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avatar denvarel
denvarel
11 Feb 2025

Steps to reproduce the issue

Standard Joomla 4 or 5 install. created a new category and populate it with some articles (i have made a copy of Blog articles in it for example)
Publish all the articles from this category as "Featured" in order to appear on homepage.
DO NOT create a menu item do display this new category content or a menu that display this category's parent. Leave it orphaned form a direct or indirect menu item that may point to it.

Expected result

See the orphan category's articles displayed on homepage since are "featured". At click, the articles from that orphan category should open in the template like all other articles: in the global, default defined template style and with modules set as display on All pages except selected.

Actual result

The article is displayed with the homepage assigned modules and with homepage template style. I mention this since is not only the homepage modules that appear, Also the template style set for homepage menu item only is displayed instead of the default template style defined in Joomla settings as Default for all pages.
A homepage that shows the article in content position instead of whatever was in homepage (featured articles for standard joomla install with demo acontent).

System information (as much as possible)

Standard joomla 4 or 5 behaviour, all versions.

Additional comments

This is a fatal issue for templates that have the homepage without content (the templates that use only modules for the homepage) since the articles published in a orphan category (without a direct or indirect menu item link) will never be displayed. Joomla attempts to display those in homepage but homepage does not have the "content" position. So, no display at all.
This is a big issue for all the rest of the templates since the article will be mixed with all the template's homepage modules. In standard Cassiopeea that will be under the modules: Image (banner position) and Latest posts (top-a position)

Joomla 3 did not have this bug! The articles from a menu orphan category are displayed with the template set as Default for all pages and correct modules (the modules set as display on All pages except selected)

avatar denvarel denvarel - open - 11 Feb 2025
avatar joomla-cms-bot joomla-cms-bot - labeled - 11 Feb 2025
avatar joomla-cms-bot joomla-cms-bot - change - 11 Feb 2025
Labels Added: No Code Attached Yet
avatar denvarel denvarel - change - 11 Feb 2025
Title
Articles belonging to a Menu Orphan Category are shown with Homepage template style and homepage modules displayed instead of Default for all pages template style and corresponding modules.
Articles belonging to a Menu Orphan Category are shown with Homepage Template Style and Homepage Modules displayed instead of Default for all pages Template Style and corresponding modules.
avatar denvarel denvarel - edited - 11 Feb 2025
avatar brianteeman
brianteeman - comment - 11 Feb 2025

Are you sure that this was different to Joomla 3? From memory the behaviour you describe has not changed at all. There is no such thing as a default page and any content that does not have an associated menu item will always be displayed using the settings of the home page

avatar denvarel
denvarel - comment - 11 Feb 2025

I have made an attempt on an old site that is still online. I will double check it but i have did a lot of Joomla 3 websites using Rocket theme and they have the habit of making a Homepage without content position. I don't remember to have that issue then. But i will double check the Joomla 3 behaviour for you.
Still, I consider that "any content that does not have an associated menu item will always be displayed using the settings of the home page" as a bug.
There is the "Default for all pages" settings that does not automatically apply to "all pages". A bug.

avatar Hackwar Hackwar - change - 11 Feb 2025
Status New Closed
Closed_Date 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2025-02-11 09:24:44
Closed_By Hackwar
avatar Hackwar Hackwar - close - 11 Feb 2025
avatar Hackwar
Hackwar - comment - 11 Feb 2025

This has been the behavior of Joomla for the last 20 years and unless we drop the complete foundation of Joomla and switch to a completely different system, similar to Drupal, we wont get around that. This is not a change which we will implement.

avatar denvarel
denvarel - comment - 11 Feb 2025

@Hackwar
You are partially wrong.
While yes, In Joomla 3, the article is shown in home settings, the orphan category itself is shown in correct template. Thing that I cannot say about Joomla 4 and 5. In Joomla 4 and 5 the orphan category view is also displayed in Home Settings.

Joomla! 3.10.12 Stable [ Daraja ] stock
PHP 7.4.33
2 templates installed: Beez and Protostar
I have set beez as default template, Protostar on homepage only
Image

I created a new category, without any parent, in root:
Image

I have assigned those two modules (where set to be shown on every page) in 2 and rename the modules accordingly
Most Read Posts - Everywhere but home
Older Posts - Only on home

As you see: The Protostar is active on homepage with "Older Posts - Only on home" module
Image
Correctly

The "Custom Category" view is displayed with Beez Template and the "Most Read Posts - Everywhere but home" module
Image
Correctly.

An article from the "Custom Category" (the article view) is displayed in Protostar, with "Older Posts - Only on home" module
Image
Buggy

Joomla 5 displays the orphan category view in Homepage settings, Joomla 3 display the orphan category view in correct settings.
Image

You have to trust my word that i haven't create any menu item for the "Custom Category", category i have created for this purpose only.

Joomla 3 did not have this bug in Category view but it did have it in Article view. Joomla 4 and 5 have both views buggy: the category and the article views.

While I'm not expert in code I still notice that Joomla 4 and 5 are step back in this matter.

Anyway, you can leave this bug report closed since I have a Feature request that will fix this bug as well without the need to switch to drupal. :) Only if is taken seriously: The Joomla's configuration and views overriding system for com_content need a very close cleaning and become coherent. Right now is confusing, unclear, and everything but coherent.

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