Dynamic Content
Load dynamic content into your layouts and create site-wide templates for categories and articles using the YOOtheme Pro page builder.
YOOtheme Pro allows you to load content, which is managed in Joomla, from the database into your layouts. This can be the article's title or featured image. Whenever that content changes, it will be automatically updated across your entire website. This is not limited to article fields. Any content from Joomla can be loaded into your layouts.
Content Sources
All builder elements are able to load dynamic content. First, you need to select a content source which defines fields available for mapping. It can be selected in the Advanced tab of an element under Dynamic Content.
For elements which have multiple content items, for example the Grid or the Slideshow element, the Dynamic Content option can be found in the Advanced tab of each item and not of the element itself. This way each item can have a different content source.
The options under Dynamic Content are grouped depending on where the source comes from.
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Page | Content sources which are provided by the page you are browsing. On a single article page, it's the article itself, and on the category page, it's the category itself and its articles. |
| Custom | Content sources which are custom queried. They are independent of the current page. For example, you can load the latest articles or all blog categories into a page. |
| Site | A content source with general fields of your site. |
In general, a content source can be Articles, Categories, Tags or Users. YOOtheme Pro also differentiates between a source which contains a single item or multiple items. In addition, a source can have related content sources, for example the article author or tags. Let's go into details.
Page Sources
Depending on the page you are browsing Joomla provides different content sources. These sources are used when creating templates for those pages. For example, the template for the single article page will render different article content depending on which singe article you are browsing.
Here is an overview of all supported pages and their content sources.
| Page | Sources |
|---|---|
| Single Article | The Article itself |
| Category Blog | The Category itself and all its Articles |
| Featured Articles | All featured Articles |
Pages with an Articles source are usually divided into separate pages. The number of articles displayed per page is defined by the total number of Leading Articles, Intro Articles and Links which can be set in the Blog/Featured Layout options in Joomla.
Note that Articles is a multiple items source, while all other page sources only contain a single item.
Custom Sources
Custom sources allow you to load custom queried content which is not automatically available on the page you are browsing. For example, you can load the latest articles or all blog categories into a page. Unlike page sources, custom sources are not divided into separate paginated pages.
Following custom sources are available.
| Source | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Article | Single | Manually select an article. |
| Custom Articles | Multiple | Only articles from the selected categories and tags are loaded. Articles from child categories are not included. Use the shift or ctrl/cmd key to select multiple categories or tags. If no category or tag is selected, all articles are loaded. Additionally, you can load featured articles only. |
| Custom Category | Single | Manually select a category. |
| Custom Categories | Multiple | Only categories from the selected parent category are loaded. |
Multiple Items Sources
Most builder elements can only render a single item. Multiple items elements, on the other hand, for example the Grid or the Slideshow element, have the ability to render multiple content items. The content item of the element will render as many items as available in the content source.
If you select a content source which has multiple items, there are two options available to define which items are rendered.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Start | Set the starting point. If the value is 1, it starts with the first item. |
| Quantity | Limit the number of items. If the value is left empty, all items will be loaded. This option is disabled for elements which can only render a single item. |
The combination of the Start and Quantity options allows you to split content source items into different visual layout parts. For example, you can show a number of articles in a hero slideshow followed by a grid showing the rest of the articles.
Note When templating an index or a category page, the Quantity option should only be used when splitting content sources. This is because the number of articles on those pages is already defined in Joomla.
Order and Direction
Custom sources have additional options to order their items. Mind that the item order of page sources are defined by Joomla. Depending on whether the custom source is a article or a category, there are different order options available.
| Order | Description |
|---|---|
| Published | Order by published date |
| Created | Order by created date |
| Modified | Order by modified date |
| Alphabetical | Order alphabetically |
| Hits | Order by number of hits |
| Article Order | Order by the Joomla ordering |
| Random | Order randomly |
| Custom Fields | Order by any custom field |
Set the order direction of the items.
| Direction | Description |
|---|---|
| Descending | Start with the last item. |
| Ascending | Start with the first item. |
Related Sources
A source can have related content sources, for example the article has a related author and tags. Fields of all related content sources which contain a single item, like the author, are available for mapping together with the fields of the chosen content source. On the other hand, related content sources with multiple items, like article tags, have to be selected under the Multiple Items Source option.
