Joomla 2.5 - Generate URL based on article id

Question

I am trying to generate an URL for an article basead on Article ID.

After runing this query

SELECT a.sectionid,
CASE WHEN CHAR_LENGTH( a.alias )
THEN CONCAT_WS( ":", a.id, a.alias )
ELSE a.id
END AS slug,
CASE WHEN CHAR_LENGTH( cc.alias )
THEN CONCAT_WS( ":", cc.id, cc.alias )
ELSE cc.id
END AS catslug
FROM #__content AS a
INNER JOIN #__categories AS cc ON cc.id = a.catid
WHERE a.id = $articleID

I store my result in $data and generate the link this way:

$link = JRoute::_(ContentHelperRoute::getArticleRoute($data[0]->slug, $data[0]->catslug, $data[0]->sectionid));

The problem is that the generated link its not correct when my article doesn't belong to any menu.

I noticed that when my article is not associated with any menu, the API gets the active menu id and add to the generated link, the parameter "&Itemid=MyActiveMenuId" (this happens in the route.php file). But since the article doesn't exist in the active menu, the generated link will not work.

I know that if the API just ignores the "item menu id" instead of getting the "active menu id" it will work, but I can do this without change the Joomla code? Also, I want that the "item menu id" continue to be considered for the cases where an article actually belongs to a menu, so the generated URL will be SEF.

There is any way to solve this? Or every article must belong to a menu item?

My Joomla version is 2.5.13

Answer 1

If you're trying to generate a URL based on the article ID ( $articleID in your code), your query should look something like the following:

select id from #__menu where link='index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=$articleID';

For this example we'll assume to you stored the result in $menuID , or that $hasMenuID===false . You'll then determine your output URL like so:

if($hasMenuID===false) $outURL = "index.php?option=com_content&id=$articleID";
else $outURL = "index.php?option=com_content&itemid=$menuID";

If you want nice SEF-friendly URLs you can then apply JRoute . Also, please don't forget to typecast your $articleID to an integer before your initial query. SQL safety and all.

Answer 2

Every article need not be linked to menu to make it work.

You would want to run the url through JRoute to get the full url.

echo $id =JRequest::getVar('id');
$url = JRoute::_('index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id='.$id);

You can also redirect a url to another url with .htaccess There are also other extensions out there, which can help you redirect to a url.

For the rest of the url you would need to know the component you are calling (added as the option like above, Content manager is always com_content) and the view (which for an article is article). You can see the different views available for com_content by checking the file structure under /components/com_content/views/. Besides Article, you should see articles, categories, and category as well as a few other.