Discreet Front End Login For Joomla Admins
So, you have a Joomla web site and you wish to grant front end admin access for editing articles, etc. The site is set up with no visible login area for the front end. Basically a display-only site with no need for memberships, thus the login module option is unpublished.
So how do you get in without a login area? The solution is insanely simple. No additional plugins or coding are required.
For this article I’m going to assume Joomla 1.5 with native SEF URL’s enabled.
First, login (back end) and head to ‘Content->Article Manager and create a new article. Simply call it ‘Login’ and give it the alias of ‘login’. Sections and categories don’t matter. Set the access level to ‘Special’ (administrator) and enter something like, “Thank you for logging in” in the text area. Save it.
Next, head to the menus. It really doesn’t matter what menu you put this on, just as long as it’s published. So, select the Main Menu for example. Create a new menu item of type ‘Articles->article layout’
Give it the title of ‘Login’ and alias ‘login’ with the ‘Special’ access level. Link it to the article we wrote in the step above. Fill in any other required info and hit save.
Now if you try to read that article directly (go to http://www.example.com/login) you do not have access to see since it requires ‘Special’ Access. Joomla will then automatically prompt you for a login. (Told you it was simple)
If you have a different method of URL rewriting, you may have to make both the menu and article ‘Public’ access temporarily. Go to the site, click the login link, then record the URL of the article AFTER you’re logged in. Reset both menu and article back to ‘Special’ after you’re done. This recorded URL will be your login page.
So, what are you waiting for? Login! That’s it. Done.
In the last several weeks I’ve been working with Joomla quite a bit. Expect to see additional posts on this CMS coming up.
