Components Contacts Contacts

Overview

This screen is accessed from the back-end Joomla! administrator panel. It is used to manage contacts in your Joomla! website.

How to access

• Select Components → Contacts → Contacts from the drop-down menu of the Joomla! Administrator Panel. You can also select the 'Contacts' menu link from the Category Manager: Contacts screen.

Description

The Contact Manager screen allows you to add contact information to your Joomla! site. You can enter information such as name, address, phone and e-mail. You can also link contacts to registered users. Afterwards, you can use the Menu Manager to create front-end links to the the contacts.

Screenshot

Column Headers

Click on the column heading to sort the list by that column's value.

• Checkbox. Check this box to select one or more items. To select all items, check the box in the column heading. After one or more boxes are checked, click a toolbar button to take an action on the selected item or items. Many toolbar actions, such as Publish and Unpublish, can work with multiple items. Others, such as Edit, only work on one item at a time. If multiple items are checked and you press Edit, the first item will be opened for editing.

• Title. The name of the item. For a Menu Item, the Title will display in the Menu. For an Article, Section, or Category, the Title may optionally be displayed on the web page. This entry is required. You can open the item for editing by clicking on the Title.
• Linked User. The username this contact is linked to (if applicable).

• Published. Whether the item has been published or not. You can change the Published state by clicking on the icon in this column.
• Featured. Whether or not the item will be displayed in featured view. A blue circle with a white star inside means yes and a gray circle with a white dot inside means no.

• Category. The Category this item belongs to. See Category Manager: Contacts screen.

• Ordering. The order in which to display items. If the list is sorted by this column, you can change the order by clicking the arrows or by entering the sequential order and clicking the 'Save Order' icon.

• Access. Who can view this item. You can change an item's Access in its edit screen. See User Access Levels for more information.

• Language. Item language.

• ID. This is a unique identification number for this item assigned automatically by Joomla!. It is used to identify the item internally, and you cannot change this number. When creating a new item, this field displays 0 until you save the new entry, at which point a new ID is assigned to it.

List Filters

Filter by Partial Title

You can filter the list of items by typing in part of the Title or the ID number.

Filter. In the upper left corner just above the column headings are a Filter field and two buttons, as shown below:

If you have a large number of items in the list, you can use this filter to find the desired item(s) quickly. Enter either part of the title or an ID number and press 'Search' to display the matching items. You can type in whole words or part of a word. For example, "ooml" will match all titles with the word "Joomla!" in them. Click 'Clear' to reset filtering.

Filter by State, Category, Access and Language

In the upper right area, above the column headings, there are four drop-down list boxes as shown below:

The selections may be combined. Only items matching all selections will be displayed in the list.

• Select State. Use the drop-down list box to only show items matching a certain state: Published, Unpublished, Archived, Trash or All (available options may vary depending on item type).

• Select Category. Use the drop-down list box to select the desired Category. Only items in this Category will be displayed in the list.

• Select Access. Use the drop-down list box to select the desired Access Level. Only items with the specified Access Level will be displayed in the list.

• Select Language. Use the drop-down list box to select the desired Language. Only items for the specified language will be displayed in the list.

Number of Items to Display

Below the list you'll find:

• Display #. The number of items to display on one page. If there are more items than this number, you can use the page navigation buttons (Start, Prev, Next, End, and page numbers) to navigate between pages. Note that if you have a large number of items, it may be helpful to use the Filter options, located above the column headings, to limit which items display (where applicable).

Toolbar

At the top right you will see the toolbar:

• New. Creates a new item and opens the editing screen for this item.

• Edit. Opens the editing screen for the selected item. If more than one item is selected (where applicable), only the first item will be opened. An item can also be opened for editing by clicking on its Title or Name.

• Publish. Publishes selected items. Works with one or multiple items selected.

• Unpublish. Unpublishes selected items. Works with one or multiple items selected.

• Archive. Archives selected items. Works with one or multiple items selected.

