Articles in Joomla

1. The Basics

1.1 What is an Article?

An article is a single piece of content managed by the core component com_content. You can think of an article as one page of text in a magazine.

Every article in Joomla:

• Lives as one row in the #__content table.
• Belongs to exactly one category.
• Has a title, alias, intro text, full text, author, dates, and a status.
• Can have tags, custom fields, images, links, and metadata.

If Joomla were a magazine, an article is one printed page and a category is the section it sits in.

1.2 Where Do I Find Articles?

In the Joomla 6 backend, you manage articles from the Content menu:

Content → Articles                       (the list view)
Content → Articles → New                 (create a new article)
Content → Featured Articles              (the front-page pool)
Content → Categories                     (the containers)
Content → Fields                         (custom fields for articles)
Content → Workflows                      (stages and transitions)

The article list is where editors spend most of their time.

1.3 Anatomy of an Article

Every article is built from a fixed set of parts:

1.4 The Read More Break

The Read More button in the editor inserts a small piece of HTML:

<hr id="system-readmore">

Joomla splits the article in two at this point:

• Everything before the marker becomes introtext.
• Everything after the marker becomes fulltext.

On a blog or category view, Joomla shows only the intro with a "Read more" link. On the single-article view, both parts join together again.

3. Status, Publishing, and Scheduling

3.1 The Four Statuses

Every article has one of four statuses:

Trashed articles still exist in the database. They are only removed when you click Empty Trash.

3.2 Publishing Dates

The Publishing tab has two date fields:

• Start Publishing: the article becomes visible at this moment.
• Finish Publishing: the article becomes invisible after this moment.

Both fields are optional. Combined with the Published status, they let you:

• Schedule news to go live at 09:00.
• Expire promotions automatically.
• Stage a press release in advance.

Joomla compares these dates against the server time and the site timezone.

3.3 Featured Articles

Marking an article as Featured does two things:

• It adds a row to #__content_frontpage.
• It makes the article appear on any "Featured Articles" menu item.

The screen Content → Featured Articles shows only featured articles and lets you reorder them. This is how the classic Joomla front-page blog works.

5. Articles on the Frontend

5.1 Menu Item Types for Articles

Joomla provides several menu item types that display articles:

5.2 Layout Options for Category Blog

The Category Blog is the most flexible layout. You can configure:

• Leading articles: shown full-width at the top.
• Intro articles: arranged in one to six columns.
• Links: title-only entries after the intros.
• Pagination: page size and pagination links.
• Ordering: by date, hits, ordering field, alphabetical, or random.

You can set these options globally, per category, or per menu item. The most specific setting wins.

5.3 URL and Routing

With SEF URLs enabled, Joomla builds clean URLs from the category tree and the article alias:

/news                            → category root (menu item)
/news/national                   → child category
/news/national/election-2026     → article inside the child category

Joomla 6's router resolves these nested paths automatically, as long as your aliases are unique within their parent category.

5.4 The "Read More" Link

When the editor inserts a Read More break:

• Category and Featured views show only the intro text.
• Joomla appends a Read more link to the single-article view.
• The link text can be customised globally or per menu item.

Without a Read More break, blog layouts show the entire article. That is rarely what you want on a homepage.

7. Custom Fields

7.1 Why Custom Fields

Sometimes "title plus body" is not enough:

• Events need a date, a location, and a price.
• Recipes need a prep time and a serving count.
• Staff bios need a job title and a phone number.

Custom Fields let editors fill in structured extra data without building a custom component.

7.2 Field Groups and Fields

You manage them under Content → Fields → Field Groups, then Fields.

• A Field Group becomes a tab on the article edit screen.
• A Field belongs to one group and has a type (text, list, calendar, media, user, SQL, subform, and more).
• You assign a field to one or more categories. Articles outside those categories do not see the field.

7.3 Field Types Worth Knowing

7.4 Rendering Custom Fields

You have three options to show custom field values on the frontend:

• Automatic: Joomla renders the fields above or below the article (a group setting).
• Shortcode: use or anywhere in the body.
• Template override: full control inside templates/your_template/html/com_content/article/default.php.

9. Multilingual Articles

9.1 Multilingual is Built into the Core

Joomla speaks many languages out of the box. You do not need a paid extension or a separate database.

• You create one article per language. Each one is a separate row in #__content.
• Associations link the translations of "the same" article together.
• A Language Switcher module lets visitors flip between languages.
• Menus, modules, categories, and articles all carry a language field.

This is one of the strongest reasons to choose Joomla over WordPress for a serious multilingual site.

