---
title: "Creating a Menu Item for your Joomla 3 Component"
description: "So far in this Joomla tutorial series we've been testing our new component by visiting our Joomla site and adding index.php?option=com_helloworld to the url, as in:..."
url: https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/joomla/joomla-create-menu-item/
date: 2014-05-22
modified: 2024-01-23
author: "Brad Markle"
categories: ["Joomla"]
tags: ["Joomla v3"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# Creating a Menu Item for your Joomla 3 Component

So far in this [Joomla tutorial series](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/joomla/) we’ve been testing our new component by visiting our Joomla site and adding index.php?option=com_helloworld to the url, as in:

https://example.com/index.php?option=com_helloworld

In this tutorial, we will show you how to create a [menu item](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/joomla/joomla-3/add-menu-item/) for your component. This will allow you to add a link to your menu that points to your component with a URL similar to:

https://example.com/hello-world

## To create a menu item:

1. **Decide which view**. Components can have multiple [views](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/joomla/joomla-3/add-new-view/). Decide on which view you want to create a menu item for.
2. **Go to tmpl folder**. Navigate to the **tmpl** folder of the view you chose in step 1.
3. **Create default.xml**. Create a default.xml file in the tmpl folder with the following text: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <metadata> <layout title="Title"> <message>message</message> </layout> </metadata> [![Title and Message of Menu Item](/support/images/stories/edu/joomla-3/create-component/title-and-message-of-menu-item.png)](/support/images/stories/edu/joomla-3/create-component/title-and-message-of-menu-item.png) When going through the process of creating a menu item, the **Title** and **message** in the code above will be shown in the listing of item types (as in the screenshot to the right):

## Testing our new menu item

The whole process thus far of creating a new menu item for our component has been actually quite easy. If everything’s not “clicking” yet for you, review the following screenshot (*hopefully it’ll tie everything together*).

[![How to create a new menu item](/support/images/stories/edu/joomla-3/create-component/follow-route-of-component-menu-item-creation.png)](/support/images/stories/edu/joomla-3/create-component/follow-route-of-component-menu-item-creation.png)