No CiviCRM menu when logged in to front end

[GinkgoDOB]

Apologies for a question that may have a fairly obvious answer, but I'm much more familiar with CiviCRM installed on Drupal and I feel like I've been going around in circles with an install under Joomla. I've been searching the docs and forums and Googling my brains out...

I am attempting to build a very simple site using Joomla, whose purpose will be only to access CiviCRM and another Joomla component Projectfork http://www.projectfork.net. (The only similar Drupal module I can find is Open Atrium and it installs with its own instance of Drupal that doesn't play well with CiviCRM.)

New Joomla 1.6.6 install on CentOS 5.5
New CiviCRM 4.0.5 install
I can access CiviCRM when I'm logged in to the backend and the CiviCRM menu appears under the Joomla Administration menus, just like I'd expect.

However, when I'm logged in on the frontend, the CiviCRM Menu doesn't show.

• I've given the user access to the component and I think I've set up the Joomla ACLs correctly.
• I have a menu item that links to com_civicrm >> CiviCRM Dashboard that displays the user dashboard (no CiviCRM menu).
• A menu to an external link index.php/component/civicrm/?task=civicrm&reset=1 shows the CiviCRM dashboard and gives me the option to configure dashlets, but still no menu for HOME/SEARCH/CONTACTS/CONTRIBUTIONS/etc.
• I've checked the Resource URL and it seems proper http://mysite.xyz/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/
• I get the same results with the default Beez20 template and a minimalist template I downloaded from another site

I fear in my haste to ramp up, I'm missing something quite fundamental, but I can't for the life of me catch the clue.

I'm currently wondering if the frontend template lacks anywhere for the CiviCRM menu to be placed. The backend template has an element toolbar-box with subelements t, m, b (top, middle, bottom?), with m containing a list element civicrm-menu.

Can someone please take pity on a sysadmin guy who's over his head and throw me a bone?

Humbly,
Dan O'B

[Donald Lobo]

1. What happens when you access the urls from the frontend? if acls are set up right, then u should be able to access it directly

2. I think we explicitly suppress the front end menu for joomla irrespective of permissions

lobo

[GinkgoDOB]

1) If I put the URLs in directly, I get access to the CiviCRM functions. I tried this with the contact search and report listing:
http://<mysite>/index.php/component/civicrm/?task=civicrm/report/list&reset=1
http://<mysite>/index.php/component/civicrm/?task=civicrm/contact/search&reset=1

2) What's the thinking behind suppressing the menu so that it works in a completely different way than a Drupal installation?

Does this mean that I either have to construct my own menus using Joomla for front-end users, or give all my users Joomla admin access? Neither one is a very appealing option. If true, I'm probably going to have completely rethink my plan, since I didn't find a tool like Projectfork that worked with Drupal.

[Donald Lobo]

2. joomla has a seperation between the front end and backend and hence the theory behind not exposing it to the front end

you might want to take a look at the code and see what mods are needed to expose it to the front end. I dont think it should be too hard

lobo

[peraf]

I have the exactly the same problem, but with Joomla 3.2 and Civicrm 4.4.3.
I'we also experienced the same problem with previous versions so I thought the menu-line should not be visible frontend.
It would be great if this is something which could be fixed:-)

Best Regards,
PA

[joanne]

It is not clear that there is a problem that needs to be "fixed". 

The previous post in this topic was over two years ago which suggests that the majority of people using Joomla with CiviCRM are happy with how it works now as.

You will probably need to make the customisation yourself, if you have the skills, or pay someone to do it.

[lcdweb]

correct --
joomla makes a strict separation between front and backend, where drupal tends to blend the two.
the main joomla navigation menu is intentionally suppressed for frontend pages.

since the improvements in joomla ACLs, there's been some discussion about adopting a more drupal-like model for the navigation handling, but it would be very non-standard for how joomla extensions typically work. if a person should have access to those tools, you would typically give them the ACLs to access the joomla backend and handle it there.

[peraf]

Thanx for the clarification. I've also been twisting my mind how to make the main navigation visible frontend. I think it was visible in Joomla 2.5 right?  I think it would be a good idea to have some info on the website about the differences between Joomla and Drupal in this case.:-)
I'm not super technical myself so I'm not in the position to do such a development, but if there are discussions about having the main navigation also frontend in Joomla it will be very much appreciated as rest of our "intranet" is kept frontend.
Thanks for the feedback.

[Donald Lobo]

1. It was not visible in any previous version of joomla

2. The wiki and docs are community editable, so can you please make the changes and update it there. You dont need to be technical to do so

3. No plans in the horizon to incorporate this in the frontend

lobo

[mcsmom]

Well, I would say that also the Joomla Toolbar API is not available in the front end (it literally cannot be used in the front end) and originally the toolbar api was used, somewhat. This is therefore something that Joomla developers have to work around.  When the integration was being done way back when during Joomla 1.0 days, front end managing was never even a thought that entered into the picture, the idea was just to get form and pages to work.  If you look at the front end dashboard view you see there is not even a default.php.

However I think (but have not tried) that you could just make a Joomla custom html module with the links. Then assign it to your menu link to the dashboard page.  Or you could make a new module which would give you more options.

[lcdweb]

+1 to mcsmom's explanation. this is simply how Joomla works -- by providing a clear separation between frontend and backend.

that said -- it is possible to bend the rules and expose some pages to the frontend. but to do it properly, you would need to build some customizations in order to register the pages as frontend compatible, and then do some rigorous testing. the "gotcha" I've run into is that after you create your base page as frontend compatible, you then need to ensure any links from those pages are also frontend compatible, or may get an unexpected surprise and be kicked to the backend.

[mcsmom]

One thing to consider is the new com_config in the front end which exposes some previously back end only functionality to the front in a service-like way.  Maybe that could be leveraged.