JoomFAQs - Menu Items

Menu items are the primary way visitors discover and navigate your FAQ content. JoomFAQs provides a Category menu item type that displays questions in accordion format, and a frontend Question Form for submitting and editing questions. This guide walks you through creating each type, configuring their display options, and organising your menus for the best user experience.

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Available Menu Item Types

When you create a new menu item and select JoomFAQS as the component, you will see one layout option:

Layout	Internal View	Description
A list of questions in the category	category	Displays all published questions in a selected FAQ category as an accordion, with optional subcategories, search, voting, and question submission. This is the primary menu item type you will use.

The question and form views also exist but are not offered as standalone menu item types. They are reached through links generated automatically by the component (permalink buttons inside the accordion and "Add New Question" / "Edit Question" buttons).

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Creating an FAQ Category Menu Item

Follow these steps to add an FAQ page to your site menu.

Step 1 - Open the Menu Item Editor

1. In the Joomla administrator, go to Menus and select the menu you want to add the item to (for example, Main Menu).
2. Click the New button in the toolbar.

Step 2 - Choose the Menu Item Type

1. In the Menu Item Type field, click the Select button.
2. In the modal that appears, expand JoomFAQS.
3. Click A list of questions in the category.

Step 3 - Select a Category

1. A required field labelled Select a category appears in the main details area.
2. Use the dropdown to pick the FAQ category whose questions should be displayed on this page.
3. If you have nested categories, the subcategories of the selected category will be displayed automatically (subject to the display options described below).

Step 4 - Set the Title and Alias

1. Enter a Title for the menu item (for example, "Frequently Asked Questions" or "Billing FAQ").
2. Joomla auto-generates an Alias from the title. You can override it to create a shorter, cleaner URL segment (for example, faq or billing-faq).

Step 5 - Configure Display Options

The menu item editor contains several option tabs that let you control exactly how the category page looks. These are described in detail in the next section.

Step 6 - Save

Click Save & Close in the toolbar. Your new FAQ page is now live in the selected menu.

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Menu Item Display Options

When editing a category menu item, the option tabs expose fine-grained control over the page layout. The settings below are available under the category parameters (set per category or inherited from the component configuration).

Page Options (Basic Tab)

Option	Default	Description
The title page in the browser	(empty)	Custom text for the browser title bar. If left blank, the category title is used.
Show page title	No	Show or hide the page heading (H1) at the top of the page.
Show Categories Title	Yes	Show or hide the "Questions" heading above the accordion.
Show SubCategories Title	Yes	Show or hide the "Subcategory" heading above the child-category list.
Description of category	Hide	Show or hide the category description text above the questions.
Show no questions found message	Yes	When a category contains no published questions, display a warning message. Set to No to show nothing instead.

Subcategory Options (Basic Tab)

Option	Default	Description
Maximum Category Levels	All	How many levels deep to display nested subcategories. Set to "None" to hide subcategories entirely, or choose a number (1--5) to limit nesting depth.
Description of sub-categories	Show	Show or hide the description text of each subcategory.
Number of issues in the sub-categories	Show	Display the count of published questions beside each subcategory name.
Empty subcategories	Show	Show or hide subcategories that contain no published questions.
Show subcategory questions	Hide	When set to Show, questions from subcategories are displayed inline beneath each subcategory heading.

Questions Options Tab

These options control how individual questions appear inside the accordion.

Option	Default	Description
Choose icon	(inherited)	Pick a Font Awesome icon to display beside each question title.
Questions on the page	10	Number of questions per page before pagination appears.
Sorting	Established order (ascending)	Sort order for questions. Options: Alphabetical (A-Z or Z-A), Date created (ascending or descending), Established/manual ordering (ascending or descending).
Date creation	Show	Show or hide the date the question was submitted.
Author	Show	Show or hide the name of the person who submitted the question.
Date of reply	Show	Show or hide the date the answer was published.
Author reply	Show	Show or hide the name of the person who answered.
Type conclusion of the author response	Login	Display the author's username ("Login") or their full name ("Name").
Date Format	d.m.Y H:i	PHP date format string used for all dates in this category view.
Poll	Show	Enable the "Was this helpful?" thumbs-up / thumbs-down voting widget beneath each answer.
Print	Hide	Show or hide the "Print" link that opens a printer-friendly version of the category.
Content plugins	No	When set to Yes, Joomla content plugins are triggered on the answer text (useful for embedding modules, galleries, or other shortcodes inside answers).

Form Options Tab

These options control the frontend question submission form that appears on the category page.

Option	Default	Description
The E-mail	Required	Whether the email field is required, optional, or hidden on the submission form.
Type the author's question	Login	Store the submitter's username or full name in the database.
Max. length of the question	1000	Maximum number of characters allowed in a submitted question.
Min. length of the question	10	Minimum number of characters required.
Character Counter	Hide	Show a live character counter beneath the question field.
Security code (Captcha)	Not logged in users	Show captcha to guests only, to all users, or to nobody.
The signature on the response	Show	Allow the submitter to opt in to email notification when their question is answered.
Disable notifications	No	When set to Yes, no notification email is sent to editors when a new question is submitted.

Search Settings Tab

Option	Default	Description
Enable Search	No	Add a search box above the accordion so visitors can filter questions by keyword.
Search Scope	Questions Only	Search only question titles and answers, or include subcategory names as well.
Search Placeholder Text	(empty)	Custom placeholder shown inside the search input. Defaults to "Search FAQs..." if left blank.
Show Results Count	Yes	Display a "X results found" message while searching.
Show Clear Button	Yes	Show a button that clears the current search and restores the full question list.

