Getting started

Install it

1. In Joomla's administrator, open "System, Install, Extensions" and upload the Webal Phoca Pages package file. Joomla says the package was installed.
2. Open "Components, Webal Phoca Pages". You see the layouts list. Nothing on your shop has changed yet.

The installer refuses to install on PHP older than 8.3, Joomla older than 6, or without Phoca Cart 6, and says which one is missing.

Switch it on: Use on this template

Webal Phoca Pages works through one small file in a child template of Cassiopeia. If your site has no child template yet, make one first in "System, Site Templates" (open Cassiopeia and use its "Create Child Template" button), and set it as your site's template style.

1. On the layouts list, under Where Webal Phoca Pages is used, choose your template in Child template of Cassiopeia.
2. Press Use on this template. A message names the file that was written and the folder it is in.

From now on, a product that a layout applies to is printed from that layout. Every other product keeps Phoca's own page.

Make your first layout

1. Under New layout, type a name, for example "Toys".
2. In Start from, choose a starter (see Layouts for what each is for).
3. Press Make and open in the builder. The builder opens on your new layout.

A new layout is already published, but it prints nowhere yet. It shows on product pages only once you make it the default layout, give it a category rule, or offer it on a menu item.

Watch it: switch it on and make a layout

Choose the default layout

The default layout is used for every product page that no other rule covers.

1. On the layouts list, choose your layout in Default layout.
2. Press Save the default layout. A message says it was saved.
3. Open a product page on your shop. It is now printed from your layout.

Choose None (Phoca's own page) to keep Phoca's own page for every product that no rule covers.

Switch it off: Stop using

1. On the layouts list, press Stop using. A message says every product page is Phoca's own again.

Stop using removes the file it wrote. If that file was changed by hand after it was written, it is left in place and the message says so. That is harmless: the file only hands the page back to Phoca Cart when Webal Phoca Pages is not used.

A Help button for your team

Once this manual is published somewhere the people who edit layouts can reach, you can give them a Help button.

1. On the layouts list, open Joomla's "Options" button.
2. In Manual address, type the manual's web address, starting with "https://", and save.

The layouts list and the builder now show Joomla's "Help" button, which opens the manual in a new tab. With the address empty (the default), no Help button is shown.

Who can do what: permissions

Webal Phoca Pages uses Joomla's own permissions and adds none of its own. As in Joomla itself, the rights stay with Administrators and Super Users: in a new Joomla site the Administrator group has "Access Administration Interface" for every component and also "Configure ACL & Options" for Templates, and a new install of Webal Phoca Pages gives the Administrator group "Configure ACL & Options" for Webal Phoca Pages too, the same as Templates. So Administrators and Super Users can make layouts and change the Options and Permissions, and on most sites there is nothing to set. For any other user group, three jobs need three levels of rights:

• To read the layouts list: opening "Components, Webal Phoca Pages" needs "Administrator Login" and "Access Administration Interface" for Webal Phoca Pages. With only these, a person can read the list, its Checks and the Category rules, but not change anything.
• To make and change layouts: every action needs "Access Administration Interface" for three components: Webal Phoca Pages, Templates (because Use on this template writes a file into a template) and Phoca Cart (because it is Phoca Cart's page that is arranged). This one rule covers every button on the layouts list (for example Use on this template, Stop using, New layout, Duplicate, Rename, Delete…, Export as a file, Import a layout, Offer on menu items, Save the default layout, Save the rule and Clear notes), the builder with everything in it (saving drafts, the Checks, Publish, Discard changes) and the live preview of unpublished changes on the shop. A person who lacks one of the three sees a message on the layouts list saying which rights the actions need, the buttons are hidden, and the builder sends them back to the list with the same message.
• To change the Options: Joomla's "Options" button on the layouts list (with Manual address) shows to people with "Configure ACL & Options" or "Configure Options" for Webal Phoca Pages, the same rule Joomla uses when the Options are saved. Only "Configure ACL & Options" also shows the "Permissions" tab. "Configure Options" is not listed on the Permissions tab of Webal Phoca Pages; it comes from "System, Global Configuration", the "Permissions" tab. The Options also hold the Default layout, as a layout number (0 means Phoca's own page), so whoever may change the Options can change the default layout there, even without the Templates and Phoca Cart rights.

