joomla 3.2 generates item ids as css classes in the html output of e.g. menu elements, is this of any use to me or just ignore it?

Question

I am used to develop simple, e.g. leave away whatever you don't need. This is why I have a bit a hard time with projects like joomla, because they ship with a lot of things I don't know what it should be good for. Someone knows why these classes are added to the elements? are they of any use to me?

Answer 1

As @Mark Simpson said, they're not actually used.

If you wish to remove them, go to line 25 of modules/mod_menu/tmpl/default.php and you will find this:

$class = 'item-'.$item->id;

which you can simply change to:

$class = '';

Do note that if you do edit this file, it may get overridden in a Joomla update and thus your changes will be lost. So instead of editing this core file, make a template override

Answer 2

The cms doesn't use them. Those are just helper classes, there for the benefit of template designers and site builders.

Say you want to highlight a particular menu item by giving it a different color. You could do this:

.item-435 a {color: red} /* turn that particular menu item red */