Template Tab (Menu Item Override)

Each menu item can override the global template colours for the accordion displayed on that page.

Option	Description
Title Font Size	Override the question title font size (CSS value, for example 18px or 1.2rem).
Text Font Size	Override the answer body font size.
Text Color	Override the answer text colour.
Text Background Color	Override the answer panel background colour.
Title Color	Override the question title text colour.
Title Background Color	Override the question header background colour.

These per-menu-item overrides take precedence over the global accordion style settings configured in the component options.

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Creating a Question Submission Form Menu Item

JoomFAQs does not expose the question form (view=form) as a selectable menu item type. Instead, the form is accessed in two ways:

1. From the category page. When a visitor with the core.create permission views a category, an "Add a question" button appears above the accordion. For users with core.edit permission, an "Add New Question" button links to the full editor form, and each accordion item includes an "Edit" button.

2. Via a direct URL. You can create a System Links > URL menu item (or any menu item type that accepts a URL) and point it to:

   index.php?option=com_joomfaqs&view=form&id=0
   

   This opens a blank question editor for users who have the appropriate permissions. If you want the link to be SEF-friendly, make sure Joomla's SEF URL feature is enabled (see the URL structure section below).

Because the form view requires core.create or core.edit permission on the component, visitors without those permissions will see an access-denied message. Assign the menu item to an appropriate access level (for example, Registered) so that only logged-in users see it in the menu.

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Creating a Link to a Specific Question

Individual questions do not have their own menu item type. To create a menu link that goes directly to a single question, use a System Links > URL menu item with the following URL pattern:

index.php?option=com_joomfaqs&view=question&id=QUESTION_ID&catid=CATEGORY_ID

Replace QUESTION_ID with the numeric ID of the question and CATEGORY_ID with its category ID. Both values are visible in the Questions manager in the administrator backend.

Alternatively, you can copy the permalink URL from the frontend. When viewing a category page, expand any question in the accordion and click the Permalink button. The URL in your browser address bar is the direct link to that question.

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URL Structure and SEF Considerations

JoomFAQs uses Joomla's standard RouterView system, which means it benefits from Joomla's built-in SEF (Search Engine Friendly) URL handling.

How URLs Are Built

View	Raw URL	Typical SEF URL
Category	index.php?option=com_joomfaqs&view=category&id=5	/faq/billing
Question	index.php?option=com_joomfaqs&view=question&id=12&catid=5	/faq/billing/how-do-i-get-a-refund
New question form	index.php?option=com_joomfaqs&view=form&id=0	/faq/new-question
Edit question form	index.php?option=com_joomfaqs&view=form&id=12	/faq/edit-question/12

Remove IDs from URLs

By default, JoomFAQs builds SEF URLs using the alias (slug) of categories and questions, without numeric IDs. This is controlled by the sef_ids parameter in the component configuration. When enabled (the default), URLs look like:

/faq/billing/how-do-i-get-a-refund

When disabled, IDs are prepended:

/faq/5-billing/12-how-do-i-get-a-refund

Alias-based URLs are cleaner and better for SEO, but they require that every question alias is unique within its category and every category alias is unique among its siblings.

Menu Item as the URL Root

The menu item alias becomes the first segment of the SEF URL. For example, if your menu item has the alias faq, all category and question URLs within that menu item will start with /faq/....

If you create multiple menu items pointing to different categories, each one establishes its own URL root. A menu item with alias billing-faq pointing to the "Billing" category produces URLs like /billing-faq/how-do-i-get-a-refund, while a menu item with alias shipping-faq pointing to the "Shipping" category produces /shipping-faq/what-are-the-delivery-times.

Multilingual Sites

JoomFAQs supports Joomla's multilingual routing. When the Language Filter plugin is active, the language code is automatically appended to internal links. Each language can have its own menu item pointing to the same or different categories, and the router resolves the correct Itemid based on language.

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Tips for Menu Organisation

Single FAQ Page

The simplest setup is a single menu item pointing to a top-level "root" FAQ category. Place all your questions in that category or in subcategories beneath it. The category view automatically renders subcategories with their questions, so visitors see everything on one page.

Recommended settings for a single-page FAQ:

• Set Maximum Category Levels to "All" so every subcategory is shown.
• Set Show SubCategories Title to "Yes" so visitors can see the groupings.
• Set Enable Search to "Yes" so visitors can quickly find answers.
• Set Show subcategory questions to "Show" to display questions from child categories directly on the page.

Separate Pages per Category

For larger FAQ sections, create one menu item per top-level category. This produces shorter pages and cleaner navigation. You can organise these as:

• Top-level menu items -- each FAQ category gets its own entry in the main menu.
• A parent menu item with children -- create a non-clickable "FAQ" parent menu item, then add child menu items for each category underneath it. This produces a dropdown menu structure.

Combining with the JoomFAQs Module

The JoomFAQs accordion module (mod_joomfaqs) can display questions from any category on any page, independent of menu items. Use it on your homepage or sidebar to surface popular questions, then link to the full FAQ menu item for the complete list. See the module documentation for configuration details.

Linking from Articles or Custom HTML Modules

You can link to any FAQ category or individual question from regular Joomla articles or custom HTML modules using the raw URL format:

• Category link: index.php?option=com_joomfaqs&view=category&id=CATEGORY_ID
• Question link: index.php?option=com_joomfaqs&view=question&id=QUESTION_ID&catid=CATEGORY_ID

Wrap these in Joomla\CMS\Router\Route::_() if writing PHP, or simply paste them as link URLs in the editor -- Joomla's SEF system will convert them to clean URLs automatically when SEF is enabled.