• Check In. Checks-in selected items. Works with one or multiple items selected.

• Trash. Sends selected items to the trash. Works with one or multiple items selected.

• Options. Opens the Options window where settings such as default parameters can be edited. See Options.

• Help. Opens this Help Screen.

Options

Click the Options button to open the Contact Manager Options window which lets you configure this component.

Buttons Common to All Tabs

• Save & Close. Saves changes and then closes the Options window.

• Save. Saves changes and keeps the Options window open.

• Cancel. Closes the Options window without applying changes.

Contacts Tab

These settings apply for single Contact unless they are changed for a specific menu item or Contact

• Choose a layout. Default layout to use for articles.
• Choose Category. If 'Hide', the Contact Category will not show. If 'Show Without Link', Category will show as text. If 'Show With Link', Category will show as a link to a Single Category Menu Item.
• Show Contact List. If 'Show', the user will be able to change which contact is shown by selecting a contact from a drop-down list of all contacts in the current contact category.
• Display format. Determines the style used to display sections of the contact form.
• Name. Show name of the contact.
• Contact's Position. Show or Hide position.
• Email. Show or Hide contact email.
• Street Address. Show or Hide street address.
• City or Suburb. Show or hide city or suburb.
• State or County. Show or Hide state or county.
• Postal Code. Show or Hide postal or zip code.
• Country. Show or Hide Country.
• Telephone. Show or Hide telephone number.
• Mobile phone. Show or Hide mobile number.
• Fax. Show or Hide fax number.
• Webpage. Show or hide webpage.
• Misc. Information. Show or Hide miscellaneous information.
• Image. Show or Hide image.
• Image. Choose the image file to use for the contact.
• vCard. Whether or not to allow export to vCard format.
• Show User Articles. Show User Articles::If this contact is mapped to a user, and if this is set to Show, then a list of articles created by this user will show.
• Show Profile. Show Profile.
• Show Links. Show Links.
• Link A Label. An additional link for this contact.
• Link B Label. An additional link for this contact.
• Link C Label. An additional link for this contact.
• Link D Label. An additional link for this contact.
• Link E Label. An additional link for this contact.

Icons Tab

These settings apply for single Contact unless they are changed for a specific menu item or Contact

• Settings. Choose whether to display icons, text or nothing next to the information.
• Address Icon. Select the Address icon. If none selected, the default icon will be displayed.
• Email Icon. Select the Email icon. If none selected, the default icon will be displayed.
• Telephone Icon. Select the Telephone icon. If none selected, the default icon will be displayed.
• Mobile Icon. Select the Mobile icon. If none selected, the default icon will be displayed.
• Fax Icon. Select the Fax icon. If none selected, the default icon will be displayed.
• Misc Icon. Select the Misc icon. If none selected, the default icon will be displayed.

Category Tab

These settings apply for Contact Category Options unless they are changed for a specific menu item.

• Choose a layout. Default layout to use for articles.

• Category Title. Hide or Show the title of the selected category as a subheading (usually a Heading 2 or "H2").

• Category Description. Hide or Show the description of the selected category.

• Category Image. Hide or Show the image of the selected category.

• Subcategory Levels. The number of subcategory levels to display.

• Empty Categories. Hide or Show empty categories. A category is considered to be empty if it has no items and no subcategories.

• Subcategories Descriptions. Hide or Show the descriptions for subcategories.
• # Contacts in Category. Show or Hide the number of Contacts in category.

Categories Tab

These settings apply for Contact Categories Options unless they are changed for a specific menu item.

• Top Level Category Description. Hide or Show the description of the top level category or optionally override with the text from the description field found in menu item. If using Root as top level category, the description field has to be filled.

• Subcategory Levels. The number of subcategory levels to display.

• Empty Categories. Hide or Show empty categories. A category is considered to be empty if it has no items and no subcategories.

• Subcategories Descriptions. Hide or Show the descriptions for subcategories.
• # Contacts in Category. Show or Hide the number of Contacts in category.

