Manifest files

The value inside the tag is the menu's label. Unlike Joomla! 1.5, you can not use a natural language string. For example, if you would enter "Example Component" instead of COM_EXAMPLE, it would result in your component name appearing as example-component in the menu and you would be unable to provide a translation. In order to provide a translation you need to create a file named en-GB.com_example.sys.ini in administrator/languages/en-GB (you can use the manifest's <languages> tag to copy it during installation) or in administrator/components/com_example/language/en-GB. In the latter case, you must not include the translation file in the <languages> tag. As long as you have placed the language directory in your <files> tag, it will be copied along when the component is being installed.

The contents of that file should be:

COM_EXAMPLE="Example Component"
COM_EXAMPLE_SUBMENU_ANOPTION="Another Option"
COM_EXAMPLE_SUBMENU_VIEWNAME="Another View"

Please note that the language string must be enclosed in double quotes, as per Joomla!'s translation standards. Important note: Joomla! 1.6 and later sorts the Component menu items based on the actual translation of the key you supply in your XML manifest. This means that the sorting order is correct no matter what you call your translation key and no matter which language the site is being displayed in. Essentially, Joomla! 1.6 fixed the wrong sorting of the Components menu for the majority (non-English speaking!) of Joomla! users experienced under Joomla! 1.5.

Information required: In Platform 11.1 no alt attribute processed and if link provide in menu tag other provided attributes were ignore. The other tags are task, view, controller, act, layout, sub. Please confirm this, please.

Configuration

Components do not support configuration definitions in the manifest. This is a way implemented in Joomla! 1.5. They can define configuration options for multiple levels using Component configuration metadata.

The <config> element, a child of the root, describes the configuration options for the extension. If applicable, the options will be shown by the appropriate Manager (Plugin Manager, Module Manager or Template Manager). Configuration options can also be defined in a separate file named config.xml. Its root element should be <config>.

Under the <config> element, one or more <fieldset> elements may appear, each representing a HTML <fieldset>, a group of form fields visually grouped together. The optional name attribute can be used on the <fieldset> to define the name of the fieldset, as in <fieldset name="params">.

Each fieldset must contain one or more <field> elements, each representing a single form field with a label. See Standard form field types for a list of allowed form field types and example XML form field definitions.

SQL

    <install>
        <sql>
            <file driver="mysql" charset="utf8">example.install.sql</file>
        </sql>
    </install>
    <uninstall>
        <sql>
            <file driver="mysql" charset="utf8">example.uninstall.sql</file>
        </sql>
    </uninstall>

You can execute SQL during installation and/or uninstallation using the <install> and <uninstall> elements, respectively. An <sql> element should appear as a child of these elements. <sql> can contain any number of <file> elements, each defining a single SQL file to execute. Their database driver types are described by the driver attribute, their character sets by the charset attribute.

Language files

Including the language INI files in your extension installation package is not sufficient. You have to tell Joomla! where to find them so that it can install them. This is done by means of up to two <languages> tags. In the case of a component, you need a <languages> tag both under the root tag (<manifest> or <install>) of the XML file (for the front-end translation files) and one inside the <administration> tag (for the back-end translation files). In both cases, the syntax looks like that:

<languages folder="langfiles">
        <language tag="en-GB">en-GB.com_example.ini</language>
</languages>

The content of the folder attribute of this tag is the relative path of the directory holding the translation files. The path is relative to the your installation package, not the site's root. Each <language> tag must specify the ISO-code of the language in the tag attribute.

You should not that, by default, the language files are not loaded during installation time unless you use a special convention.

For components, you must place a directory named language inside your component's backend directory and make sure it's being installed, i.e. you have referenced it in your <administration> tag's <files> tag. For other extension types, create a directory named language inside your installation archive's root. In all cases, create one subdirectory per language and put your .sys.ini translation file in there. For example, if you have plg_content_example, create the file language/en-GB/en-GB.plg_content_example.sys.ini and put all installation-time messages' translations in there. This file will be loaded automatically by Joomla! right after all files have been copied and before running your script file and/or displaying the post-installation message (e.g. the extension's description).

Script file

    <scriptfile>example.script.php</scriptfile>

A script file (PHP code that is run before, during and/or after installation, uninstallation and upgrading) can be defined using a <scriptfile> element.

Update servers

    <updateservers>
        <server type="extension" priority="1" name="Extension Update Site">http://example.com/extension.xml</server>
        <server type="collection" priority="2" name="Collection Update Site">http://example.com/collection.xml</server>
    </updateservers>

Update servers can be defined in the <updateservers> element, a child of the root. This element may contain one or more <server> element, each describing a location to fetch updates from. Each <server> item can define the following attributes:

Examples

For a real-life example, see the manifest of the Banner component in version 1.6.5.

The Joomla testing process uses several extensions to test whether the installer works correctly. The latest versions of the manifests of these extensions are:

• com_alpha manifest
• mod_alpha manifest
• plg_system_alpha manifest
• tpl_simple manifest
• lng_xx-XX manifest

Contributors

• Alex Kempkens
• Daniel Peraza
• Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos
• Prasit Gebsaap