Joomla! Documentation™

Joomla! 

3.x

Tutorial

Developing a MVC Component

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. Adding a Frontend Form
18. Adding an Image
19. Adding a Map
20. Adding AJAX
21. Adding an Alias
22. Using the Language Filter Facility
23. Adding a Modal
24. Adding Associations
25. Adding Checkout
26. Adding Ordering
27. Adding Levels
28. Adding Versioning
29. Adding Tags
30. Adding Access
31. Adding a Batch Process
32. Adding Cache
33. Adding a Feed
34. Adding an Update Server
35. Adding Custom Fields
36. Upgrading to Joomla4

This is a multiple-article series of tutorials on how to develop a Model-View-Controller Component for Joomla! Version.

Begin with the Introduction, and navigate the articles in this series by using the navigation button at the bottom or the box to the right (the Articles in this series).

The first basic component

Let's create a Hello World! component.

Public display

With your favorite file manager and editor, create a file yoursite/components/com_helloworld/helloworld.php containing:

Hello world

Also Create an empty file yoursite/components/com_helloworld/helloworld.xml

The last step is install the component, go to Extensions  →  Extension Manager  →  Discover :: Discover (Button). Select the component and install it with the installation (button).

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! 3.x installation path) after installing this component.

Administrator management

With your favorite file manager and editor, create a file yoursite/administrator/components/com_helloworld/helloworld.php containing:

Hello world administration

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

Pack 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.

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

• helloworld.xml
• site/helloworld.php
• site/index.html
• admin/index.html
• admin/helloworld.php
• admin/sql/index.html
• admin/sql/updates/index.html
• admin/sql/updates/mysql/index.html
• admin/sql/updates/mysql/0.0.1.sql

Create a compressed file of this directory or directly download the archive and install it using the extension manager of Joomla. 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 installation under the Components menu.

File Details

admin/sql/updates/mysql/0.0.1.sql is an empty file allowing to initialise schema version of the com_helloworld component.

helloworld.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<extension type="component" version="3.2.0" method="upgrade">

	<name>Hello World!</name>
	<!-- The following elements are optional and free of formatting constraints -->
	<creationDate>December 2013</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>

	<update> <!-- Runs on update; New since J2.5 -->
		<schemas>
			<schemapath type="mysql">sql/updates/mysql</schemapath>
		</schemas>
	</update>

	<!-- 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 link='index.php?option=com_helloworld'>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">
			<!-- Admin Main File Copy Section -->
			<filename>index.html</filename>
			<filename>helloworld.php</filename>
			<!-- SQL files section -->
			<folder>sql</folder>
		</files>
	</administration>

</extension>

site/helloworld.php

Hello World

admin/helloworld.php

Hello World administration

index.html

common to all folders

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

General Information

Prev: Introduction

Next: Adding a view to the site part