Archived:Developing a MVC Component/Adding a menu type to the site part

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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. You are encouraged to read the previous parts of the tutorial before reading this.

Adding a menu item type

In the Joomla!1.6 framework, components are executed using menu items. If you go in the menu manager of your Joomla!1.6 installation a HelloWorld menu item type does not yet exist. Adding this functionality is easy in Joomla. Simply put a site/views/helloworld/tmpl/default.xml file containing:

site/views/helloworld/tmpl/default.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> 
<metadata>
	<layout title="com_helloworld_HelloWorld_View_Default_Title">
		<message>com_helloworld_HelloWorld_View_Default_Desc</message>
	</layout>
</metadata>

For the moment the strings won't be translated in the administrator interface. We will see in a later article how translation is performed.

Also modify your helloworld.xml file to indicate a new version:

helloworld.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> 
<extension type="component" version="1.6.0" method="upgrade">
	<name>Hello World!</name>
	<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>
	<version>0.0.3</version>
	<description>Description of the Hello World component ...</description>
	<files folder="site">
		<filename>index.html</filename>
		<filename>helloworld.php</filename>
		<filename>controller.php</filename>
		<folder>views</folder>
	</files>
	<administration>
		<menu>Hello World!</menu>
		<files folder="admin">
			<filename>index.html</filename>
			<filename>helloworld.php</filename>
		</files>
	</administration>
</extension>

Packaging the component

Content of your code directory

• helloworld.xml
• site/index.html
• site/helloworld.php
• site/controller.php
• site/views/index.html
• site/views/helloworld/index.html
• site/views/helloworld/view.html.php
• site/views/helloworld/tmpl/index.html
• site/views/helloworld/tmpl/default.xml
• site/views/helloworld/tmpl/default.php
• admin/index.html
• admin/helloworld.php

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 add a menu item of this component using the menu manager in the backend.

Navigate

Next: Adding a menu type to the site part

Contributors

• Christophe Demko