J4.x

Developing an MVC Component/Adding a View to the Site Part

From Joomla! Documentation

< J4.x:Developing an MVC Component
Other languages:
Deutsch • ‎English
Joomla! 
4.x
>Tutorial
Adding a View to the Site Part



This article is part of the tutorial "Developing an MVC Component for Joomla 4.x". It is intended to be a follow-along programming tutorial, so if you have not read the previous parts of the tutorial you are encouraged to do so.

Adding the View[edit]

Though a component is split into "admin" and "site" parts, the process of adding a view is very similar in both. Just as in the basic view we made in the last article, we will require a controller, a view, and a template.

To get started, let's first create the new files for the site page. As before, the source code for each file can be found under File Details.

1 Create: site/src/Controller/DisplayController.php The default MVC Controller for the site part
2 Create: site/src/View/Hello/HtmlView.php The MVC View object for the new "Hello" page
3 Create: site/tmpl/hello/default.php The template for the new "Hello" page
4 Update: helloworld.xml Need to add the new files to the component's manifest

File Details[edit]

site/src/Controller/DisplayController.php

The default MVC controller in the site part. We have some basic code in here to fetch and render a view, but as before we're mostly delegating to the parent Joomla! class. As this is a PHP class, it lives under your PHP namespace root src/, in the Controller namespace.

<?php

namespace JohnSmith\Component\HelloWorld\Site\Controller;

defined('_JEXEC') or die;

use Joomla\CMS\MVC\Controller\BaseController;
use Joomla\CMS\Factory;

/**
 * @package     Joomla.Site
 * @subpackage  com_helloworld
 *
 * @copyright   Copyright (C) 2020 John Smith. All rights reserved.
 * @license     GNU General Public License version 3; see LICENSE
 */

/**
 * HelloWorld Component Controller
 * @since  0.0.2
 */
class DisplayController extends BaseController {
    
    public function display($cachable = false, $urlparams = array()) {        
        $document = Factory::getDocument();
        $viewName = $this->input->getCmd('view', 'login');
        $viewFormat = $document->getType();
        
        $view = $this->getView($viewName, $viewFormat);
        
        $view->document = $document;
        $view->display();
    }
    
}

site/src/View/Hello/HtmlView.php

The MVC view for this "Hello World" page. As before, this file simply delegates to the parent object to get us started. As this is a PHP class, it lives under src/, in the View/Hello namespace that matches the view's name.

<?php

namespace JohnSmith\Component\HelloWorld\Site\View\Hello;

defined('_JEXEC') or die;

use Joomla\CMS\MVC\View\HtmlView as BaseHtmlView;

/**
 * @package     Joomla.Site
 * @subpackage  com_helloworld
 *
 * @copyright   Copyright (C) 2020 John Smith. All rights reserved.
 * @license     GNU General Public License version 3; see LICENSE
 */

/**
 * View for the user identity validation form
 */
class HtmlView extends BaseHtmlView {
    

    /**
     * Display the view
     *
     * @param   string  $template  The name of the layout file to parse.
     * @return  void
     */
    public function display($template = null) {
        // Call the parent display to display the layout file
        parent::display($template);
    }

}

site/tmpl/hello/default.php

The page template for our "Hello World" page in the site part. This is identical to the template we used in the admin part, to get us started. As a template, it lives under tmpl in a folder that matches the view's name.

<?php

/**
 * @package     Joomla.Administrator
 * @subpackage  com_helloworld
 *
 * @copyright   Copyright (C) 2020 John Smith. All rights reserved.
 * @license     GNU General Public License version 3; see LICENSE
 */

 // No direct access to this file
defined('_JEXEC') or die('Restricted Access');
?>
<h2>Hello world!</h2>

helloworld.xml

Finally, let's update the component's manifest to include the new files. We need to tell Joomla! that the new files exist so that it will copy them into place. We'll also update the extension's version number in the manifest - right now, this has no real effect, but in the future changing the version number will have more significance so it's a good habit to get into.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<extension type="component" version="4.0" method="upgrade">

    <name>Hello World</name>
    <!-- The following elements are optional and free of formatting constraints -->
    <creationDate>December 2020</creationDate>
    <!-- Dummy author, feel free to replace anywhere you see it-->
    <author>John Smith</author>
    <authorUrl>https://smith.ca</authorUrl>
    <copyright>John Smith</copyright>
    <license>GPL v3</license>
    <!--  The version string is recorded in the components table -->
    <version>0.0.2</version>
    <!-- The description is optional and defaults to the name -->
    <description>
        A hello world component!
    </description>

    <!-- This is the PHP namespace under which the extension's
    code is organised. It should follow this format:
    
    Vendor\Component\ComponentName

    "Vendor" can be your company or your own name
    
    The "ComponentName" section MUST match the name used 
    everywhere else for your component. Whatever the name of 
    this XML file is, the namespace must match (ignoring CamelCase). 
    -->
    <namespace path="src/">JohnSmith\Component\HelloWorld</namespace>

    <files folder="site/">
        <folder>src</folder>
        <folder>tmpl</folder>
    </files>

    <administration>
        <!-- The link that will appear in the Admin panel's "Components" menu -->
        <menu link="index.php?option=com_helloworld">Hello World</menu>
        <!-- List of files and folders to copy, and where to copy them -->
        <files folder="admin/">
            <folder>services</folder>
            <folder>src</folder>
            <folder>tmpl</folder>
        </files>
    </administration>

</extension>

Updating the Extension[edit]

To test the changes to your extension, first you will need to zip up the com_helloworld folder and install it just as you did before. We'll go through the process step-by-step one more time here:

  1. Using your web browser, navigate to the Administrator panel of your Joomla! site. The address would be <joomla>/administrator/. For example: http://localhost/joomla/administrator/
  2. On the left menu, click the "System" link.
  3. On the "Install" card, click "Extensions".
  4. On the "Upload Package File" tab, browse for and select the .zip file you just created.

Once your new component version is installed, click the "System" link on the main menu again, then select "Extensions" on the "Manage" card this time. A list of the installed Joomla! extensions should appear. Type "hello" into the search bar at the top right and hit return. You should see your "Hello World" extension, now listed as version 0.0.2.

The Hello World component, listed in the Joomla! extensions directory.

Testing the New Page[edit]

The new page has no menu link yet (we will add that in the next article) so to test it we'll need to use a direct URL. Go to <joomla>/index.php?option=com_helloworld&view=hello (not inside the /administrator path), and you should see your new "Hello World" site page appear.

The Hello World page as it appears on Joomla 4 Beta 5.

Next, we will add menu configuration for this page, so that it can be used inside the Joomla! menu system.