User Guide

Index

1. Introduction
2. What is Advanced Modules Manager?
3. General options
   1. Default settings
   2. Extra settings
   3. Permissions
4. Assignment options
5. Extra features
   1. Color tags
   2. Open in modals
   3. Hide if empty
   4. Notes
6. Requirements
7. Installation
   1. NoNumber Extension Manager
   2. Joomla! Extension Manager
8. Uninstallation

1) Introduction

This guide provides in-depth information about Advanced Module Manager and will tell you:

• what it does
• how to install it
• how to set-up and use it

2) What is Advanced Modules Manager?

Advanced Module Manager is a Joomla! administrator component (and system plugin).

Advanced Module Manager is an extension that changes the way your module manager works.

With Joomla you can normally only assign modules to certain menu items.

With Advanced Module Manager you have the possibility to assign modules to just about anything you want.

Further on in this guide we will discuss each assignment option individually.

Advanced Module Manager also gives a few other features to improve the module manager, like the ability to edit modules in modal windows and add color tags.

3) General options

Once Advanced Module Manager is installed, the core Joomla module manager will be replaced with the Advanced Module Manager. The 'Module Manger' menu link will no longer point to 'option=com_modules' but to 'option=com_advancedmodules'.

When you go to this new module manager you will see the normal list of modules with extra stuff here and there.

First, we'll look at the general options. In the toolbar, on the right, you will see the 'Options' button.

When you click on that, a modal window will open with all the available global options for Advanced Module Manager.

Here is an overview of all the available global options. All descriptions are available in the tooltips of the options.

3.1) Default settings

3.2) Extra settings

This tab gives you the ability to disable any extra assignment options.

I advise you to disable any options you don't plan to use. This is to keep the available assignment options in the module edit screens to a minimum, improving clarity and page load.

3.3) Permissions

The Joomla core permission settings control access to the different actions. For more information on how these permissions work, see the Joomla docs:
Access Control List Tutorial : Component Options & Permissions

4) Assignment options

Advanced Module Manager comes packed with a multitude of module assignment options. You can assign modules to, or exclude them from, virtually anything.

5) Extra features

Besides the above discussed assignment options, Advanced Module Manager gives you a couple of extra features to make module management just that bit easier and faster.

5.1) Color tags

You can give every module a color tag. This does not change anything in the frontend of your website, it is just a tag to use on the administrator side. In the module list you can see these colors and even order by colors. This makes grouping and finding certain modules easier and faster.

5.2) Open in modals

A modal window is a type of popup window that does not open in a new window, but hovers over your current page. These modal windows (also known as lightbox windows) throw a semi-transparent black overlay over your page and hover on top of that. Joomla uses modal windows for things like the general settings in components like the ones you have in Advanced Module Manager.

Advanced Module Manager also gives you the possibility to open module edit pages inside these modal windows. The advantage being that you do not have to reload the entire page and you can easily step back to the module list. This saves a lot of time when you have to look into or edit many modules.

When the ‘Show Open in Modals icons’ option is enabled in the general settings (which it is by default), you will see an icon before the module title in the module list. Clicking on this icon will open the module in a modal window.

5.3) Hide if empty

This option can be used to prevent module blocks with title being shown when the module has nothing to show. This option might not work on all templates.

5.4) Notes

The core module manager (in Joomla! 2.5) already has the ability to add notes to modules that display in the module list. Advanced Module Manager however adds the ability to show this note as tooltip or in a separate column. You can set this via the general settings.

6) Requirements

Advanced Module Manager will only work correctly if your setup meets these requirements:

• Up-to-date version of Joomla! 1.5 or 2.5 or 3.x
• PHP 5.3+ No PHP 5.2 support
• PHP mbstring (Multibyte String) functions enabled
• MySQL 5+

Important: I can only provide support for setups that:

• meet the above requirements;
• do not have extension files or Joomla! core files which have been altered in any way.

7) Installation

You can either install Advanced Module Manager by using the core extension manager available in the Joomla! Administrator Control Panel, or by using the powerful NoNumber Extension Manager.

Note: When updating Advanced Module Manager, you do not need to uninstall it first. The package will update all the files automatically.

Keep in mind that when you update to a major new version (or uninstall first), you might loose some configuration settings.

7.1) NoNumber Extension Manager

It is very easy to install/update any NoNumber Extension using the NoNumber Extension Manager.

Please see the User Guide for the NoNumber Extension Manager for more detailed information...

7.2) Joomla! Extension Manager

To install via the Joomla! Extension Manager, just follow these steps (based on Joomla 2.5 setup):

1. Download the extension zip.
2. Log into your Joomla administrator
3. In the menu, choose: Extensions >> Extension Manager
4. Under 'Upload Package File' select the extension zip.
5. Click on 'Upload & Install'

If you have problems installing Advanced Module Manager, please try the manual installation process as described here: docs.joomla.org/Installing_an_extension

8) Uninstallation

You can either uninstall Advanced Module Manager by using the core extension manager available in the Joomla! Administrator Control Panel, or by using the PRO version of the powerful NoNumber Extension Manager.

If you no longer use any NoNumber extensions, you can also uninstall the NoNumber Framework plugin by using the Joomla! core extension manager.