List Layouts Tab

These settings apply for Contact List Options unless they are changed for a specific menu item.

• Display Select. Hide or Show the Display Select dropdown listbox.

• Table Headings. Hide or Show the headings in list layouts.
• Position. Show or Hide a Position column in the list of Contacts.
• Email. Show or Hide an Email column in the list of Contacts.
• Phone. Show or Hide a Phone column in the list of Contacts.
• Mobile. Show or Hide show a Mobile column in the list of Contacts.
• Fax. Show or Hide a Fax column in the list of Contacts.
• City or Suburb. Show or Hide a City or Suburb column in the list of Contacts.
• State. Show or Hide a State column in the list of Contacts.
• Country. Show or Hide a Country column in the list of Contacts.

• Pagination. Hide or Show pagination controls. Pagination provides links at the bottom of the page that allow the user to navigate to additional pages. These are needed if the information will not fit on one page.

• Pagination Results. Hide or Show pagination results information, for example, "Page 1 of 4".

Form Tab

These settings apply for single Contact unless they are changed for a specific menu item or Contact.

• Show Contact Form. Show or Hide contact form.
• Send Copy to Submitter. Hide or Show checkbox to allow copy of email to be sent to submitter.
• Banned Email. Email addresses not allowed to submit information with the contact form.
• Banned Subject. Subjects not allowed in contact form.
• Banned Text. Text not allowed in contact form body.
• Session Check. Check for the existence of session cookie. This means that users without cookies enabled will not be able to send emails.
• Custom Reply. Turns off the automated reply, allowing for Plugins to handle integration with other systems.
• Contact Redirect. Enter an alternative email address, where information will be sent to.

Integration Tab

These settings determine how the Contact Component will integrate with other extensions.

• Show Feed Link. Hide or Show an RSS Feed Link (A Feed Link will show up as a feed icon in the address bar of most modern browsers).

• For each feed item show. If set to Intro Text, only the Intro Text of each item will show in the newsfeed. If set to Full Text, the whole item will show in the newsfeed.

Permissions Tab

The "Permissions" tab, shown below, lets you specify who can perform each type of action on this component:

The tree on the left shows the hierarchy of user groups that are available on your Joomla! site. To view or modify permissions, click on a group in the tree.

The table on the right side of the window contains 3 columns:

• Actions. The various actions for which you can specify permissions for the currently selected user group.
• Component Settings. The permission option set at the component level, which can be changed with the dropdown control. Options are:
  • Inherited. The permission for this group/action is inherited from the site's Global Configuration.
  • Allowed. Allows this action for this user group and for child groups.
  • Locked. Denies this action for this users group and for child groups.
• Calculated Settings. The effective permission, based on current options in the site's Global Configuration. Note: After making changes, Save options and open them again to view updated Calculated Settings.

Actions available in this component are:

• Configure. Grants users the right to edit this component's Options.
• Access Component. Grants users the right to open this component's main screen ("Manager" screen).
• Create. Grants users the right to create new objects (for example: users, menu items, articles, weblinks, and so on).
• Delete. Grants users the right to delete existing objects.
• Edit. Grants users the right to edit existing objects.
• Edit State. Grants users the right to change existing objects state (Publish, Unpublish, Archive, Check In and Trash).
• Edit Own. Grants users the right to edit any content they submitted in this extension.

For more information, please refer to:

• ACL Tutorial for Joomla 1.6
• What You Need to Know About Joomla 1.6. Part 3: Access Control Levels

Toolbar Links

At the top left, above the Filter, you will see the following two links:

• Contacts. This link takes you to the screen you are currently on.
• Categories. Click this link to go to the Category Manager: Contacts screen.

Quick Tips

• You need to add at least one Category for your Contacts before you can add your first Contact. Categories are added using the Category Manager: Contacts screen.

Related Information

• To add or edit Contacts: Contact Manager: Contact - New/Edit
• To work with Contact Categories: Category Manager: Contacts
• To work with Users: User Manager