A note in the Checks about a part that is switched off in Phoca Cart links to Phoca Cart's Options only for people who may open them ("Configure ACL & Options" or "Configure Options" for Phoca Cart); everyone else sees the Option's name without a link.

Where to set them:

1. For Webal Phoca Pages: on the layouts list, open "Options", then the "Permissions" tab.
2. For Templates: in "System, Site Templates", open "Options", then the "Permissions" tab.
3. For Phoca Cart: in "Components, Phoca Cart", open "Options", then the "Permissions" tab.
4. For every component at once, and for "Administrator Login": "System, Global Configuration", the "Permissions" tab.

The Permissions tab of Webal Phoca Pages lists two rights, "Configure ACL & Options" and "Access Administration Interface".

Only a new install sets "Configure ACL & Options" for the Administrator group, and only when the permissions of Webal Phoca Pages are still empty: it copies the rule that Templates has, so if you changed who may configure Templates, the same groups get it here. An update never changes permissions: whatever you set stays as it is. Uninstalling removes the permissions with the component, so installing it again later counts as a new install.

Update it

An update, for example from 1.0.0-rc to 1.0.0, is installed over the version you have, the same way as the first install. Nothing needs to be removed first, and you do not need to press Stop using.

Before you update:

1. Export each layout you would not want to lose: on the layouts list, More actions…, then Export as a file. The file holds the published layout only, so publish any Unpublished changes you want in it first.
2. Keep the package file of the version you have now, in case you want to go back.

To update:

1. In Joomla's administrator, open "System, Install, Extensions" and upload the new Webal Phoca Pages package file. Joomla says the package was installed.
2. Open "Components, Webal Phoca Pages". You see the layouts list as before.

The update makes the same checks as the first install: it refuses on PHP older than 8.3, Joomla older than 6, a Phoca Cart that is missing, switched off or older than 6, or a database it cannot read. It says which, and then changes nothing.

An update keeps:

• your layouts, their unpublished changes and the notes in the Checks;
• the Category rules;
• the Options (the Default layout and the Manual address) and the permissions;
• whether the Webal Phoca Pages system plugin is switched on or off (only the first install switches it on);
• Use on this template and every layout offered on menu items: the files in your child template stay as they are, and they hand each product page to the new version straight away.

After the update:

1. On the layouts list, read the Checks. Each version carries its own list of the Phoca Cart versions it was tested with and its own record of Phoca Cart's product page, so these checks are made afresh for the new version.
2. If a saved layout now has Problems, open it in the builder: it still opens, its Checks say what to repair, and Publish stores the repaired layout. Until then its products show the next choice in line (see Checks and publishing).
3. Open a few product pages on your shop and look them over.
4. If Joomla's caching is on, clear it in "System, Clear Cache". The update does not clear it (Publish and Save the rule do), so visitors could otherwise be given pages saved before the update for a while.

Go back to the version you had

1. In "System, Install, Extensions", upload the package file you kept. The installer of Webal Phoca Pages checks only PHP, Joomla, Phoca Cart and the database, so it does not refuse an older version. Your layouts, category rules and Options stay as they are.
2. On the layouts list, read the Checks. If a layout you changed after the update now has Problems, bring back the copy you exported before updating: Import a layout, choose the file in Layout file and press Import the file. That copy was made by this version, so this version can read it. It is saved as a new layout, so choose it again where the old one was used (Default layout, Category rules, Offer on menu items), then delete the old one with Delete….

Uninstalling is not needed to go back, and it would remove more: the Options, the category rules and the permissions go with it.

Uninstall it

Joomla refuses to remove Webal Phoca Pages in two cases, so nothing you made is lost by mistake:

• while it is used on a template: press Stop using first;
• while saved layouts are stored: export the layouts you want to keep (More actions…, then Export as a file), delete them, then remove it again.

Removing it never touches Phoca Cart's own files or settings.

Next: Layouts.