 'read more' link.
Article Creation/Editing and Category Selection special layout
You can create custom edit pages for your articles and have different layouts by category. This way you can have separate creation pages for your recipes and chefs.
Advanced Information
If you implement different creation/edit pages by category then Joomla will not know which to use before you have specified a category. To deal with this situation you should implement the special 'Category Selection' layout which will allow you to have a 'select your category' type question leading into the separate edit page layouts.
Category List/Category List Item (Experimental)
This is a more complex layout and we may change how it is implemented in a future release to make it simpler to use. In the meantime please feel free to experiment and give us feedback on its usage in the support forum.
It allows you to choose which columns to show in a category list view of articles and what you want as an overall introduction. It allows you to create pages like https://demo.easylayouts.net/recipes/list-of-desserts where you can choose to display images and custom fields alongside more familiar fields.
Joomla Users and Contacts
These layouts relate to Joomla users and contacts.