Dashboard

It is common usage to insert a link into the component menu for direct access to your own component. This is done in the manifest file:

Menu item Component in example.xml

    <administration>
	    <menu>COM_EXAMPLE</menu>
	
	[.. ]
	</administration>

Add a dashboard to your component:

A parameter "dashboard" expands the menu entry to your component with a link to a dashboard. You can give this dashboard any name you want, but Note: use lowercase and only "-", never underscore for the dashboard name. my-example or example are correct, my_example, Com-MY_EXAMPLE are wrong.

The param dashboard

• will make a dashboard icon appear next to the administrator menu item for the component
• The dashboard icon will click through to display modules assigned to the cpanel-example administrator module position
• The title and icon defined in the XML file will be used as the header and icon at the top of the component's dashboard page.

Dashboard Link

<administration>
	<menu>>
		COM_EXAMPLE
		<params>
			<dashboard>example</dashboard>
		</params>
	</menu>
	
	[..]
</administration>

Joomla provides now a dashboard for your component. You can add modules here using the position: cpanel-example .

Dashboard title and icon

Give your dashboard a name and an icon. Add this to your manifest file:

Dashboard title and icon

    <dashboards>
		<dashboard title="COM_EXAMPLE" icon="icon-calendar">example</dashboard>
	</dashboards>

Submenu

If you want to address different views of your component, expand the menu with a submenu.

Submenu items

<menu>
	COM_EXAMPLE
	<params>
		<dashboard>example</dashboard>
	</params>
</menu>
<submenu>
	<menu link="option=com_example" view="examples">COM_EXAMPLE_MENU</menu>
	<menu link="option=com_categories&amp;extension=com_example" view="categories">COM_EXAMPLE_ENU_CATEGORIES</menu>
	<menu link="option=com_fields&amp;view=fields&ap;mp;context=com_example.example">COM_EXAMPLE_MENU_FIELDS</menu>
	<menu link="option=com_fields&amp;view=groups&amp;context=com_example.example">COM_EXAMPLE_MENU_FIELD_GROUPS</menu>
</submenu>

Submenu Module on your Dashboard

Your dashboard is empty and waits for modules to be filled in. If you want to add your submenu, you have to

• add a folder presets to your component
• create a preset for your module
• add the presets folder to your .xml file
• expand your install script

Presets are already used in the core, see examples the component com_menu.

The menu preset

In a folder 'presets' create a preset file, name it example.xml.

presets/example.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<menu
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xmlns="urn:joomla.org"
	xsi:schemaLocation="urn:joomla.org menu.xsd"
	>
	<menuitem
		title="COM_EXAMPLE"
		type="heading"
		icon="calendar"
		dashboard="example"
		>
		<menuitem
			title="COM_EXAMPLE_MENU"
			type="component"
			element="com_example"
			link="index.php?option=com_example&amp;view=examples"
		/>

		<menuitem
			title="COM_EXAMPLE_MENU_CATEGORIES"
			type="component"
			element="com_categories"
			link="index.php?option=com_categories&amp;view=categories&amp;extension=com_example"
		/>
	</menuitem>
</menu>

Manifest file

New folder in example.xml

	<administration>

    [..]

		<files folder="admin">
            <folder>forms</folder>
			<folder>language</folder>
            <folder>presets</folder>
			<folder>services</folder>
			<folder>sql</folder>
			<folder>src</folder>
            <folder>tmpl</folder>
            <filename>access.xml</filename>
            <filename>config.xml</filename>
			<filename>example.xml</filename>
		</files>
	</administration>

install script

We suppose here that you have a install script in your component. If not, please read the doc for install scripts.

You add your preset in the dashboard of your component with a single line of code during installation:

installation script

    // Add menu module to dashboard 
    $this->addDashboardMenu('example', 'example');

See also: Joomla CMS Installer InstallerScript API