This Joomla module allows enabling or disabling the public visibility of its content when editing it through the website’s frontend, provided that the user performing the editing has has been granted Frontend Editing permission. It is designed for short-term announcements, such as those relating to last minute announced or canceled meetings, unexpected events whether good or bad, and so on, which typically should be displayed for short period of times above the main articles on all pages or on specific pages.
Its main benefit is that the user performing the editing does not need a Super User account to hide or display the module’s content as needed. However, initially the module must still be installed by a system administrator, but without the need – at that time – to create actual content or perform detailed configurations.
The module is compatible with Joomla versions starting with 4.4 or newer and PHP 7.3 or newer.
(i) The module file
The Publisher Frontend Activatable Slides module consist of a single .zip archive file. Depending on the chosen installation method, you either need to download the file or simply copy and paste its URL.
Method 1 (recommended): download the file on your PC
In a sense, this is a safe method from the user’s perspective, because once the file has been downloaded, there is no more dependency on this originating site – like, for example, in case my web server happens to go offline for whatever reason.
Then:
- on the Joomla admin page, go to Install Extensions, the Upload Package File tab, then drag and drop there the .zip file just downloaded
- wait for the success-like message to show up (it shouldn’t take long to complete)
or
Method 2 (most convenient): use only an install URL
No need to download anything, just enter the address into the proper field. The module will be installed automatically from my web server by the Joomla system.
Steps:
- on the J5 or J6 admin page, go to Install Extensions, the Install from URL tab, then copy and paste there this address:
https://www.secarica.ro/dev/joomla/secarica/mod_publisher_frontend_activatable_1.0.0.zip - Note: this address (and, thus, the target file) is in fact the same as the link address from method 1 above, so it is safe to copy that link instead.
- click the Check & Install button
- wait for the success-like message to show up (it shouldn’t take long to complete)
Notes:
Current module version is 1.0.0
The software is published under the GPLv3 license.
(ii) Things worth mentioning
The switch that performs the actual module content hiding or unhiding is located under the ‘Options’ accordion menu. It may not be that obvious on first use – this screenshot is showing some indications on the matter from a publisher perspective.
Note: when editing the module through the website’s backend, the same switch is located under the ‘Options’ module tab.
It is important to mention that, with the exception of the module instance created during the installation process, when the Publisher user category associated with that instance was granted frontend editing rights, it is subsequently the administrator’s responsibility to ensure that any other newly created module instance (if applicable) will also have frontend editing rights properly granted to the Publisher user category.
Technically speaking, the module is just the Joomla’s native Custom module with WYSIWYG editing capabilities, with the added feature that its content can be hidden or made visible through direct editing from the frontend. This feature has nothing in common with the default option to publish or unpublish the module as a whole (which functionality is not affected).
Known issue: due to the lack of implementation in Joomla of a blocking function that should have prevented concurrent editing of a module (as already exists when editing an article), a fatal system error occurs if an attempt is made to edit the module in the frontend, while, at the same time, an user with administrative rights is editing the same module in the backend. In such a case, a warning message will inform the user about the concurrent situation that has arisen and about possible solutions in case editing in the frontend continues anyway – not recommended, but still possible. Hopefully this system issue will be solved at some point by the Joomla development team.
