VP FAQ — Reference

Detailed reference for VP FAQ: every option of the component and module, common use cases, article linking, troubleshooting, updates and license. If you have just installed VP FAQ, start with the Getting Started guide first.

Component Configuration

The component is the admin side of VP FAQ. It is where content lives.

Categories

VP FAQ uses Joomla's standard categories system (com_categories), so categories work exactly like article categories: you can nest them, control access levels, assign language tags, and use the standard publishing workflow. To manage them, go to Components → VP FAQ → Categories.

Common patterns:

  • Flat list — one category per FAQ section ("General", "Billing", "Technical"). Best for sites with under 30 questions.
  • Topic + product — top-level "Billing", child "Refunds", "Subscriptions"; top-level "Technical", child "Setup", "Integration". Best for documentation-style FAQs.
  • One category per page — "Product FAQ — Pricing Page", "Product FAQ — Landing Page". Best when you want fully different question sets on different pages.

Questions and Answers

Each FAQ item has the following fields:

Question (title). Required. Shown as the clickable header in the accordion. Keep it concise — a real question users would actually ask, not a marketing slogan.

Answer (content). Edited in Joomla's standard WYSIWYG editor. You can use formatting, links, images, lists, inline HTML, and shortcodes. Joomla's safehtml filter is applied for security.

Category. Required. Pick from the categories you created.

Linked Article. Optional. If set, the module will render a "Read more →" link inside the answer pointing to the chosen Joomla article. Useful for short answers that link to a detailed page. Clearable.

Publish Up. Optional. Schedule when the question becomes visible. If set in the future, the question is hidden until that date.

Status. Published / Unpublished / Archived / Trashed. Standard Joomla flow.

Questions can be reordered within a category by dragging the move handle in the list view, or by using the Manual ordering (admin) mode in the module's display options.

Module Configuration

The module is the display layer. Settings are split across the standard Module, Menu Assignment, and Advanced tabs.

Module tab

Source. The most important option. Two modes:

  • Selected items — pick specific questions by hand from a checklist of all published items. The display order matches the order you tick them. Best for product pages, landing pages, or anywhere you want exact control over which questions appear and in what order.
  • Categories — display all published questions from one or more categories. Best for dedicated FAQ pages, support pages, or documentation sections, where the content evolves over time and you do not want to maintain two lists (one in admin, one in module config).

The fields below change depending on the chosen mode.

Questions to display (Selected items mode only). The checklist of all published items. Order of selection is preserved on the frontend.

Categories (Categories mode only). Pick one or more categories. All published questions from these categories will be shown.

Include subcategories (Categories mode only). When on, also displays questions from descendant categories. Useful for nested category structures: select the top "Billing" category, get everything under it.

Ordering (Categories mode only). How the questions are sorted on the page:

  • Manual ordering (admin) — uses the order you set with the move handle in the admin questions list. Default. Best for curated FAQs where the sequence matters.
  • Title (A → Z) / (Z → A) — alphabetical.
  • Oldest first / Newest first — by item ID.
  • Random — a different order on every page load. Useful for "Frequently Asked Questions" widgets where you want variety.

Limit (Categories mode only). Maximum number of questions to display. Set to 0 for no limit. Useful when a category has 50 questions but you only want to show the top 10.

Show 'Read more' link. Default: on. Controls whether questions with a Linked Article show a "Read more →" link in the answer. Turn off if you want to display a clean accordion without out-going links.

Open first item. Default: off. When on, the first question is expanded by default on page load. Useful when the first question is "What is this?" and you want the answer visible immediately.

Menu Assignment tab

Standard Joomla module assignment. Choose On all pages, No pages, or Only on the pages selected / On all pages except those selected. For per-page FAQs, the typical pattern is Only on the pages selected with one or two specific articles ticked.

Advanced tab

Standard Joomla module options: layout, module class suffix, caching, etc. The defaults are sensible — caching is set to "Use Global", which is what you want for FAQ content that does not change on every request.

Common Use Cases

Dedicated FAQ page

Create a Joomla menu item pointing to an empty article (or a category list, or any page that has a module position). Place a VP FAQ Module in that position, set Source to Categories, pick your "General FAQ" category, ordering = manual. As your FAQ grows, just add more questions in admin — the page updates itself.

Per-page FAQ on product pages

Create one category per product ("Product FAQ — Pricing", "Product FAQ — Features"). Create a separate module instance for each product page, each pointing at its own category. Use menu assignment to restrict each module to its specific page. This is the pattern used on the VP FAQ product page itself — the FAQ section you see there is a live VP FAQ module.