9.2 The Three Pieces You Need

The Language Filter plugin is what makes Joomla detect, switch, and route by language.

9.3 Article-level Language

On the article's Content tab, the Language field offers:

• *: All. The article is shown regardless of the active language.
• nl-NL, en-GB, de-DE, and so on: bound to that specific Content Language.

A Dutch visitor never sees an English-only article when the Language Filter is on. The same rule works the other way around.

9.4 Associations

The Associations field on the Content tab lets you link the equivalent article in each other Content Language.

For example, "Joomla 6 Released" (en-GB) connects to "Joomla 6 Uitgebracht" (nl-NL). The frontend Language Switcher then takes a visitor from one translation to the other on the same screen.

The same mechanism exists for categories, menu items, and modules. Associate them all for a clean multilingual experience. Associations are stored in #__associations.

9.5 Multilingual Pitfalls

• A menu item set to "All Languages" only routes to articles with language *. Language-specific articles need language-specific menu items.
• Forgetting to associate a category often sends the Language Switcher to the homepage instead of the matching page.
• A Dutch article in an English-only menu tree is invisible. Check the menu's language, not only the article's.
• Search and Smart Search index per language. Re-index after enabling a new language.

11. Access Control (ACL) on Articles

11.1 Two Distinct Concepts

People often mix two different ACL concepts in Joomla:

The model is the same as for Categories. Articles just sit one level deeper.

11.2 Viewing Access Level

You set the access level on the article's Content tab. Joomla ships with five built-in levels:

• Public
• Guest
• Registered
• Special
• Super Users

A Registered-only article never appears in any menu, search result, feed, or module for a guest. You can also create custom access levels for paid memberships or staff-only areas.

11.3 Permissions per User Group

The Permissions tab of a single article controls these actions:

11.4 The Inheritance Chain

Permissions flow from top to bottom:

Global Configuration
   └── Component (com_content)
         └── Category
               └── Article

At each level you can set a permission to:

• Inherit: take the value from the parent.
• Allowed: grant the permission.
• Denied: a hard block. You cannot override it at a lower level.

A practical rule: Deny at the highest level you can; allow at the lowest level you must.

11.5 Frontend Editing

There are two ways to let users edit articles on the frontend:

• The inline edit pencil shown next to the title for users with Edit or Edit Own.
• A Create Article menu item with the full edit form for authors with Create on the chosen category.

Pair frontend editing with a workflow so submissions land in Draft for staff review.

13. Under the Hood (Developer View)

13.1 Important Database Tables

Articles touch many tables. The most important ones are:

#__content                    — the articles themselves
#__content_frontpage          — featured-article flags
#__content_rating             — voting and rating
#__history                    — version snapshots
#__contentitem_tag_map        — article-to-tag link
#__fields, #__fields_values   — custom fields
#__categories                 — the category tree
#__assets                     — one ACL rules row per article
#__associations               — multilingual links between rows
#__workflow_associations      — current workflow stage per item

13.2 How the Tables Connect

                       #__categories
                            ▲
                            │  catid
                            │
   #__users  ◀─created_by─ #__content ─asset_id─▶ #__assets
                            │
            ┌──────────────┬───────────────┐
            │               │               │
            ▼               ▼               ▼
      #__history    #__content_       #__contentitem_
      (versions)     frontpage             tag_map
                    (featured)               │
                                             ▼
                                          #__tags

       #__fields ──defines──▶ #__fields_values ──refers to──▶ #__content
       #__associations ──links translations of──▶ #__content

The asset_id column in #__content links each article to its row in #__assets. That row stores the ACL rules for the article.

13.3 Key Fields in #__content

id
asset_id
title, alias
introtext, fulltext
state           (1 published, 0 unpublished, 2 archived, -2 trashed)
catid
created, created_by, created_by_alias
modified, modified_by
publish_up, publish_down
featured
access
language
metadesc, metakey, metadata
attribs         (JSON: per-article display options)
images          (JSON: intro and full image slots)
urls            (JSON: A/B/C link slots)
version, hits

The columns attribs, images, and urls are JSON blobs. Read them with json_decode().

13.4 Articles API in PHP - Modern Way

The modern way to load an article uses the MVC factory:

use Joomla\CMS\Factory;

$app     = Factory::getApplication();
$factory = $app->bootComponent('com_content')->getMVCFactory();

$model   = $factory->createModel('Article', 'Administrator', ['ignore_request' => true]);
$article = $model->getItem(42);

echo $article->title;
echo $article->introtext;

The Administrator model returns the raw record. The Site model applies routing and access checks.

