The administrator interface

The administrator interface, or back end, is where you set up, configure and maintain a hub. It runs on the same site as the public front end but under a separate URL, uses a different template, and is closed to anyone without an explicit permission to enter it.

Reaching it

Add /administrator to the hub's address. If the hub is at https://example.com, the back end is at:

https://example.com/administrator

That first path segment is what selects the administrator application; there is no separate hostname or port. Everything after it is an ordinary index.php?option=com_… request handled by the same components as the front end, only with their admin/ controllers and views instead of their site/ ones.

Logging in

Every administrator URL is rewritten to the login component until you are both logged in and authorised, so it does not matter which back-end page you ask for first — you always land on the login screen:

	if (\User::isGuest() || !\User::authorise('core.login.admin'))
	{
		$option = 'com_login';
	}

	if (empty($option))
	{
		if (strtoupper(\App::get('request')->method()) == 'POST')
		{
			$option = \App::get('request')->getCmd('option', '', 'post');
		}
	}

	if (empty($option))
	{
		$option = 'com_cpanel';
	}

The check is the core.login.admin permission, not simply "is logged in". A member who is signed in to the front end and browses to /administrator is still sent to the login screen if their access groups do not carry that permission. On a fresh install core.login.admin is granted to the Manager group and inherited by Administrator beneath it; Super Users hold core.admin, which grants everything. See Access groups for how to change that.

The login screen itself is com_login, rendered through the admin template's login.php layout with the Login Form module (mod_adminlogin) in it. What you see depends on which authentication plugins the hub has enabled with their Admin login option turned on:

• With no such plugin, you get a plain form: Username, Password, and a Log in button.
• With one or more, you get a Sign in with … button for each, plus a link back to the plain form for hub-local accounts.

A successful login lands you on the Control Panel.

The layout

Every back-end page is built from the same pieces, in this order down the page:

Region	What is in it
Header	The hub's name, linking to the front end, and the Log out link on the right
Main navigation	The top-level menus, rendered by the admin menu module in the menu position
Toolbar box	The page title on the left and its action buttons — New, Save, Save & Close, Close, Options, Help — on the right
Sub-navigation	The current component's own screens, when it registers any
Content	The component itself

The toolbar is where the verbs live. A list screen puts New, Edit, Delete and the status buttons there; an edit screen replaces them with Save, Save & Close and Close. A component's Options button opens its configuration in a modal, and the Permissions tab inside that modal is where you say which access groups may use it.

The Control Panel

The Control Panel is the component com_cpanel, and it is the default screen for any administrator URL that names no component. It has no content of its own: it renders every administrator module published in the cpanel position, one collapsible panel per module. What your dashboard shows therefore depends entirely on which modules the hub publishes there. Daily maintenance describes the panels a working hub usually adds.

The menus

The main navigation is assembled by the admin menu module. Most of it is hardcoded, and each entry is shown only if you hold the permission it needs, so a Manager sees fewer entries than a Super User.

Menu	Contains
Site	Control Panel, Global Configuration, a Maintenance submenu (Global Check-in, Clear Cache, Purge Expired Cache, LDAP, Geo DB, APC, Routes), System Information, and Logout
Users	Members, Groups, Access Groups, Access Levels, User Notes and their categories, and Mass Mail Users
Menus	Menu Manager, then one entry per menu defined on the hub
Content	Article Manager, Category Manager, and Media Manager
Components	One entry per installed, enabled component, with a submenu where the component defines one
Extensions	Extension Manager, Module Manager, Plug-in Manager, Template Manager, Language Manager
Help	Help Articles and links out to hubzero.org; the menu module's Help Menu option, on by default, hides it

The Components menu is the one that grows. Unlike the rest, it is built from the database — the administrator menu rows installed with each component — rather than from the module's own code, which is why installing a component adds it to that menu without any further step. Members, Groups and System are deliberately left out of it because they already appear under Site and Users.

Logging out

Click Log out in the top-right corner of the header, or use Site → Logout. Either returns you to the login screen.

While you have an item open for editing, the whole main navigation and the Log out link are disabled: the record is checked out to you, and the interface hides the links so you cannot navigate away and leave it locked. Finish with Save & Close or Close to release it, and the links come back.

Where to go next

• Advanced setup — the site template, menus and modules.
• Configuring — the global configuration and the per-extension options.
• Users — members, access groups, and access levels.
• Daily maintenance — the work a running hub needs every day.