Enable substitution in a Menu URL?

1. How do I enable substitution for a tag ('&mobile_number_param=[cb_mobile]' for example) in the URL of a menu?
Can it work for a Joomla menu, or does it have to be a CB menu? And if it does, how do I add a New CB menu that is just a URL (like a Joomla System Link URL)?

In the frontend, I just get '[cb_mobile]' appearing in the URL of the menu, even though '[]' are not valid characters for a URL.

2. More generally, I feel I should be able to find out the answer to questions like this without continually asking on this forum. But How? Where? How am I meant to find out: i) which extension does the job I'm trying to do? Then, ii) once I have installed it, how to target the extension to specific items?

The 'Getting Started' documentation goes as far as install and enable. The tutorials focus on the options. But, for me, there's a gap between the two (targeting). There's also a gap at the start between each problem and the name of the extension that addresses it. I find the descriptions of each extension tend to describe the application problem that they were first written for, not the full extent of what they can do now.

Here's what I've tried in this case:

• I've searched for and read all the tutorials that mention substitutions. But none say how to enable or target them.
• I've discovered via Internet searches, and searches of these forums, that (I think) I need to install the CB Content Bot plugin to enable substitutions. 
• Then I've (finally) found the plugin (in order to enable it): Joomla > Manage > Plugins > Search 'Content' > Content - Community Builder > Enable
  • (Note that the actual name of the "CB Content Bot" plugin has not got the word 'Bot' or 'CB' in it, which makes it hard to search for, and hard to notice, even if you're looking straight at it).
• I've read the inline help for configuring this plugin, but none of the configurations seem relevant.

1. How do I enable substitution for a tag ('&mobile_number_param=[cb_mobile]' for example) in the URL of a menu?

Our substitutions only work where specifically designated. They don't work in menu URLs. For example they work in several parameters throughout CB where parameters state substitution supported (e.g. "Input substitution supported..."). They work in modules via CB Content Module. They work anywhere Joomla content plugins work using CB Content Bot (e.g. in Joomla articles for example).

2. More generally, I feel I should be able to find out the answer to questions like this without continually asking on this forum. But How? Where? How am I meant to find out: i) which extension does the job I'm trying to do? Then, ii) once I have installed it, how to target the extension to specific items?

All of our add-on pages pretty much cover everything they do. Their short descriptions on the below pages give a general idea.

www.joomlapolis.com/addons

Then on add-on specific pages we go through all their features as much as possible. Even mentioning interactions with other add-ons where necessary.

www.joomlapolis.com/addons/cb-activity

I've searched for and read all the tutorials that mention substitutions. But none say how to enable or target them.

Our tutorial in the first sentence tells you where they're supported. Within CB. They don't extend outside of CB except with CB Content Bot, which its sole purpose is to allow Joomla content plugin support for substitutions.

www.joomlapolis.com/documentation/127-community-builder/279-tutorials/18353-using-substitutions-throughout-cb

The add-on page and the short description for CB Content Bot also explains this further that it brings substitutions outside of CB.

www.joomlapolis.com/addons/cb-content-bot

(Note that the actual name of the "CB Content Bot" plugin has not got the word 'Bot' or 'CB' in it, which makes it hard to search for, and hard to notice, even if you're looking straight at it).

Plugins in Mambo, Joomla 1, and Joomla 1.5 were called "membots". Thus the term "Bot". We've been around since 2004. Since Mambo. Before Joomla was even called Joomla. We'll be doing a rebranding of several extensions after CB 3.0 thought as it's probably about time.

As for why it's named the way it is in Joomla itself is they've stricter naming policies for JED compatibility. We've to adhere to standards that don't align with extensions that have been around this long.

The 'Getting Started' documentation goes as far as install and enable. The tutorials focus on the options. But, for me, there's a gap between the two (targeting). There's also a gap at the start between each problem and the name of the extension that addresses it. I find the descriptions of each extension tend to describe the application problem that they were first written for, not the full extent of what they can do now.

