JoomFAQs - Frontend Category View

This guide describes the category page that your site visitors see when they browse an FAQ category on the frontend. It covers every element that can appear on the page, explains how the accordion behavior works, and shows how the category-level parameters control what is displayed.

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Page Anatomy at a Glance

When a visitor opens an FAQ category, the page is built from top to bottom in this order:

1. Page heading (optional)
2. Category description (optional)
3. Subcategories section with its own heading and accordion (if subcategories exist)
4. "Questions" heading (optional)
5. Action buttons -- Add Question, Print, and Show Unpublished (permission-dependent)
6. Search box (optional)
7. Questions accordion -- the main FAQ list
8. Pagination (if the question count exceeds the page limit)

Each of these sections can be turned on or off, and many can be fine-tuned through the category parameters described later in this guide.

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Page Heading

If you have configured a page heading in the menu item that links to this category, it appears at the very top of the page inside an <h1> tag.

Parameter	Location	Effect
Show Page Heading	Menu item > Page Display tab	Set to Yes to display the heading. Set to No to hide it.
Page Heading	Menu item > Page Display tab	The text that appears. If left blank, the category title is used.

The page heading is separate from the category title. It exists because Joomla's menu system allows you to give a page a custom title that differs from the underlying category name.

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Category Description

Directly below the page heading, the category description area displays whatever HTML content you entered in the category's Description field (in Content > Categories > JoomFaqs > [your category] > Description).

Parameter	Default	Effect
Show Description (show_desc)	Hide	Set to Show to display the category description. Set to Hide to suppress it.

The description is rendered with full HTML, so it can contain formatted text, images, links, and embedded media.

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Subcategory Navigation

If the current category has child categories, a Subcategories section appears below the description. This section has its own accordion -- each subcategory is a collapsible panel.

What appears inside each subcategory panel

• Subcategory description -- the child category's description text, if the show_subcat_desc parameter is set to Show.
• Question list -- a bulleted list of question titles (linked to their individual question pages), if show_subcat_questions is set to Show.
• "View All Questions" button -- always present inside each panel. It links to the subcategory's own category page and shows a count of the total questions in parentheses, for example: View All Questions (12).
• Nested subcategories -- if a subcategory itself has children, they are rendered as a nested accordion inside the parent panel, up to the depth set by the Maximum Category Levels parameter.

Subcategory icon

Each subcategory heading displays an icon to the left of its title. If the subcategory has its own icon configured in its category parameters, that icon is used. Otherwise, the global default icon from the component configuration is used.

Controlling subcategory display

Parameter	Default	Effect
Show Subcategories Title (show_page_title_subcategories)	Yes	Shows or hides the "Subcategory" heading above the subcategory accordion.
Maximum Category Levels (maxLevel)	All	Controls how many levels deep subcategories are rendered. Set to None to hide subcategories entirely, or pick a specific depth (1 through 5).
Show Subcategory Descriptions (show_subcat_desc)	Show	Shows or hides the description text inside each subcategory panel.
Show Subcategory Question Count (show_cat_num_links_cat)	Show	Shows or hides the item count next to the "View All Questions" button.
Show Empty Subcategories (show_empty_categories)	Show	When set to Hide, subcategories that have zero questions and no children of their own are not displayed.
Show Subcategory Questions (show_subcat_questions)	Hide	When set to Show, a bulleted list of question titles from the subcategory appears inside its panel.

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The Questions Section Heading

Below the subcategories area (or at the top of the page if there are no subcategories), a heading labeled "Questions" can appear.

Parameter	Default	Effect
Show Questions Title (show_page_title_categories)	Yes	Set to Yes to display the heading. Set to No to hide it.

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Action Buttons

A toolbar of action buttons appears above the search box and question list. Which buttons are visible depends on the visitor's permissions.

For visitors with "Create" permission only

• Add a question -- a button labeled "Add a question" that opens the question submission form. If the show_form parameter is enabled, the form is displayed inline on the page instead of navigating away.

For visitors with "Edit" permission (typically administrators)

• Add New Question (green button with a plus icon) -- links to the question creation form.
• Show Unpublished questions (red button with an eye-slash icon) -- loads and displays questions that are in an unpublished or unanswered state.

