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SimpleContact | Contact module for Joomla gets a make-over

SimpleContact module for JoomlaThe first version we did of this Joomla contact module was super simple to say the least. All the fields were manually entered from within the modules options and it had no interaction with Joomla! or the core contact component… so, based on the positive feedback we received when the module was launched, we decided to extend on the concept and take it a step further. You will notice that the modules name is still “SimpleContact” and the reason for this is, although its already a whole lot cooler than the first version, its still not quite “Super” yet ;0) We plan on further extending the module to have a bunch of other neat options, so be sure to keep an eye out for updates!

Example of this Joomla simple contact module in action!

Here is a list of fields that can be displayed:

  • Contact Picture
  • Full Name
  • Position
  • Address
  • Suburb
  • State
  • Postcode
  • Country
  • Mobile
  • Telephone
  • Fax
  • Website
  • Email Address
  • Alias
The “Alias” field is used to pull in the contacts first name in the contact button, so if you enter “john” as the alias, the contact button will display as “Click here to email John“. All fields are optional and can easily be turned on or off via the modules options.

Show either one or all contacts

You can choose whether to display a single contact or all available contacts. Since the module pulls in directly from Joomla’s contact component, you can have full

Direct link to user specific Joomla! contact form

Each contact can have a direct link to their own user specific Joomla! contact form. If no email address is specified the button will not be displayed.

Built in template override option

We decided to add an option to allow you to override the modules built in css on a template by template basic. We did this by adding the currently published templates name as class on the modules wrapping div, thus allowing you to use specificity to customize the contact module’s styling. An example of this would be “#simpleContact.beez{ }”. You can see some examples of this in action at the bottom of the module’s stylesheet – which can be found in /modules/mod_jj_simplecontact/simple-contact.css.

Module Documentation

Getting Started

Depending on whether you are starting off with a fresh Joomla! install with or without sample data, the first thing you will need to do is make sure you have at least one contact category setup. You can do this by going to “components > contacts > categories“. Once this is done you can proceed to adding some contacts. Go to “components > contacts > contacts” and click on the “new” button on the top right of the contacts page. Fill out all the info you would like to be displayed and then click “save“. Now that you have your first contact, you can proceed to installing the module. The contact module is installed by going to “extension > install/uninstall”. From the “Upload Package File” box, click on the “browse” button and navigate to the place on your computer where the module is located. Once selected, click on the “upload file and install” button. You will then get a confirmation message saying that the module was successfully installed. Next, go to the Module Manager (extensions > module manager) and click on the JoomlaJunkie SimpleContact module. First thing you will want to do is publish the module. The SimpleContact module comes with a number of options that will allow you to turn any of the available fields on or off. The modules options are all pretty self explanatory and each field has further explanation which can be seen by hovering over the field name.

Configuring your Contact ID

By default, the “Contact ID” field is set to “0“. This will display all available contacts. You can change this to only display a specific contact, by inserting the relevant “Contact ID”. You can find this by going back to the Joomla! Contact Manager “components > contacts > contacts“. The number that you are looking for is located in the last column of the list of contacts (ID). If you are working from a fresh Joomla! install, this is usually 1. See the image below for an example.

Joomla 1.5 SimpleContact module settings

Customize your email button text

This is the text that is displayed on the email button, use #s to use the contacts name which will be pulled out of the database: you could for example add Contact #s for a booking, which would result in the button saying “Contact John for a booking”.
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