Joomla URLs: An article doesn't have a pretty URL by itself?

Question

I'm new to Joomla (1.5), and I'm trying to clarify something about the way Joomla handles URLs.

I've activated what they call "Search Engine Friendly URLs". But it appears that a page (or an "Article" only gets such a URL once I link to it from a menu.

Are pretty (parameter-less) URLs really only assigned to pages once I link to them from a menu?

I know I can assign Aliases to articles, but they don't seem to do anything. An article's URL seems to be defined by the alias of a menu item that links to it.

Is this correct, and if so, how do I link to pages without listing them in a menu (e.g. from within another page).

Thanks

Hannes

Answer 1

Update: This really seems to be the case. Why on earth anyone would design a CMS in such a way is beyond me, but my guess is that it's historic (there used to be only parameter-style URLs, and then pretty URLs were slapped on at some point).

This would normally be a dealbreaker for me. A page shouldn't have a bunch of different URLs.

But I found one way around this. It's an extension called sh404SEF (http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/2380/details). It rewrites all URLs on the site and is actually pretty smart about it.

Answer 2

Hannes. I'm unable to reproduce your SEF URL problem. Here are the steps I took in an effort to recreate your problem using Joomla Version 1.5.12:

I first enabled SEF URLs per this article.

• Admin > Site > Global Configuration > Site > SEO Settings > Yes to the three options.

I then created test content without adding it to a menu:

1. Admin > Content > Section Manager > New > "Test Section"
2. Admin > Content > Category Manager > New > "Test Category"
3. Admin > Content > Article Manager > New > "Test Article" and assigned it to "Test Section / Test Category"

Now I have a Joomla article that is not assigned to a Menu.

I then went to another article in my site and created a link to my Article entitled "Test Article."

1. Admin > Content > Article Manager > Edit > "Source Article"
2. Highlight/select a word > Insert/Edit Link > Link Browser > Content (NOT Menu) > Test Section > Test Category > Test Article > Insert

Note that I was able to link to this article by selecting it as Content. Had I assigned it to a menu, that also would have been an option, but it is not a requirement.

Next I go to the front-end to determine if the "Test Article" has a SEF URL or not. In my case, even though "Test Article" was not assigned to a Joomla Menu, it did have a SEF URL when I followed this method.

My SEF URL looked something like this (using example.com as a "fake" domain):

• somedomain/test-section/99-test-category/217-test-article.html

I started building a new Joomla site in May 2009 using 1.5 and so far have not found a need for the sh404SEF extension, although I have observed it has positive reviews.