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Version: 4.x

how-to-show-a-calendar-month-list-of-archived-articles-using-a-module

Joomla!  4.x How To
Show a Calendar Month List of Archived Articles Using a Module

Introduction

Archiving articles is one of the ways Joomla! helps you to manage your website’s articles.

Sometimes you may archive articles as a measure of housekeeping in the backend.

But what if you want your website visitors to be able to access your archived articles?

One of the options to do this is to show a calendar month list of your archived articles by using one of Joomla’s out of the box Modules.

In this example we will add an Articles Archived Module and set it to be displayed in the sidebar of the website.

Creating the Articles Archived Module

J4.x access new module dashboard-en.png

From the Home Dashboard click the Modules + symbol or from the Sidebar Menu click the Content’’ dropdown then the + symbol for Site Modules.

This will take you to the Select a Module Type dashboard.

J4.x add archived articles module btn-en.png

Click the + symbol for Articles – Archived.

This will create the new module and open the module for you to configure it.

Configuring the Module

Module Tab

J4.x archived articles module parameters-en.png

You control where and how the module will be displayed via the module settings panel. When you create the module it will open on the Module tab.

For standard usage of the module there are just a few settings:

Title: Enter a name for the module. You can also choose whether or not to show the title by toggling on and off. If you are going to show the title, name it as you want it to appear.

# of Months: Set the number of Months you want to display. These will appear as links on the frontend. Set by using the up/down arrows or directly enter a number into the field.

Position: Set a position where you want to display the module on the front end. Positions are dictated by your template. In this example we are using Joomla’s Cassiopeia template and have selected the Sidebar Right position.

Status: By default, the module status is Published. Other options are Unpublished and Trash.

Other settings not shown in screenshot are:

Start Publishing: You can schedule the start of publishing of the module.

Finish Publishing: You can schedule when to stop publishing the module.

Access: If you want to control who can see the module on the frontend you can choose an access level.

Ordering: Used to control where the module displays within the position you have selected. For example, you may have a number of modules in the sidebar and want this one to be at the top or bottom – or somewhere between others in the sidebar. It can be a little confusing at first as the field shows a numbered position and a module name. The name can be a module that is unpublished. The thing to remember is that the lowest number will be at the top and highest number is at the bottom.

Note: Can be helpful to use the note field if for example you are using the same module type in several places.

By default the module will be published On all pages.

Alternatively you can choose via a drop down list No pages, Only on the pages selected or On all pages except those selected. The last two options provide you with a menu tree of the menus used on the website where you can select/deselect pages.

Other Settings

Advanced tab has settings related to layout of the module when it is output.

Permissions tab allows you to control what user groups can do with the module.

You can find out more detailed information here:

Menu Item: Article Archived

Publishing the Module

When you are ready, click the Save & Close button.

The module will be published in the sidebar of the website and display a list of links dictated by the number of months you set the module to display.

J4.x archived articles module published-en.png

Quick Tips

The more archived articles you have the greater the number of the links displayed by the module. It may be more appropriate to limit the number of links by using categories or you can use multiple Archived Articles Modules named accordingly.