Inline FAQ inside an article

Use Joomla's built-in {loadmoduleid} shortcode (or the Modules Anywhere-style equivalent in your editor) to embed a VP FAQ module instance inside the body of an article. Best when you want a focused 3-5 question FAQ as part of a longer piece — for example, near the "Pricing" section of a sales page.

Multi-section documentation

Create a parent category "Documentation" with child categories per topic. Place a module on the docs index page with Source = Categories, parent category selected, and Include subcategories on. As you add new topics, create them as child categories and the index updates automatically.

Random FAQ widget in the sidebar

Use Source = Categories, ordering = Random, limit = 3. Show in the sidebar across the site for a "Did you know?" widget that surfaces different questions on each page load.

Article Linking

One feature worth a closer look: each FAQ item has an optional Linked Article field. If you set it, the module will append a "Read more →" link inside the rendered answer, pointing to the SEF URL of the chosen article.

This solves a common documentation problem: a short answer is enough for 80% of users, but the remaining 20% want full details. Instead of writing a long answer (which clutters the accordion) or a short answer (which leaves users searching), you write a short answer in VP FAQ and link to a full Joomla article for the deep dive.

The "Read more" link uses Joomla's SEF routing, so it respects your URL configuration (slugs, language prefixes, multilingual setup). If the linked article is unpublished or moved to trash, the link is automatically suppressed — no broken links.

You can disable the "Read more" link globally per module instance via the Show 'Read more' link option, useful when you want a self-contained accordion with no out-going links.

Troubleshooting

The accordion appears, but clicking does nothing.
Most likely the module's JavaScript was not loaded. Open your site in the browser, open DevTools → Console, and look for errors. If you see a 404 for /modules/mod_vpfaq/tmpl/vpfaq.js, the module is not properly installed — try reinstalling the package. If you see no errors but clicks still do nothing, check your template for a JavaScript error elsewhere on the page that might be blocking the module's init.

The accordion shows but looks unstyled.
The module's CSS file failed to load. Check /modules/mod_vpfaq/tmpl/vpfaq.css exists on disk and is accessible (no .htaccess rules blocking it, no aggressive cache plugin breaking the path). Clear Joomla's cache via System → Maintenance → Clear Cache.

"Source: Categories" is selected but no questions appear.
Three things to check, in order:

  1. Are the questions published? Unpublished items are never displayed by the module.
  2. Is the category itself published? An unpublished category hides its items.
  3. Does the access level match? If your questions or categories have a stricter access level than the visiting user, they will be filtered out.

"Source: Selected items" — the checklist is empty.
The checklist only shows published items. If you have just created your questions in Save state but did not publish them, they will not appear in the picker. Publish them first.

The "Read more" link goes to the wrong URL.
Joomla's SEF routing depends on the article having a published menu item. If the linked article has no menu item assigned, Joomla generates a fallback URL based on the article ID. If the URL looks wrong, create a menu item pointing to the article (it does not have to be visible in the menu — uncheck "Show in menu") and the URL will resolve correctly.

I see questions duplicated on the page.
You probably have two module instances assigned to the same module position with overlapping selections. Check Extensions → Modules, filter by your module position, and review the assignments.

Questions display in the wrong order in Categories mode.
The default ordering is Manual ordering (admin), which uses the order set by the drag handle in the questions list view. If you have not reordered them there, they appear in the order they were created (lowest ID first). Reorder them in admin or switch the module's Ordering option to one of the alternatives (alphabetical, newest first, etc.).

Two modules on the same page interfere with each other.
This should not happen — every module instance generates unique IDs based on its module ID. If it does, please report it via support.

Updates

After installation, Joomla's built-in Update Manager monitors VP FAQ automatically. Updates appear in System → Update → Extensions. Check the box and click Update — that is the entire flow. Both the component and the module update as a single package; you do not need to update them separately.

Every release is signed with a SHA-256 checksum, which Joomla verifies after download. If the checksum does not match (a sign of a corrupted or tampered file), the update will not be installed.

The full version history is available on the VP FAQ product page.

Support

VP FAQ is a paid extension. The license includes:

  • 12 months of priority support via the support form on vpjoomla.com.
  • 12 months of updates through Joomla's Update Manager.
  • Use on a single production website.

For questions, bug reports, or feature requests during the support period, use the support form. Renewing the license after 12 months is optional — your installation continues to work indefinitely with the version you have, you just stop receiving updates and support.

License

VP FAQ is released under the GNU General Public License v2.0 or later. You are free to use, modify, and redistribute the code under the terms of that license. The license refers to the code, not the support and updates — those are tied to your purchase, not the GPL.

Portions of the extension's structure are derived from Joomla! CMS core code, Copyright (C) Open Source Matters, Inc., licensed under the same GPL v2 or later.