Joomla Mass Content and the K2 Component
The Joomla Mass Content component is something I've used for a long time to help make the creation of sections, categories and articles much easier because it enables the developer to create all of these items on a single screen without having to jump back and forth in the control panel. This handy tool can eliminate hours of unnecessary development time by consolidating several screens into one.
In a previous blog entry (please refer to The Power of Joomla and K2), I mentioned some of the advantages of the Joomla K2 component. The obvious question is how can the K2 component and the Mass Content component work together when the Mass Content component creates standard Joomla content and the K2 component creates content that is managed outside of core system?
Fortunately, there is a solution that allows you to incorporate both components and reap the benefits of each. The K2 component has a very nifty feature that lets you import content. So, when developing a new website, as long as you follow these steps in the proper sequence, you should be fine.
1. Install the Mass Content component
2. Create your sections, categories and content items within the Mass Content component
3. When everything is set up as you like it, run the K2 article import
With step #3, the K2 system will turn Joomla sections into top level K2 categories and the standard Joomla categories into K2 sub-categories. In my experience with this, everything has gone without a hitch.
You can now start building your navigational structure in the K2 system and delete all of the items, categories and sections from within the core Joomla content system. With this approach, I hope you will find as I did, that despite using two additional components – K2 and Mass Content - you will save quite a bit of development time.
Downloads:
Mass Content Component - Download Link
K2 for Joomla - Download Link
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Comments 2 comments
Chet, That’s correct – the menu’s have to be linked to the K2 items after you’ve imported the content. The menu’s get built last. I use this as a way to get started on brand new sites.. 1. I create the Sections, Categories and Articles with Mass Content 2. I import everything into K2 3. I delete the sections, categories and articles from Joomla 4. I build the menus
I had tried this on my localhost and had no problems. Unfortunately, when I tried it on 1and1 hosting the only result in the frontend was 404 errors. I had linked the Mass Content sections and categories to the menu and when I switched them to K2 menu items the 404 error resulted. I needed to create K2 menus from scratch and it works just fine!