Theme Joomla Tips and Advice

A basic guide to Joomla! URLs and Itemids

This article gives more information on that age old question - what are Itemid's? and how do the Joomla URL's work? In this article we will have a look at URL's, links and how they affect Itemids.

An Example of Joomla URL and Itemid

Sometimes, when you navigate a Joomla site, you will notice that the web address (URL) looks something like this:

http://www.yoursite.com/content/view/2985/33/

This because inside the administrator section of this site, Search Engine Friendly URLs have been turned on (Site > Global Configuration > SEO > Search Engine Friendly URLs = Yes). This creates a shorter a shorter version of the real URL produced by Joomla; which would look something like this:

http://www.yoursite.url/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2985&Itemid=33

The main reason for this URL re-write, is for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Search Engines can have problems indexing URL's that are to long and complicated - plus things like your Google generated link URL's will look long and ugly.

Breaking Down those Two URL's as shown above:

Default URL: option=com_content
Default SEF URL: content
Description: This shows which component you are viewing (Component Name)
Examples: "option=com_wrapper" will produce a page using the wrapper component

Default URL: task=view
Default SEF URL: view
Description: This explains what the component is being asked to do.
Examples: "task=emailform" allows you to send the page via email

Default URL: id=2985
Default SEF URL: 2985
Description:Number to identify the content item.
Examples:This starts at 1 and works its way up as you publish articles.

Default URL: Itemid=33
Default SEF URL: 33
Description:Number to identify the menu link leading to the content item
Examples:This also starts at 1 and works its way up according to relevancy of items published.

What is the point of the Joomla Itemid?

The Itemid is what Joomla uses to decide which modules and templates need to appear on the page; For example, the Itemid shown above is 33. If it was changed to 26 it would look for the Item in the selected component with the ID of 26 and display the relevant content.

A problem that can occur with the above examples, is that you can easily land up with the same URL's for multiple sites, as many articles will have the same ID and same components etc...

This is why it is extremely important that you install a SEO URL component for your site. Checkout Joomla! extensions directory for one of those...

INSIDE: Support / Tips and Advice

members

search