Adding a parameter to Joomla component's menu item is as easy as pie!

Hey Guys,
In this blog we are going to see how to add a parameter to a Joomla component's menu item. This parameter can be used while referring view level in Joomla 2.5.x or 3.x.
Following are the steps to achieve this.

Step 1:

You have to specify parameter / option in your_layout.xml file in your component.
Lets say, you have to add “pageLimit” parameter to default layout of a view named 'products'. For menu item, you have to create add default.xml for this layout and have to add parameter entry as given below.

a. Add a xml file at location

site/components/com_yourcomponent/views/products/tmpl/default.xml

b. Add following code in above xml file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<metadata>
        <layout title="All Products View" option="View" >
                 <message><![CDATA[Quick2Cart All Products View]]></message>
        </layout>

        <!-- Add fields to the parameters object for the layout. -->
        <fields name="params">
                <fieldset name="advanced" label="COM_MENUS_LAYOUT_FEATURED_OPTIONS">
                        <field name="pageLimit" type="text" default="20" label="Product Limit" description="Limit to display product on All products view" />
                </fieldset>
        </fields>

        <state>
                <name>All Products</name>
                <description>All Products View </description>
        </state>
</metadata>

After adding the file, this parameter will be displayed while creating menu item for products view. Refer the following screen-shot for this.

Step 2 :

How to get menu parameter or options to use in queries?

// Getting menu Param
$menuParam = JFactory::getApplication()>getParams();
$pageLimit = $menuParam->get(pageLimit, 10);

 Using above code you can get menu parameter / option and can use it accordingly.

I hope this will help you. If there are any questions, feel free to add a comment. :)