Following related content sources are available for an article.
| Related Source | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Single | The article author |
| Category | Single | The category the article belongs to |
| Tags | Multiple | The tags the article belongs to |
| Category: Child Categories | Multiple | The child categories of the category the article belongs to |
| Category: Tags | Multiple | The tags of the category the article belongs to |
Following related content sources are available for a category.
| Related Source | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Parent Category | Single | The parent category of the category |
| Child Categories | Multiple | The child categories of the category |
| Tags | Multiple | The tags the category belongs to |
| Parent Category: Child Categories | Multiple | The child categories of the parent category |
| Parent Category: Tags | Multiple | The tags the parent category belongs to |
Field Mapping
Once a content source is selected, its fields are available for mapping. To map a content field to an element's field, open the Content tab of an element. Each element field shows a Dynamic button on the right which opens a dropdown with a list of all available content fields.
Select the content field to map it to the element's field. For example, you can map the article’s title and featured image to the title and image fields of the Panel element.
Instead of the former field, the dynamic field with its name and source is shown.
The following actions are available.
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Dynamic Button | Opens a dropdown with all content fields available for mapping. |
| Edit Icon | Opens the available field options. |
| Delete Icon | Removes the field mapping. The former field is shown again. |
Content Fields
YOOtheme Pro can load fields from an Article, Category, Tag and User. Custom fields from Joomla are available for mapping as well. While most fields like title, published date or an image simply render their content, some fields are pseudo-fields, which means there is no actual field to fill out. Their content is provided by Joomla or depends on different fields.
| Pseudo-fields | Description |
|---|---|
| Teaser | Renders the excerpt field if it has content, otherwise the intro text. If the intro text also has no content, the whole article content is rendered. To use an excerpt field, create a custom field with the name excerpt. |
| Meta | Renders the published date, author and category fields in a formatted string. Category and author are automatically linked to the category page and author's profile page respectively. Mind that the author will only be linked if you create a contact page for the user under Components → Contacts in Joomla. |
| Tags | Renders a comma-separated list of all tags which are automatically linked to their tag page. |
| Link | Renders the link to the item's page. |
The following pseudo-fields render content which is added by Joomla plugins to the articles. For example, this could be a 3rd party comments system.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| After Display Title | Renders the afterDisplayTitle event. |
| Before Display Content | Renders the beforeDisplayContent event. |
| After Display Content | Renders the afterDisplayContent event. |
Important Mind that the Content and Teaser fields should only be mapped on templates and not on individual page layouts. This is because these fields are used to store the actual page content and the builder layout itself.
Field Options
There are several options available to manipulate the content of a field. Some field types have additional options.
Note The order in which the options are applied is: Date Format → Content Length → Search and Replace → Before and After
Before and After
All fields have options to add text before and after their content.
| Options | Description |
|---|---|
| Before | Add text before the field value. For example, if it's an email address, for example info@example.com, and you add mailto: to the Before option, the created link mailto:info@example.com, will open the user's email program. |
| After | Add text after the field value. For example, if it's a pricing number, for example 20, and you add a unit like € to the After option, the price 20€ will be displayed in your layout. |
Note Text in the Before and After fields can be translated by using Translate Language Strings.
Search and Replace
All fields have options to perform a search and replace on their content. This is very powerful and allows advanced manipulation of the field content.
| Options | Description |
|---|---|
| Search | Select a predefined search pattern or enter a custom string or regular expression to search for. The regular expression has to be enclosed between slashes. For example my-string or /ab+c/. |
| Replace | Enter the replacement string which may contain references. If left empty, the search matches will be removed. |
The predefined URL Protocol pattern (/https?:\/\//) will remove the HTTP/HTTPS protocol from an URL, if the replacement string is left empty. For example https://yootheme.com will convert to yootheme.com. This pattern allows you to link to an external page and display a shortened URL with just one custom field.
