Archived:Developing a MVC Component/Developing a Basic Component

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Articles in this series

Articles in this Series

1. Introduction
2. Developing a Basic Component
3. Adding a view to the site part
4. Adding a menu type to the site part
5. Adding a model to the site part
6. Adding a variable request in the menu type
7. Using the database
8. Basic backend
9. Adding language management
10. Adding backend actions
11. Adding decorations to the backend
12. Adding verifications
13. Adding categories
14. Adding configuration
15. Adding ACL
16. Adding an install/uninstall/update script file
17. Using the language filter facility
18. Adding an update server
19. Example of a Frontend Update Function
20. Example of Menu Parameters & Stylesheets

Introduction

This tutorial is part of the Developing a Model-View-Controller (MVC) Component for Joomla!1.6 tutorial.

The first basic component

Let's create a Hello World! component.

Public display

With your favorite file manager and editor, create a file site/helloworld.php containing

Hello world

You can test this basic component by putting index.php?option=com_helloworld in your browser address (don't forget to prefix this address with your Joomla!1.6 installation path).

Administrator management

With your favorite file manager and editor, create a file admin/helloworld.php containing

Hello world administration

You can test this basic component by putting administrator/index.php?option=com_helloworld in your browser address.

Packaging an installation zip file

If you have used Joomla before reading this tutorial, you have noticed that extensions are installed using a compressed file containing all the things which are needed for installing and uninstalling them.

Delete the components/com_helloworld and administrator/components/com_helloworld directories of your Joomla!1.6 installation.

With your favorite file manager, create a directory (outside your Joomla!1.6 installation directory) containing

• helloworld.xml
• site/helloworld.php
• site/index.html
• admin/helloworld.php
• admin/index.html

Create a compressed file of this directory or directly download the archive and install it using the extension manager of Joomla!1.6. You can test this basic component by putting index.php?option=com_helloworld or administrator/index.php?option=com_helloworld in your browser address. You can also notice that the Hello World! component is visible in the administrator site of your Joomla!1.6 installation under the Components menu.

helloworld.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<extension type="component" version="1.6.0" method="upgrade">
	<name>com_helloworld</name>
	<!-- The following elements are optional and free of formatting constraints -->
	<creationDate>November 2009</creationDate>
	<author>John Doe</author>
	<authorEmail>john.doe@example.org</authorEmail>
	<authorUrl>http://www.example.org</authorUrl>
	<copyright>Copyright Info</copyright>
	<license>License Info</license>
	<!--  The version string is recorded in the components table -->
	<version>0.0.1</version>
	<!-- The description is optional and defaults to the name -->
	<description>Description of the Hello World component ...</description>

	<!-- Site Main File Copy Section -->
	<!-- Note the folder attribute: This attribute describes the folder
		to copy FROM in the package to install therefore files copied
		in this section are copied from /site/ in the package -->
	<files folder="site">
		<filename>index.html</filename>
		<filename>helloworld.php</filename>
	</files>

	<administration>
		<!-- Administration Menu Section -->
		<menu>Hello World!</menu>
		<!-- Administration Main File Copy Section -->
		<!-- Note the folder attribute: This attribute describes the folder
			to copy FROM in the package to install therefore files copied
			in this section are copied from /admin/ in the package -->
		<files folder="admin">
			<!-- Site Main File Copy Section -->
			<filename>index.html</filename>
			<filename>helloworld.php</filename>
		</files>		
	</administration>
</extension>

site/helloworld.php

Hello World

admin/helloworld.php

Hello World administration

index.html

<html><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"></body></html>

Contributors

• Christophe Demko