Print link

If the Show Print parameter is set to Show, a Print button (with a printer icon) appears at the right side of the toolbar. Clicking it opens a printer-friendly version of the category in a new window, stripped of site chrome.

Parameter	Default	Effect
Show Print (show_print)	Hide	Controls whether the Print button appears.

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Search Box

When enabled, a search form appears between the action buttons and the questions accordion. It allows visitors to filter the questions displayed in the current category.

How search works

1. The visitor types a term into the search field and clicks the search button (or presses Enter).
2. The page reloads, showing only questions whose title, answer, meta keywords, or meta description contain the search term.
3. If the Show Search Results Count parameter is on, an info banner below the search field reports either the number of matching results (for example, "5 results found for 'refund'") or a "No results found" message.
4. A Clear button (X icon) appears next to the search field after a search is performed. Clicking it removes the filter and reloads the full question list.

Search parameters

Parameter	Default	Effect
Enable Search (enable_search)	No	Master toggle. Set to Yes to display the search form.
Search Scope (search_scope)	Questions only	Choose between searching the current category's questions only, or including subcategory questions as well.
Search Placeholder (search_placeholder)	"Search FAQs..."	Custom placeholder text for the search input field. Leave blank to use the default.
Show Search Results Count (show_search_results_count)	Yes	Shows or hides the results count info banner after a search.
Show Clear Button (search_clear_button)	Yes	Shows or hides the clear button that appears after a search is performed.

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Questions Accordion

The heart of the category page is the questions accordion. Each published question in the category is rendered as a collapsible Bootstrap 5 accordion item.

Collapsed state

When the page first loads, all questions are collapsed (closed). Each question is displayed as a clickable header bar showing:

• An icon to the left of the question text. If the question has a custom icon assigned, that icon is used; otherwise, the default icon from the category (or global) configuration is used.
• The question title text.

Expanding a question

Clicking a question header expands it to reveal the answer body. Because the accordion uses Bootstrap's data-bs-parent attribute, opening one question automatically closes any previously opened question within the same category. Only one question can be expanded at a time.

What appears inside an expanded question

From top to bottom, the expanded accordion body contains:

1. Author and answerer info bar -- a horizontal bar (visible when show_created_by or show_answer_created_by is enabled) showing:

   • The question author's name with a user icon (if show_created_by is on).
   • The answer author's name with a reply icon (if show_answer_created_by is on).
   • An Edit button (yellow, visible only to users with edit permission) that links to the frontend editing form.
   • A Permalink button (light gray) that links to the individual question page for this FAQ entry.

2. Custom fields -- if the question has Joomla custom fields assigned, they are rendered here. The layout depends on the customfield_layout setting: either the default layout (fields listed inline) or a table layout (fields in a structured table).

3. Answer text -- the full answer content, processed through Joomla's content plugins (if the content_plugins parameter is enabled). This means shortcodes, module inclusions, and other content plugin features work inside answers.

4. Vote statistics (editors only) -- a warning-colored box showing the current vote tally, for example: "Status survey: Yes - 12 No - 3 review: 2". This is only visible to users with edit permission on the component.

5. Voting form -- the "Was this helpful?" poll (see the Voting section below).

6. Date information bar -- a row at the bottom showing:

   • The question creation date with a calendar-plus icon (if show_created_date is on).
   • The answer date with a calendar-check icon (if show_answer_created_date is on).

No questions message

If the category has no published questions (or a search returns no results), a yellow warning alert is displayed with the message "No Question Found". This can be suppressed with the Show No Questions Found parameter.

Parameter	Default	Effect
Show No Questions Found (show_no_questions_found)	Yes	Set to No to suppress the empty-state message.

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Accordion Styles

JoomFAQs ships with 14 visual styles for the questions accordion. The style is configured globally in Components > JoomFAQs > Options > Style and applies to all categories (though each category's accordion is scoped by CSS class to avoid conflicts).