Learn more about search and replace in the PHP preg_replace function documentation and about regular expressions in the MDN Regular expressions documentation. The best place to test regular expressions is Regex101.
Content Length
Text fields have an additional option to limit the content length.
| Text Options | Description |
|---|---|
| Content Length | Limit the content length to a number of characters. All HTML elements will be stripped. |
Date Format
Date fields have an additional option to format the date.
| Date Options | Description |
|---|---|
| Date Format | Select a predefined date format or enter a custom format, for example M j, Y (Aug 6, 1999) or m/d/Y (08/06/1999). |
Learn more about it in the PHP Date function documentation.
Meta
Meta fields have additional options to display their content.
| Meta Options | Description |
|---|---|
| Format | Display the meta text in a sentence or a horizontal list. |
| Separator | Set a separator between fields if the format is a list. |
| Link Style | Set the link style. |
| Display | Show or hide fields in the meta text. |
| Date Format | Select a predefined date format or enter a custom format, for example M j, Y (Aug 6, 1999) or m/d/Y (08/06/1999). |
Tags
Tags fields have additional options to display their content.
| Meta Options | Description |
|---|---|
| Separator | Set a separator between tags. |
| Link | Show or hide linking tags. |
| Link Style | Set the link style. |
Custom Fields
YOOtheme Pro can load custom fields from an Article, Category and User. Joomla allows you to add custom fields and field groups to articles and categories in the Article manager and to users in the User manager. Learn more in the official Joomla custom fields documentation.
Custom fields which contain a single item, like the Text field, are available for mapping together with the default content fields and are grouped under Fields or the field group name.
On the other hand, custom fields with multiple items, like the Checkboxes field, have to be selected under the Multiple Items Source option. They are grouped under Fields or the field group name.
Some fields, like the Repeatable field, have an option to allow users to select one or multiple items. Depending on the option, the field will be available for mapping together with the default content fields or has to be selected under the Multiple Items Source option.
All Joomla custom fields are supported.
| Name | Type | Description | Documentation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calendar | Single | Date picker field | View |
| Checkboxes | Multiple | Checkbox field providing name and value
|
View |
| Color | Single | Color picker field | View |
| Editor | Single | WYSIWYG editor field | View |
| Integer | Single/Multiple | Select field for integers | View |
| List | Single/Multiple | Select field providing name and value
|
View |
| List of Images | Single/Multiple | Select field for images of a folder | View |
| Media | Single | Media picker field | View |
| Radio | Single | Radio field providing name and value
|
View |
| Repeatable | Multiple | Repeat a customizable set of fields | View |
| SQL | Single/Multiple | Select field providing custom queried text and value
|
View |
| Text | Single | Input field | View |
| Textarea | Single | Textarea field | View |
| Url | Single | Input field for an URL | View |
| User | Single | User picker field | View |
| Usergroup | Single/Multiple | Select field for user groups | View |
YOOtheme Pro has additional support for the following 3rd party fields.
| Name | Type | Description | Documentation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Articles | Single/Multiple | Select field providing all Article fields | Articles Field |
Invalid Sources and Fields
There are cases in which content sources or mapped fields are invalid. For example, templates loaded from the layout library can use content sources or fields which don't exist in the current Joomla site. Or content sources or fields could also be deleted or renamed in Joomla but still be used in the layout.
Here is a list of all cases when a content source or a field is invalid.
- A selected page source doesn't exist on the current page.
- A selected custom source doesn't exist in the Joomla installation.
- A mapped field doesn't exist in the selected content source.
- A content source is selected but none of its fields are mapped.
Invalid content sources and fields are highlighted red. To quickly find those cases, the dynamic content status icon is also highlighted red in the YOOtheme builder.