That was documentation we attempted to hire out. Didn't go as planned. So it's largely to be archived at this point for most things. I apologize for that. We should get around to really cleaning those categories up and archiving all the old articles.

2. More generally, I feel I should be able to find out the answer to questions like this without continually asking on this forum.

That's just how it's done here. It's easier for me to answer a question here and there than to dedicate months of time writing documentation for everything, which so far everyone has preferred I spend that time adding features and fixing bugs. I just don't have the time to do it all. This isn't a team of 14+ people. There's just 2 of us. I'm doing the best I can with the time I've got. I don't have the energy to pull 50+ hour weeks anymore. I've unfortunately gotten old, lol.

So if you've a question just ask and I'll answer there's no need to dig and dig and dig. If you don't find an answer using our forum search (which is all we ask before posting) then just ask away.

With that said with CB 3.0 one of our goals is to implement a lot of enduser documentation using Joomla's Guided Tours though so hopefully that will help a lot. Then for documentation that won't cover we'll write on a needs basis. Even substitutions we plan to no longer need a tutorial for as we're going to implement a substitution picker button next to inputs that support them instead of you needing to read any documentation at all. Should make it more clear where they're supported.

1. So I developed my own template override to substitute any token like [cb_xxx] in a menu URL with the value of the variable cb_xxx.

For the benefit of anyone else with this problem, I've attached the php code that I added just before the first occurrence of flink. In my case I overrode /templates/cassiopeia/html/mod_menu and I eventually found the correct template override at /templates/cassiopeia/html/mod_menu/dropdown-metismenu_url.php

 

2. When I've got this site up and running, I intend to invest some time giving more feedback. All I'll say at this point is that I am very concerned about the sustainability of our new business, which depends on CB, which in turn seems over-reliant on knowledge inside the heads of a few or even just one individual.

Human advice is invaluable for recommendations on which pieces are best to be integrated together to solve a problem. However, good documentation is much more appropriate for straightforward facts like the names of variables or function calls.
 

1. So I developed my own template override to substitute any token like [cb_xxx] in a menu URL with the value of the variable cb_xxx.

It might be possible to do this from a Joomla event. I haven't really looked into it much. The problem with doing it from the layout is it's a rendering behavior only. When Joomla builds that menu items URL outside of that (e.g. redirects, menu id lookups, etc..) it won't have the substitutions replaced. So I recommend some caution, but depending on your usage could be perfectly fine.

2. When I've got this site up and running, I intend to invest some time giving more feedback. All I'll say at this point is that I am very concerned about the sustainability of our new business, which depends on CB, which in turn seems over-reliant on knowledge inside the heads of a few or even just one individual.

Human advice is invaluable for recommendations on which pieces are best to be integrated together to solve a problem. However, good documentation is much more appropriate for straightforward facts like the names of variables or function calls.

I understand your concerns, but 90% of software is basically in that same situation. We're all hurting for documentation one way or another. There's only so much time to go around. A LOT of information is on our Forums and we've no intentions of deleting any of it so it's usually a pretty solid source of information and examples. I've also already started the process of archiving old irrelevant documentation so you should see our documentation page clean up more and more.

With that said we'll have a substantial amount of user documentation by way of Guided Tours as we convert CB plugins into standalone Joomla extensions. I think those will be the best way to convey to people how to do things instead of a giant wall of text that they won't read anyway.

Other things that'll be improved is things like CB Auto Actions having better explanation of triggers and variables. It already does if you select a trigger under the Global tab, but this can be taken further by letting you click buttons to insert variables in parameters from those triggers effortlessly. Basically the plan is to improve the UX more and more so it's just easier to use to begin with. We don't want people to have to have some deep knowledge of code to use it.

As for developer documentation there aren't really any plans for any since CB is mostly just going to be using Joomla APIs in CB 3.0 so your developer documentation would basically just be Joomla's. We'll probably have 3-4 articles for how to call some of our newer behavior, but again most will just interact with Joomla and won't need any special API calls to CB specifically. We'll probably also do like Joomla has and provide developer documentation for our custom triggers after CB 3.0.