Style	Description
Default	Standard Bootstrap 5 accordion with no custom styling.
Minimal	Borderless, transparent background. Clean and lightweight.
Modern	Rounded cards with subtle shadows. Active header changes to the primary color with white text.
Corporate	Traditional bordered accordion. Professional look with a light header background.
Gradient	Headers use a gradient background from primary to secondary color.
Material	Inspired by Material Design -- subtle shadows, uppercase headers, letter spacing.
Glass	Semi-transparent panels with blur effects (backdrop-filter).
Glassmorphism	Enhanced glass effect with saturated blur, translucent borders, and light sweep animation on hover.
Neumorphism	Soft, embossed appearance with inset shadows on the active header.
Dark	Dark-themed accordion suitable for dark backgrounds.
Outline	Transparent panels with a colored border. Active items get a highlighted border.
Shadow	Large drop shadows with a lift effect on hover.
Flat	No borders or shadows. Active header gets a colored left border accent.
Custom	Full manual control -- set your own colors, border widths, border radius, padding, shadow, and font sizes.

All non-default styles support these additional options:

• Primary Color and Secondary Color -- override the default palette for the chosen style.
• Animation -- enable or disable smooth transition effects on expand/collapse.
• Expand Icon and Collapse Icon -- choose the FontAwesome icons shown when a question is closed or open.
• Icon Position -- place the expand/collapse icon on the left or right side of the header.
• Hover Effect -- enable a subtle light-sweep effect when the mouse hovers over a question header.

The Custom style exposes additional fine-grained controls: border width, border color, border radius, header padding, body padding, shadow size, title font size, text font size, title color, title background color, text color, text background color, and a Custom CSS editor.

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Question Ordering

The order in which questions appear in the accordion is controlled by the Ordering parameter in the category settings.

Value	Behavior
Alphabetical A-Z (0)	Questions sorted by title, ascending.
Alphabetical Z-A (1)	Questions sorted by title, descending.
Date Created (oldest first) (2)	Questions sorted by creation date, ascending.
Date Created (newest first) (3)	Questions sorted by creation date, descending.
Manual Ordering (ascending) (4)	Questions sorted by the manual ordering value set in the backend, ascending. This is the default.
Manual Ordering (descending) (5)	Questions sorted by manual ordering value, descending.

To change the manual ordering values, go to the backend Questions Manager, sort the list by the Ordering column, and drag questions into the desired position.

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Pagination

When the number of published questions in a category exceeds the List Limit (list_limit) parameter, pagination controls appear below the accordion.

• Page counter -- text such as "Page 1 of 3" (controlled by the show_pagination_results parameter, which defaults to Show).
• Page navigation links -- standard Joomla pagination links (First, Previous, numbered pages, Next, Last).

Parameter	Default	Effect
List Limit (list_limit)	10	The maximum number of questions displayed per page.

Visitors navigate between pages using the pagination links. The page remembers search filters across pagination.

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Voting Buttons

When the Show Poll parameter is set to Show, a voting form appears inside each expanded accordion item, below the answer text.

How the poll looks

The voting section contains:

1. An info-colored banner asking: "This information was useful?"
2. A thumbs-up radio button (green) for "Yes".
3. A thumbs-down radio button (red) for "No".

How voting works

• Thumbs up: clicking the thumbs-up button immediately submits a positive vote via AJAX. The vote is recorded in the #__joomfaqs_votes table. A thank-you message appears in place of the form.
• Thumbs down: clicking the thumbs-down button opens a modal dialog titled "Your Message". This dialog loads a comment form where the visitor can explain why the answer was not helpful. The modal has a Close button (to cancel) and a Save button (to submit the negative vote along with the comment). After saving, a confirmation message -- "Thank you! Your feedback will help us improve our Help Center" -- is displayed.

Parameter	Default	Effect
Show Poll (show_poll)	Show	Set to Hide to remove the voting form from all questions in this category.

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Comments

Comments in JoomFAQs are tightly linked to the voting system. When a visitor clicks the thumbs-down button, a modal comment form is presented. This is the primary mechanism for collecting user feedback on answers.

The comment form is loaded inside a Bootstrap modal dialog and includes a text area for the visitor's message. Comments are stored in the #__joomfaqs_comments table and are visible to backend administrators in the question editor.

