1. Using Class Suffixes
This tutorial was written for Joomla1.5, however the differences to Joomla 1.6 are minor.
This tutorial will show you how to use Page, Module, and Menu Class Suffixes in Joomla! to fine-tune the
appearance of your site. For the tutorial, we will assume you have the Joomla! 1.5.9 Sample site
available.
Contents
[hide]
1 Background
2 When Would You Use a Class Suffix?
3 Page Class Suffix
o 3.1 How It Works Without a Page Class Suffix
o 3.2 Page Class Suffix (No Space)
o 3.3 Page Class Suffix (With a Leading Space)
o 3.4 Add CSS Styling to New Class
4 Module Class Suffix
o 4.1 Be careful not to break existing CSS styling
5 Menu Class Suffix and Menu Tag ID
o 5.1 Menu Class Suffix
o 5.2 Menu Tag ID parameter
6 Conclusion
Background
Joomla! creates HTML pages that use Cascading Style Sheets to control the appearance of the page.
This includes things like fonts, colors, margins, and background. The CSS files are part of your template.
When Joomla! creates a page, it creates different CSS classes that are then referenced in the CSS file to
specify which style will apply to which parts of the HTML page. These class names are pre-programmed
into Joomla!. But Joomla! allows you to modify or add CSS classes by way of the Class Suffix
parameters. This lets you fine-tune the appearance of specific pages with no programming and very little
work. The best way to understand this is to see specific examples.
When Would You Use a Class Suffix?
Say, for example, that your website contains a number of Section Blog layouts, each for a different
Section. If you are happy to have all of these pages styled the same way, then you wouldn't need to use a

2. Page Class Suffix. However, say you want each of these sections styled differently than the others. For
example, maybe you want a different background color or image for each different section.
Or say that you want the heading on your front page to look different than the heading on other pages.
In both of these cases, if you modify the styling in your "template.css" file for the standard CSS classes, it
will affect all Menu Items that use these CSS classes. For example, if you change the style for the CSS
class "componentheading", it will affect all of the Menu Items that use this class.
However, if you add a unique Page Class Suffix to a Menu Item, then Joomla! will create new CSS
classes for each individual Menu Item so you can style each one differently.
Page Class Suffix
Before you start, make sure you have the Joomla! sample website available. Also, make sure the default
template is set to "rhuk_milkyway" (in the Extensions → Template Manager).
How It Works Without a Page Class Suffix
Before we add a Page Class Suffix, let's see how this pages works without one. In the front end, navigate
to Example Pages → Section Blog. In your browser, select the option to view the page source code. For
example, in Firefox, press Ctrl+U. In Internet Explorer, select View → Source. In Safari, select View →
View Source.
Using the "Find" command, find the first occurrence of the word "componentheading". It should look like
the following:
<div class="componentheading">
Browse down the file and find the following tags:
<table class="blog" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<table class="contentpaneopen">
<td class="contentheading" width="100%">
<table class="contentpaneopen">
Note: The following screenshots were made using the free Firefox add-in
called Firebug. Firebug allows you to quickly see the relationship between
the HTML elements in your source and the text and graphics shown on the
page. It is a very handy tool, and you can get it here. For more information,
please watch the free video tutorial on using Firebug with Joomla.

3. The screenshot below shows you the "componentheading" class. It is the page title
area above the blog article.
This screenshot shows you the entire "blog" class. This is the outer table into which
all of the articles will fit.

4. The next screenshot shows you the "contentpaneopen" class for an article heading.
This includes the article title and the PDF, Print, and Email icons to the right.

5. This screenshot shows you the "contentpaneopen" class for the body of the article.
This includes the author and date information as well as the actual article text.

6. So this gives us a good understanding of how Joomla! allows us to style the
elements on a Section Blog layout. Joomla! writes out these classes as part of the
HTML. And the template contains CSS that provides the styling information for
these various elements and classes.
Page Class Suffix (No Space)
Now that we see how this works without a Page Class Suffix, let's try it with one. In
the back end, navigate to Menus → Example Pages and click on "Section Blog".
This should display the "Menu Item: [Edit]" screen for the Section Blog Layout. Click
Parameters (System) to show the System Parameters. In the "Page Class Suffix"
field enter the value "_myBlogSuffix" and click the Save button.