13.5 Articles API in PHP - Quick Read

For a simple read on the frontend you can use the query builder directly:

use Joomla\CMS\Factory;

$db = Factory::getContainer()->get('DatabaseDriver');

$query = $db->getQuery(true)
    ->select(['id', 'title', 'alias', 'introtext'])
    ->from($db->quoteName('#__content'))
    ->where($db->quoteName('state') . ' = 1')
    ->order('created DESC');

$db->setQuery($query, 0, 10);
$rows = $db->loadObjectList();

Use the API or the model when you need ACL, routing, or events. Use the query builder when you just need rows.

13.6 Events to Hook Into

Plugins can react to several content events:

This is how core content plugins (Load Module, Page Break, Vote, Email Cloaking) inject themselves.

13.7 Template Overrides

Override the article and category views in your template:

templates/your_template/html/com_content/article/
   default.php          → single article
templates/your_template/html/com_content/category/
   blog.php             → category blog
   blog_item.php        → one entry in the blog
   blog_links.php       → link entries
   default.php          → category list
   default_articles.php → the article rows
templates/your_template/html/com_content/featured/
   default.php
templates/your_template/html/com_content/archive/
   default.php

Override only what you need. Copy the core file first, then change it.

13.8 Performance and Caching

A busy article site lives or dies by caching. Joomla offers several layers:

Database tuning also matters at scale:

• Use indexes on #__content for state, catid, access, and language. Joomla ships sensible defaults, but verify them after migrations.
• Use a real opcode cache (OPcache) for PHP. It is not optional on production.
• Use a Redis or Memcached session and cache handler for clustered sites.
• Keep Maximum Versions sensible so #__history does not outgrow #__content.

A rule of thumb: enable System Cache (Conservative) and Module Cache as a baseline. Switch to Progressive only when the site is mostly logged-out.

15. SEO and Metadata

15.1 Per-article SEO

The Publishing tab holds the article's SEO fields:

• Meta Description: used in <meta name="description">.
• Meta Keywords: still written, but largely ignored by search engines.
• Author and Rights: map to <meta name="author"> and <meta name="rights">.
• Robots: control crawling with values like index, follow or noindex, nofollow.
• External Reference: a free-text id for integrations.

The article's alias drives the URL slug.

15.2 Featured Snippet Hygiene

• Keep titles unique and meaningful. They become the <h1> and the page <title>.
• Write a real intro paragraph. Search engines often quote it.
• Use structured headings (<h2>, <h3>) inside the body.
• Add alt text to every image.
• Use canonical URLs. The menu item closest to the article should win.

15.3 Sitemap and Search

• Joomla has Smart Search (com_finder) built-in. Enable the plugins and run the index once.
• Use a sitemap extension such as OSMap or JLSitemap to expose articles to Google.
• Combine sitemaps with a tag-driven landing-page strategy to cluster topics.

17. Best Practices and Quick Reference

If you remember only a few things from this article, remember these:

• Pick the category before you start writing. It drives ACL, URL, and workflow.
• Always insert a Read More break in long articles.
• Use Tags for topics and Categories for structure.
• Set a sensible Maximum Versions value so #__history does not explode.
• Enable System Cache and Module Cache by default. Add OPcache on production.
• Put the Web Services API behind HTTPS, tokens, and a low-privilege user group.
• Use the structured intro and full image slots, not inline HTML, when layout matters.

Cheat Sheet

CREATE        Content → Articles → New
CATEGORY      Required — every article needs one
READ MORE     Editor → Read More button (system-readmore <hr>)
FEATURE       Toggle Featured in the list or on edit
SCHEDULE      Publishing tab → Start / Finish Publishing
WORKFLOW      Bind on the Category Options tab
VERSIONS      Toolbar → Versions (set max in Global Config)
TAGS          Content tab → Tags field
FIELDS        Content → Fields → Field Groups, assign per category
ACCESS        Content tab → Access (Viewing Level)
PERMISSIONS   Permissions tab (per group, per article)
LAYOUT        templates/{tpl}/html/com_content/article/ or /category/
ROUTING       Enable SEF, use unique aliases within a category
EVENTS        onContentPrepare, onContentBeforeSave, onContentAfterSave
MULTILINGUAL  System → Languages + Plugin: System - Language Filter
ASSOCIATIONS  Content tab → Associations (link translations)
REST API      /api/index.php/v1/content/articles  (+ token plugin)
CLI           php cli/joomla.php <command>
CACHE         System - Cache plugin + OPcache + (Redis at scale)