My site uses two templates. The default template is a classic three column design and the second is a two column design. Certain parts of my website (forums, games, etc) are better off with two columns because they need a larger main area.

The "Forum Latest" module is great and I want very much to use it. The problem is, when you click a link it opens the new forum post in the default template and not the secondary, 2 column template. Does anyone have any idea how I might hack this module so it will open in this secondary template?

You can see what's happening here:

Thumdar.com

Thanks in advance

this problem seems to have to do with menu links to the fireboard component. make sure the fireboard component is properly linked and there are no unpublished links anywhere they don't belong.

go to joomla backend, menu and mainmenu. the fireboard menu link should have something like 'component - fireboard forum' written in the type column. if not (i've had this problem) just make a new link and delete any that you don't use.

this should probably fix it...

Thanks for the reply, sebasvos.

Unfortunately, the menu link is exactly that: Component - Fireboard Forum. It was created in the typical manner of clicking the New button in the top menu, selecting Component as the type and then selecting Fireboard Forum.

The only link to my forums (besides using the "Forum Latest" is through the Top Menu, and one thing that might be of interest is that I'm using SWMenuPro for my Top menu (so I can use roll-over images). As a refresher, SWMenuPro is a component that creates new menu modules which are then assigned to whichever Joomla menu you'd like, in my case the Top Menu. However, I don't think this is the issue.

Please note that I am selecting templates per menu link by going to Site > Template Manager > Site Templates then selecting the secondary template and clicking Assign and then selecting the Top menu link to Fireboard.

Somewhere in the code the "Forums Latest" isn't seeing this template assignment and is using the default template...

Thanks again for your help.

the way joomla assigns templates is by item id's. these are assigned by menu item.

on your site, your fireboard has itemid=50. you see this in the address bar of your browser. the links in the forum latest module use itemid=49, which screws up the template, because this itemid isn't assigned a custom template. changing the itemid in your browser's address bar fixes the template issue.

if there aren't any rogue links to your fireboard, there must be some residual linkage in your database that the module picks up on. assuming you use phpMyAdmin and know how to use it a little, open your site's database. browse table "jos_menu". the first column (id) is used for itemid's. find number 49 and delete it.

the forum latest module will now probably pick the right link and use the right template.

You're a genius and a scholar! You were right on the money, thank you. I opened the database, found ID 49 and it was an additional link to the Fireboard component. After I deleted it, the Forums Latest links now use the correct template.

Thank you so much!