7. Now, go back to the front end and again navigate to Example Pages → Section
Blog. Notice right away that we lost the styling for the page and article titles. Let's
look closer to see why.
Using the browser "Find" command, find the first occurrence of "_myBlogSuffix". It
is in a "div" tag and looks like this:
<div class="componentheading_myBlogSuffix">
If you look through the source, you should also see the following
classes: blog_myBlogSuffix, contentpaneopen_myBlogSuffix,
and contentheading_myBlogSuffix.
By adding the Page Class Suffix, we changed all of these class names. That means
that special styling in the CSS file that refers to the "base" class names (like
componentheading, blog, and so on) will not be applied, since those classes no
longer exist on the page.
Now, you can fix this problem by editing your templates CSS file to add the same
styling for the new classes (for example, "componentheading_myBlogSuffix"). But
there is a much easier way to do this -- simply by adding a leading space to the
parameter.
Page Class Suffix (With a Leading Space)
Again in the back end, go back to Menus → Example Pages → Section Blog. We're
going to change the value of the Page Class Suffix. This time we're going to enter in
a leading space and call it <space> + "myBlogClass", as shown below.
Now, go back to the front end and re-display the Example Pages → Section Blog.
Notice that our styling is back! Let's look at the HTML source to see what is going
on. Open the source and find the first occurrence of "myBlogClass". It should like
this:
<div class="componentheadingmyBlogClass">

8. Because we put a leading space in the Page Class Suffix, we created a second
class instead of changing the name of the first class (which is allowed and
supported by all modern browsers). So we didn't break any of the existing CSS
styling for this page. (One warning: we need to make sure the new class name is
different than any of the other class names used on the page. Otherwise, we might
get styling we don't want.)
Add CSS Styling to New Class
At this point, we've created a new CSS class in the HTML to allow for some new
styling. Now we need to use this new class to actually change the look of our page.
The first thing we need to do is find the applicable CSS file. In this case, it
is <joomla_root>/templates/rhuk_milkyway/css/template.css.
Let's say we want to add a background color, but only to this specific Section Blog.
(Remember, if we wanted to just change all of the Section Blog pages in our site,
we could just change the CSS styling for the base classes, such as
"componentheading" or "blog".) We need to do is figure out which area
("componentheading", "blog", or "contentpaneopen") we want to style. Say we just
wanted to style the "componentheading" area.
First, let's use the CSS selector "div.myBlogClass" and add the following code to
the end of our CSS file:
/* Custom Styling */
div.myBlogClass{
background-color:#FFE4E1;/* mistyrose */
}
The result is that the page heading now has the background color, as shown below.
Now this works fine in our example, because the other classes are defined for
"table" tags and not "div" tags. But it is normally better to be more specific in our
style selector by styling only those elements that have both the desired base class
and the new class. For example, let's replace the code above with the following
code:
/* Custom Styling */

9. .blog.myBlogClass{
background-color:#FAFAD2;/* lightgoldenrod */
}
This specifies that the new style will only be applied to elements that have both the
"blog" and the "myBlogClass" styles. This gives us the background color over the
entire "blog" area, as shown below.
The great thing about creating a new class (with the leading space trick) is that we
don't need to copy all of the existing styling for the base classes. We can just focus
on the new styling that we want.
Now in this example, we focused on the Section Blog layout. The class names for
different components might be different, but the process will be the same. The table
below shows some common Joomla! layouts and a list of class names that can
have Page Class Suffixes added.
Layout CSS Class Names Used
componentheading, contentpaneopen, contentheading,
Article Layout
contentpagetitle
Category Blog, componentheading, contentpagetitle, blog, contentpaneopen,

10. FrontpageBlog, Section Blog contentheading, readon, blog_more
Category List, Section List componentheading, contentpane, contentdescription
componentheading, contentpane, contentdescription,
Contact Category
sectiontablefooter, sectiontableheader, category
Contact Layout componentheading, contentpaneopen, contentheading
So, to sum up what we have learned about using the Page Class Suffix parameter:
1. Use a leading space to create a new CSS class. This way you don't have
to worry about re-doing or breaking existing CSS styles.
2. Look in the HTML source code to find the locations of the base and new
classes.
3. If desired, use Firebug to see which HTML elements correspond to which
areas on the page.
4. Add custom styling to the end of the "template.css" file, specifying both the
name of the desired base class and the custom class in the
form .baseclass.customclass as in the example above.
Module Class Suffix
The Module Class Suffix parameter works in the same way as the Page Class
Suffix. Let's go through an example using the Latest News module.
In the administrative back end, navigate to Extensions → Module Manager and find
the "Latest News" module. Click on it to open it for editing, and enter <space> +
"customLatestClass" in the Module Class Suffix parameter field, as shown below:

11. Now, navigate to the home page in the front end and view the page source code.
The screenshot below was made using the Firebug add-in tool. It shows the home
page and the HTML and styling for the customised Latest News module.
In the upper part of the screen, outlined in light blue, is the "div" element for the
module. Below, in the HTML window, we see the HTML as follows:

12. <div class="moduletablecustomLatestClass">
and then
<ul class="latestnewscustomLatestClass">
The "moduletable" and "latestnews" classes are created automatically. The new
class, "customLatestNews" was created because we started the Module Class
Suffix parameter with a leading space.
Now, let's use our new class to add some custom styling. Again, go to the end of
the templates/rhuk_milkyway/css/template.css file and add the following code:
div.customLatestClass{
background-color:#FFFFD2;
}
div.customLatestClass
h3,ul.customLatestClass,ul.customLatestClass a {
color:#8B4513;
}
Save the file and re-display the home page. It should look like the screenshot
below:
The CSS selector div.customLatestClass sets the background color for the
entire area. The three selectors div.customLatestClass h3,
ul.customLatestClass, ul.customLatestClass a select the font color for
the "h3" heading, the bullets ("ul" tag), and the "a" tag, respectively. Note that, if we
only wanted to style the "ul" element, we wouldn't need a Module Class Suffix
unless we had more than one "Latest News" module. Instead, we could just have
defined the CSS using the standard "latestnews" class.
Be careful not to break existing CSS styling

13. In menus, we need to be careful not to break existing CSS styling.
Let's look at how this works. In the administrative back end, navigate to Extensions
→ Module Manager and open the Main Menu for editing. Click on the Advanced
Parameters. Notice that the Module Class Suffix is set to "_menu", without a leading
space.
Now, go to the Home page in the front end and view the source code (or use
Firebug). The screenshot below shows the HTML for the Main Menu.
Notice that the class is called "module_menu" because of the Module Class Suffix.
Also, notice that there is special styling in the "template.css" and "blue.css" files for
the "module_menu" class. For example, there is a background image that provides
part of the blue border around the menu.
We can confirm this by returning to the back end and changing the Module Class
Suffix to blank. Return to the Home page and refresh. Now the Main Menu will show
without the special "module_menu" styling, as shown below:

14. This shows an important point. Existing modules, especially menus, may already
have CSS styling that depends on Module Class Suffixes. So we need to be careful
when making changes.
What if we still wanted to add some special styling just to the Main Menu? One way
is to get tricky and add a second CSS class to the existing suffix. To see this, return
to the Module Manager in the back end and open the Main Menu for editing. This
time, in the Module Class suffix, enter _menu, a space, and then myMenuClass, as
shown below:
Now, add the following code to the end of the
templates/rhuk_milkyway/css/template.css file:
div.myNewClass{
font-size:1.2em;
}
Go back to the Home page and notice that now the font in the Main Menu is larger,
as shown below.

15. If we open Firebug, we can see what the HTML and CSS looks like, as shown
below:
By putting a space between the "_menu" and "myNewClass", we added the new
class into the HTML. Then, by selecting the new class in the CSS file, we changed
the font size.
Menu Class Suffix and Menu Tag ID
All core modules allow you to enter a Module Class Suffix, as discussed above.
Menu modules have two additional parameters: Menu Class Suffix and Menu Tag
ID. Let's look at what these parameters do.
Menu Class Suffix
The Menu Class Suffix inserts an extra suffix in the class for the unordered list that
builds up the menu. If unedited, the class is "menu". If adding "_myMenuClass"
under Advanced Parameters → Menu Class Suffix, the new tag will be
"menu_myMenuClass".

16. (This behaviour is only for the Menu Style "List". If choosing "Legacy - Vertical" or
"Legacy - Horizontal", the class suffix will be added to the links in the table; this
suffix will then be "mainlevel_myMenuClass". When choosing the Legacy Flat List,
the suffix will be added to the links (as on the two other Legacy lists), but it will also
be added to the ul tag, but as an id rather than a class; the id will be
"mainlevel_myMenuClass".)
Menu Tag ID parameter
Now, lets look at the Menu Tag ID parameter. Navigate to the back end, open the
Main Menu module for editing, and enter "myTagID" in the Menu Tag ID parameter.
Add the following code to the end of the templates/rhuk_milkyway/css/template.css
file:
#myTagID{
list-style-type:square;
}
Now, re-display the Home page to see the change. The bullets for the Main Menu
should now appear as squares, as shown below:
Finally, we can look at the HTML and CSS in Firebug, as shown below.
Joomla! has added the attribute id="myTagID" to the "ul" tag for the Main Menu.
This allowed us to change the style for this ID. Note that, since this is an "id"
attribute, we use the CSS selector #myTagID(with a "#" instead of a ".").

17. Conclusion
The Class Suffix and Menu Tag ID parameters allow you to fine-tune the CSS
styling of your web site. By using a leading space in the suffix name, we can create
a new class. This is normally the preferred method, since, as long as the new class
name does not conflict with an existing class, no existing styling will be broken.