Pull Request resolves #39274.
This is the same PR at #47580, just against 5.4 instead of 6.2.

• I read the Generative AI policy and my contribution is either not created with the help of AI or is compatible with the policy and GNU/GPL 2 or later.

Summary of Changes

Fixed incorrect author visibility on the article detail page when navigating from a Category Blog menu item that has Author set to Use Article Settings, and the article itself has Author set to Use Global, while the Global configuration has Author set to Hide.

The root cause was in ArticleModel.php: the params merge logic was a simple merge() of article attribs on top of the menu/global params. This did not account for the three-tier resolution (Menu → Article → Global) that ArticlesModel.php correctly implements for the Category Blog view.

Specifically, when a menu param is set to use_article:

• If the article has an explicit value ("0" or "1"), that value should be used.
• If the article is set to "" (Use Global / empty string), the global component param should be used as the fallback.

The fix aligns ArticleModel::getItem() with the same three-tier resolution logic already present in ArticlesModel::getItems().

File changed: components/com_content/src/Model/ArticleModel.php

Testing Instructions

1. Go to Content → Articles → Options, set Author to Hide, click Save & Close.
2. Create Article A (Test Article - Show Author) with Author set to Show.
3. Set the Category of Article A to be "Uncategorized". Click Save & Close. (Both Articles should have the same Category as well as the Category Blog. So, if you changed this, change the others too).
4. Create Article B (Test Article - Use Global) with Author set to Use Global.
5. Set the Category of Article B to be "Uncategorized". Click Save & Close.
6. Go to Menus → Main Menu → Add New Menu Item, set type to Category Blog (Type -> Article -> Category Blog).
7. Set the Category to "Uncategorized".
8. Under the Options tab, set Author to Use Article Settings. Save and Close.
9. Visit the Category Blog page and verify both articles display correctly.
10. Click into Article A (Show Author) — verify the author is visible.
11. Click into Article B (Use Global) — verify the author is hidden.

Actual result BEFORE applying this Pull Request

When navigating to the detail page of Article B (Use Global), the author is incorrectly displayed, even though the Global configuration has Author set to Hide.

Expected result AFTER applying this Pull Request

The detail page of Article B correctly hides the author, respecting the three-tier resolution chain: Menu (Use Article Settings) → Article (Use Global) → Global (Hide).

The detail page of Article A continues to correctly show the author as expected.

Link to documentations

Please select:

• Documentation link for guide.joomla.org:
• No documentation changes for guide.joomla.org needed
• Pull Request link for manual.joomla.org:
• No documentation changes for manual.joomla.org needed