Configuring Front-end Contact Dashboard in Joomla! Sites

Configuring a Front-end Contact Dashboard in Joomla! Sites 

CiviCRM includes the ability to expose a Contact Dashboard which gives logged in front-end users the ability to view their subscribed groups, membership(s), contribution(s) and registered events. This section covers adding a link to this page to your front-end site menus.

1. Verify that the Contact Dashboard works properly in the your Joomla! Administrator interface.

• Navigate to My Contact Dashboard - linked from the CiviCRM Shortcuts block on any CiviCRM page.
  • You should see contact-related information for the contact that is linked to "your" (i.e. administrator) record.

2. Modify your index.php file to support CiviCRM front-end functionality

This Step is Required for Joomla 1.0.x ONLY This step should be skipped for Joomla 1.5 which has built in session support for the front end.

CiviCRM front-end pages require a session to be started in order to function properly. You will need to patch the front-end index.php page to accomplish this:

• Open <site root>/index.php in your favorite editor and find this line. (note that the below line might be slightly different based on your exact version of Joomla!.

You may need root privileges or special permissions to edit this file. Add the following lines ABOVE the "$mainframe..." line you just found.

3. Add "My Contact Dashboard" as a menu item using the Administrator Menu Manager

Joomla 1.0.x Steps:

• Login to Administrator if not already logged in.
• Click Menu on top navigation bar and select the menu you want to add the link to (for example - mainmenu).
• Click New icon (top right).
• Click Component radio button (top right entry in Components group).
• Click Next.
• Enter a Name for the menu item (e.g. "Contact Dashboard").
• Choose CiviCRM from the Component list.
• Complete the remaining fields (Parent Item, Access Level, Published).

  Do NOT use PUBLIC Access Level for this menu item. Users must be logged in to the front-end for this feature to work. Otherwise CiviCRM has not way to identify the person's contact record.

  .
• Click Apply icon.
  • The screen refreshes with the Parameters section fields now available.
• Choose CiviCRM Task - Select Contact Dashboard.
• Leave the Contribution or Event ID and Profile ID fields empty.
• Do not modify the Reset field value (it should always be 1).
• Click Save.

Joomla 1.5 Steps (CiviCRM 1.8+):

• Login to Administrator if not already logged in.
• Click Menu on top navigation bar and select the menu you want to add the link to (for example - mainmenu).
• Click New icon (top right).
• Click CiviCRM link from the Internal Link list.
• Enter a Name for the menu item (e.g. "Contact Dashboard").
• Complete the remaining fields (Parent Item, Access Level, Published).

  Do NOT use PUBLIC Access Level for this menu item. Users must be logged in to the front-end for this feature to work. Otherwise CiviCRM has not way to identify the person's contact record.

  .
• In the Parameters-Basic section (upper right):
  • Choose CiviCRM Task - select Contact Dashboard.
  • Leave the Contribution or Event ID and Profile ID fields empty.
  • Do not modify the Reset field value (it should always be 1).
• Click Save.

4. Navigate to your front-end site and test out the your new menu item.