Create Download Menu Item

  1. Introduction
  2. Select Menu Item

Introduction

jDownloads provides a Menu item ‘Create a Download’ which will allow front end access for a user to specify the information and upload the data to create a Download.


From the Menu Manager click on Add to get a new Menu Item such as shown in the screen view opposite.CreDown10A

Select Menu Item

Clicking on the Select button brings up the available choices, usually in a modal window, as shown opposite.





Next select jDownloads which will reveal the list of jDownloads related menu items.

Note you may need to use the side cursor bar to show all possibilities. In this example click on the ‘Create Download’ item.CreDown10B
Note that in this example the parent menu is one called ‘jDownloads Menu’, which is in the Main menu.
Now fill in all the ‘regular’ details such as Title, Menu Location, Parent Item and so on. You should also set the Access, which is the View Access, of those Joomla User Groups permitted to see the menu item.

Typically only specific users, who would all be members of a specified Joomla user group, would be allowed to create and upload data from the Front End to form a new ‘Download’.

This user group would then be allocated to a specific View Access level. It is that View Access level that would be specified in the menu item access.

It would be most unusual to leave the access at a ‘Public’ level as that would mean anyone could potentially upload any data to your site.CreDown11A
Of course you can additionally protect things by setting the Joomla User Group Access levels for jDownloads categories and downloads. If you are unsure about this aspect then please look at Create Download from Front End (opens in new window/tab) and Controlled Access to Categories and Downloads (opens in new window/tab)

The next step, which is very important, is to select the Options tab.  This gives the ability to allow the choice at the front end (the No option) or to specify a fixed category (the 'Yes' option)

Selecting ‘No’ in the menu Options will allow the user to choose which Category in which to locate the download by using a pull-down list on the front end form. The ‘Choose a category’ selection is ignored in this case.      By selecting ‘Yes’ then you must use the  ‘Choose a Category’ pull-down to specify which category is to be used for this menu item.  The front end will give no choice.

CreDown12-No

   CreDown13-List Yes
When using this menu item from the Front End the user is presented with a list box to select which Category as shown below.   When using this menu item from the Front End the user is presented with a list box to select which Category as shown below.
CreDown13-No   CreDown13-Yes

We are now done as a basic ‘Create a Download’ capability.

But you need to set up which questions you may or maynot  make available or require to be supplied. For this you need to look at User Groups Settings to set what you need.  As nearly all Downloads invole uploading a file which is to be downloaded make sure that the 'Select Main File' option is selected as otherwise there will not be a field to allow you to upload!  Actually it is sometimes helpful to select every option and experiment a little to decide what is relevant for your site.  jDownloads is very rich in options which gives huge flexibility and customising facilities, but makes documenting somewhat challenging!

Actually one could have multiple 'uploader' Joomla User Groups and corresponding View Access levels with corresponding menu items so that different user groups were assigned automatically to their specific category. This may seem all a little confusing but it is well worth the investment in understanding as it provides both a high degree of flexibility combined with high security.

Colin Mercer June 2014, modified January 2015

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