To get Joomla to use the title alias, use this code:

1. Open the following file:

components/com_content/content.php

2. Look for the following code:

// page title
 $mainframe->setPagetitle( $row->title );

3. Replace the code from 2. to this:

// If title alias < 20 characters, page title will be: Site name - title
 // else page title will be: title alias
 if (strlen($row->title_alias) < 20 )
 {
   $mainframe->setPagetitle( $row->title );
 }else{
   $mainframe->setPagetitlealias( $row->title_alias );
 }
 // END CODE SNIPPET 

4. Open the following file:

includes/joomla.php

5. Look for the following code:

function setPagetitle( $title=null ) {
 if (@$GLOBALS['mosConfig_pagetitles']) {
   $title = trim( htmlspecialchars( $title ) );
   $title = stripslashes($title);
   $this->_head['title'] = $title? $GLOBALS['mosConfig_sitename'] . '
 - '. $title : $GLOBALS['mosConfig_sitename'];
   }
 }

6. Add the following code after the code shown in 5.:

// setPagetitlealias - title of the content page to use tile_alias instead
 /**
 * @param string
 */
 function setPagetitlealias( $title_alias=null ) {
   if (@$GLOBALS['mosConfig_pagetitles']) {
     $title_alias = trim( htmlspecialchars( $title_alias ) );
     $title_alias = stripslashes($title_alias);
     $this->_head['title'] = $title_alias;
   }
 }
  // END CODE SNIPPET 

And there you have it. If the "Title alias" from any content now has more characters than 20, that will be the new page title. Enjoy.

Interested in this topic? You might enjoy another article I've written called

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