Set module assignment at menu creation

Question

I have a component which creates content pages for custom entities.

I have an xml which allows to set those pages as menu items of that entity type.

I have 1 module that I always want to display on menu items of that type.

I have 1 module that I never want to display on menu items of that type.

Now I am trying to figure out how to spare my customer the hassle to keep going to the module manager to set and unset the module assignments every time they create a new menu item.

Is there a way to programmatically set the module assignments at time of menu creation? I have figured out where and how the assigments are stored in the database, but cannot seem to find an event for a plugin to hook into at menu creation.

Any hints or clues how to approach this?

Answer 1

Maybe it would be a good idea to merge the 2 modules into a single dynamic one. Then in this module you can check with JInput for the current content type/view and conditionally display the desired data from inside the module.

If the content type is of that menu item, then display data for the first module, otherwise display data for the second module.

Answer 2

Extending on FFrewin's idea, could you create dynamic module positions in your template that only appear when the appropriate conditions are met, and assign the modules accordingly? ie do it at template level rather than module level so that the third party modules can remain untouched.

Another suggestion would be to create a third bespoke module that loads the other modules programatically, as opposed to assigning them via the module manager.

Alternatively, the quick-and-nasty approach would be to just add a CSS file to your component's view that shows/hides the modules with CSS. I don't believe hidden content is really a major SEO issue any more, it just makes the page a bit heavier.