Users with edit permission can see a summary of comment counts directly in the vote statistics bar inside each expanded question.

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Read More / Permalink

Inside the info bar at the top of each expanded answer, a Permalink button is always available. It links to the standalone question view page, which shows the question and answer on their own dedicated page (outside the accordion context).

This is useful for:

• Sharing a direct link to a specific FAQ entry.
• Allowing search engines to index individual questions.
• Providing a focused view without the surrounding category content.

The Permalink button appears as a small light-colored button with a link icon and the text "Permalink".

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Print and Feed Links

Print view

When the Show Print parameter is enabled, a Print button appears in the action bar. Clicking it opens the category page in a component-only template (tmpl=component&print=1), which strips out site navigation, headers, footers, and sidebars -- leaving only the FAQ content for clean printing.

RSS / Atom feeds

JoomFAQs automatically adds RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 feed links to the page header (as <link rel="alternate"> tags) when the show_feed_link parameter is enabled (it is on by default). Feed-aware browsers and feed readers can discover and subscribe to these feeds automatically.

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How Category Parameters Affect the Display

Category parameters are configured in the Joomla administrator under Content > Categories > JoomFaqs > [your category] > Options. The category options form has several tabs:

Basic tab

Controls page-level display elements and subcategory behavior.

Parameter	Default	What it controls
Page Title	(empty)	Custom page title text.
Show Page Title	No	Display of the page title above the category.
Show Subcategories Title	Yes	Display of the "Subcategory" section heading.
Show Questions Title	Yes	Display of the "Questions" section heading.
Show Description	Hide	Display of the category description text.
Show No Questions Found	Yes	Display of the "No Question Found" alert when empty.
Maximum Category Levels	All	Depth of nested subcategory rendering.
Show Subcategory Descriptions	Show	Subcategory description text inside panels.
Show Subcategory Question Count	Show	Question count next to "View All Questions" button.
Show Empty Subcategories	Show	Whether empty subcategories are rendered.
Show Subcategory Questions	Hide	Bulleted question lists inside subcategory panels.

Questions Options tab

Controls per-question display elements within the accordion.

Parameter	Default	What it controls
Icon	(icon picker)	Default icon displayed next to each question title.
List Limit	10	Questions per page before pagination kicks in.
Ordering	Manual Ordering (asc)	Sort order for questions.
Date creation	Show	Creation date in the date bar.
Author	Show	Question author name in the info bar.
Date of reply	Show	Answer date in the date bar.
Answer Created By	Show	Answer author name in the info bar.
Answer Created By Type	Login	Whether to display username or full name for the answerer.
Date Format	d.m.Y H:i	PHP date format string for date display.
Show Poll	Show	Voting form visibility.
Show Print	Hide	Print button visibility.
Content Plugins	No	Whether to process content plugins in answer text.

Form Options tab

Controls the question submission form (for categories where visitors can ask questions).

Search Settings tab

Controls the search box above the questions accordion (see the Search Box section above).

Parameter inheritance

Category parameters are merged with the menu item parameters and the global component options. The priority order is:

1. Category-level parameters (highest priority -- override everything below).
2. Menu item parameters (override global defaults but are overridden by category settings).
3. Global component options (lowest priority -- used when no override is set).

This means you can set global defaults in Components > JoomFAQs > Options and override them selectively on individual categories.

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SEO Features on the Category Page

The category view automatically generates several SEO elements:

• Page title -- set from the category title (or the Page Title parameter), with optional site name prepended based on your Joomla global configuration.
• Meta description -- taken from the category's meta description field.
• Meta keywords -- taken from the category's meta keywords field.
• Breadcrumb trail -- the category hierarchy is added to Joomla's pathway (breadcrumbs) module automatically.
• FAQ Schema markup (Schema.org FAQPage JSON-LD) -- injected into the page head when the global Enable FAQ Schema option is on.
• Open Graph tags -- added to the page head when the global Enable Open Graph option is on.
• Twitter Card tags -- added to the page head when the global Enable Twitter Card option is on.