Help4.x:Field Groups

Description

The Field Groups screen is used to list, add and edit Field Groups.

Field Groups help to organise field groups for data entry. Each Group will appear as a separate Tab in the data entry form.

The helpscreen show as example Contacts.

How to Access

To add a Field Group:

• Components → Contacts → Field Groups
  1. select from the dropdown list:
     • Contact
     • Mail
     • Category
  2. click the New toolbar button

To edit a Field Group:

• Select a Title from the list

Screenshot

Column Headers

The columns in the Articles: field groups table are as follows:

• 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.

• Ordering. You can change the order of an item within a list as follows:
  • If the list Filter Options include a Position filter select the desired Position. This will limit the list to items that are assigned to that Position.
  • Select the Ordering icon in the Table heading to make it the active ordering item. The ordering icons in each row will change from light grey to dark grey and the pointer will change to a drag arrow on hover.
  • Select one of the Ordering icons and drag it up or down to change the position of that row in the list. The items will display in the new order within the Position.

• Status. The published status of the item.

• Title. The name of the item. For a Menu Item, the Title will display in the Menu. For an Article 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.

• Access. The viewing Access Level for this item.

• 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

Search bar. Near the top of the page you will see the search bar shown in the Screenshot above.

• Search by Text. Enter part of the search term and click the Search icon. Hover to see a Tooltip indicating which fields will be searched.
  To 'Search by ID' enter "id:x", where "x" is the ID number (for example, "id:19").
• Filter Options. Click to display the additional filters.
• Clear. Click to clear the Filter field and restore the list to its unfiltered state.
• Ordering. Shows the current list ordering field. 2 ways to change the order:
  • Select from the dropdown list. Ordering may be in ascending or descending order.
  • Click a column heading. The column heading toggles between ascending and descending order.
• Number to Display. Shows the number of items in a list. Select from the dropdown list to change the number displayed.
  The default for a site is '20' but this may be changed in the Global Configuration.

Filter Options

Near the top of the page you will see the filter bar shown in the Screenshot above. The functions are:

• Select Status. Select from Trashed / Unpublished / Published / Archived / All.

• Select Access. Select from the list of available viewing access levels.

• Select Language. Select from the list of available languages, if the site manages more than 1 language.

Pagination

Page Controls. When the number of items is more than one page, you will see a page control bar near the bottom of the page shown in the Screenshot above. The current page number being viewed has a dark colour background.

• Start. Click to go to the first page.
• Prev. Click to go to the previous page.
• Page numbers. Click to go to the desired page.
• Next. Click to go to the next page.
• End. Click to go to the last page.

Batch Process

The Batch Process allows a change in settings for a group of selected field groups.

How to Batch Process a group of field groups:

1. Select one or more field groups on the list by checking the desired checkboxes.
2. Click the Batch Toolbar button.
3. Set one or more of the following values:
   • To change the Language, select the desired language from the Set Language list box.
   • To change the Access Levels, select the desired new access level from the Set Access Level list box.
4. When all of the settings are entered, click on Process to perform the changes. A message "Batch process completed successfully." will show.

Toolbar

At the top of the page you will see the toolbar shown in the Screenshot above. The functions are:

• New. Opens the editing screen to create a new category.

• Actions: Reveals a list of actions for selected Items. Check one or more Item checkboxes to activate the list.

• Publish. Makes the selected category available to visitors to your website.
• Unpublish. Makes the selected category unavailable to visitors to your website.
• Archive. Changes the status of the selected category to indicate that they are archived.
  Archived category can be moved back to the published or unpublished state by selecting 'Archived' in the 'Select Status' filter and changing the status of the category.
• Check-In. Checks-in the selected category. Works with one or multiple category selected.
• Trash. Changes the status of the selected category to indicate that they are trashed.
  Trashed category can still be recovered by selecting 'Trashed' in the 'Select Status' filter and changing the status of the articles to Published or Unpublished as preferred.
  To permanently delete trashed category, select 'Trashed' in the 'Select Status' filter, select the category to be permanently deleted, then click the 'Empty Trash' toolbar icon.
• Batch. Batch processes the selected category. Works with one or multiple items selected.

• Help. Opens this help screen.

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

Quick Tips

• Joomla 3 Tutorial: Adding Custom field groups