Using Joomla! Newsflash To Display Random Text!The Newsflash module is a extremely handy feature. It allows you to add things such as Jokes, Quotes, or Testimonials to your web page. The text can be chosen at random, and aligned in any way you want. And it can be done in four easy steps. We are already assuming you have a working copy of Joomla! Installed, that you have administrative access, and are using the default milky way template. Step 1: Creating a Category 1. From the friendly administrative panel, go tho the menu select content and click on category manager. 2. At the category manager page select New from the manager panel. 3. From there you will come up with a editor page. For this tutorial we will be creating a Joke Newsflash using jokes found on Wikipedia. So I have named the category Funniest Joke Newsflash and added the description of what the newsflash does. For the section I just used the default for my pages. You can use the default or create a new one it is your choice.

4. Select Save from the menu and you are done!

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Step 2: Creating Articles 1. From the category manager got the the top menu under content select Article Manager 2. At the article manager go to the article menu and select New. 3. Now you should be seeing a article editor that is blank. The first thing I did was change my section to my default section whatever that is for you. 4. After that I used the drop down menu under the category option to select the category we made Funniest Joke Newsflash. 5. Then in the Parameters-Advanced column I changed the show title option to no This was so that the Newsflash will not show the Joke title. 6. I then added The Jokes from Wikipedia. 7. After adding the Joke click save and repeat for each of the three Jokes.

Joke 1:The Hunter Joke Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, "My friend is dead! What can I do?". The operator says "Calm down. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says "OK, now what?"

Joke 2: The Sherlock Holmes Joke Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson go on a camping trip. After a good dinner, they retire for the night, and go to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes wakes up and nudges his faithful friend. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

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"I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes" replies Watson. "And what do you deduce from that?" Watson ponders for a minute. "Well, astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful, and that we are a small and insignificant part of the universe. What does it tell you, Holmes?" Holmes is silent for a moment. "Watson, you idiot!" he says. "Someone has stolen our tent!"

Joke 3: The Woman and the Doctor Joke A woman rushed to see her doctor, looking very much worried and all strung out. She rattles off: "Doctor, take a look at me. When I woke up this morning, I looked at myself in the mirror and saw my hair all wiry and frazzled up, my skin was all wrinkled and pasty, my eyes were bloodshot and bugging out, and I had this corpse-like look on my face! What's WRONG with me, Doctor!?" The doctor looks her over for a couple of minutes, then calmly says: "Well, I can tell you that there ain't nothing wrong with your eyesight."

Step 3: Creating a Newsflash module 1. From the article manager go to the main menu, select extensions, and choose module manager. 2. Now from here there are two things that can happen. If you installed the sample content or inherited a site from someone else, then search through the module manager for a module with the type of mod_newsflash. You might need to go to the next page to find it, then choose it and select edit from the module manager page and skip to step _. If you did a fresh install This is published under the Joomla! Electronic Documentation License.

with no sample data continue on to the next step. 3. Choose new from the Module manager menu. 4. You will come to a page like the one shown. On this page select Newsflash and click next. 5. Now you will come to a page that is full of boxes and options waiting to be changed. 6. First enter a title, I named it the Funny Joke Newsflash. Also make sure that both the Show Title parameter and the Enabled parameter have the yes bubble selected. 7. Now comes the fun part, the Position parameter. If you select this you will see many options. I chose user

Breadcrumbs and Default positions: Both of these positions are disabled in the default template. So you will not see anything if you select either of these positions.

To see all the other positions go to the template manager, selecting edit, and then hitting preview. But they are not used in this tutorial.

8. In the module parameters column we only need to change two parameters, category, and layout. For the category section select the category we made Funniest Joke Newsflash. Then for the layout selection select choose one at random. This will select a random article form our category each time the page refreshes. 9. Click the save button and you are done!

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Step 4: Double Check 1. Logout of the administrative panel. 2. Go to you website, you should see a Newsflash that displays one of your jokes like below. Each time you refresh it should be a different Joke (note: sometimes you will get the same joke just keep refreshing and you should see a different one).

This is web page with the Newsflash at the top position.

This is published under the Joomla! Electronic Documentation License. This is the web page with the Newsflash at the User 1 position.

This is the webpage withe the Newsflash in the right position. 5. Now you are done!

This is published under the Joomla! Electronic Documentation License.