J3.x:Developing an MVC Component/Adding a variable request in the menu type

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).

Introduction

This tutorial is part of the Developing a MVC Component for Joomla! 3.2 tutorial. You are encouraged to read the previous parts of the tutorial before reading this.

Adding a variable request in the menu type

For the moment, the displayed message is always Hello World!. Joomla!2.5 gives the possibility to add parameters to menu types. In our case, this is done in the site/views/helloworld/tmpl/default.xml file:

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>
	<fields name="request">
		<fieldset name="request">
			<field
					name="id"
					type="list"
					label="COM_HELLOWORLD_HELLOWORLD_FIELD_GREETING_LABEL"
					description="COM_HELLOWORLD_HELLOWORLD_FIELD_GREETING_DESC"
					default="1">
                                <option value="1">Hello World!</option>
                                <option value="2">Good bye World!</option>
                        </field>
		</fieldset>
	</fields>
</metadata>

Two important things to note:

• the request group of fields indicates mandatory fields
• the name attribute can be passed to the component in the URL. In this case ?option=com_helloworld&id=1 would indicate that you had chosen option 1.

The model has to be modified in order to switch between the two different messages (which is chosen by the user with the field defined above):

site/models/helloworld.php

<?php
/**
 * @package     Joomla.Administrator
 * @subpackage  com_helloworld
 *
 * @copyright   Copyright (C) 2005 - 2015 Open Source Matters, Inc. All rights reserved.
 * @license     GNU General Public License version 2 or later; see LICENSE.txt
 */

// No direct access to this file
defined('_JEXEC') or die('Restricted access');

/**
 * HelloWorld Model
 *
 * @since  0.0.1
 */
class HelloWorldModelHelloWorld extends JModelItem
{
	/**
	 * @var string message
	 */
	protected $message;

	/**
	 * Get the message
	 * @return  string  The message to be displayed to the user
	 */
	public function getMsg()
	{
		if (!isset($this->message))
		{
			$jinput = JFactory::getApplication()->input;
			$id     = $jinput->get('id', 1, 'INT');

			switch ($id)
			{
				case 2:
					$this->message = 'Good bye World!';
					break;
				default:
				case 1:
					$this->message = 'Hello World!';
					break;
			}
		}
		return $this->message;
	}
}

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

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>January 2014</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>0.0.5</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>
		<filename>controller.php</filename>
		<folder>views</folder>
		<folder>models</folder>
	</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>

You can test this variable request by putting index.php?option=com_helloworld&id=1 or index.php?option=com_helloworld&id=2 in your browser address.

Packaging the component

Content of your code directory

• helloworld.xml
• site/helloworld.php
• site/index.html
• 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
• site/models/index.html
• site/models/helloworld.php
• 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 add a menu item of this component using the menu manager in the backend.

General Information

Contributors

• Christophe Demko
• Ozgur Aksu
• Matt Thomas
• Scionescire