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09 January 2011
Whether you wish to load a subscription module, donation module, ad, banner, video, photo or any other type of module within your Joomla content, there are several ways to go about it. In this tutorial, we look at the most straightforward technique using the “loadposition” tag.
To begin, we need to ensure that your “Content – Load Module” plugin is enabled. This is a core Joomla extension. To verify or enable the “Content – Load Module” plugin, log into your Joomla Administrative backend and from the menu select “Extensions > Plugin Manager”.
Once in the Plugin Manager, select “Content” from the “Select Type” drop down on the upper right hand side to narrow your search.
Locate “Content – Load Module” and make sure that it is enabled (Green checkmark under the “Enabled” column).
If it isn’t, click on the Plugin title and select “Enabled” from the details section.
Also, to avoid issues with certain module styling, select “No wrapping (raw output) from the “Style” drop down in the Plugin Parameters. Click “Save” when you are done.
Next, we need to either create a new module or configure and existing module and assign it a custom module position. To do this, from your Joomla Administrative backend menu select “Extensions > Module Manager”.
For the purposes of this tutorial, I will be creating a “New” module. If you wish to use an existing module, you can skip the next few steps and go directly to “Assigning A Custom Position”. I should issue a warning here concerning using a module that is currently published to a standard template position. If you wish to use a module that also appears elsewhere on your site in a standard template position (ie Search, Navigation, Left or Right), you will need to make a copy of that module by selecting the module (check the box) and clicking the “Copy” button in your module manager menu.
This is necessary because if you attempt to load a module into one of your Joomla articles that happens to be published to a standard template position, especially a position that has more than one module assigned to it, the entire position will be loaded into your article. To clarify, if your site has 4 modules published to the “Right” position of your template, attempting to load one of them within an article will load ALL modules published in that position.
To create a “New” module, click “New” from your Module Manager menu in your Joomla Administrative backend.
Select the type of module you want to create by clicking on its name. I will be creating a “Custom HTML” module.
As with any other Joomla module, start by giving it an appropriate title, selecting whether or not to display or show the title and setting “Enabled” to “Yes”.
Typically, we would next select a position for the module from the drop down selection menu.
Assigning A Custom Position:
However, as we want to create a custom position, simply select the current position label, delete it and type in a custom position name. Make sure the position name is not one that is used by your template. I will use the name “custom1” but you could use something a little more descriptive such as “article_ad” or “article_subscribe”.
As for the rest of your particular module settings, set those as you would normally. Once done, click the “Save” button from your Module Manager menu.
Finally, to insert the module into an existing or new article, simply insert the tag inside your article body (where xxxxx is the name of your custom module position).
That’s it! When you save and view your article, your module should display as expected.
Now, loadposition is great for inserting the occasional module in articles or when you want to insert different modules for different articles, but it may not be the best solution if you are looking to insert the same module or modules in ALL of your articles. In that case, you might want to use a plugin that automatically inserts these for you.
In our next tutorial, we will look at a few plugins that allow you to do this!
Thanks for reading!
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