An established client emailed us this afternoon and told us that, in one of their menus, they had this link:
http://ourclientjoomlawebsite/?Itemid=500
The URL was returning a “404 – Component not found” error and they were confused as to why the problem was happening. We logged in to the backend of the site and we immediately discovered the problem:
- Our client had a menu item pointing to an article, let’s call it Menu Item A.
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They had a menu item, let’s call it Menu Item B, with an id of 500, that was a menu item alias to Menu Item A.
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They had another menu item, Menu Item C, which was a menu item alias to Menu Item B.
If you have been using Joomla for a very long time, you would have guessed the error: you can’t make a menu item alias point to another menu item alias, what our client should have done was to point Menu Item C to Menu Item A.
But why can’t you point a menu item alias to another menu item alias?
Well, it’s because of a small bug in Joomla – Joomla must get the original menu item that a menu item alias is trying to point to, but it doesn’t. For example, in our example above, Joomla must automatically link Menu Item C to Menu Item A, but, again, it doesn’t. It’s not that hard to implement this feature by the way. We think that Joomla must take this into consideration in one of its next revisions, since this problem is the cause of much confusion, especially on very large sites, where it’s really hard to find the original menu item (large sites have literally dozens of menus and some menus have about 50 menu items).
Now, if you’re facing the same problem on your website, then make sure you are not pointing a menu item alias to another menu item alias. If you can’t find the original menu item, or if you just need help resolving this issue, then please contact us. We’re here to help, we always answer the phone, our work is top notch, and our fees are very competitive.