Manifest files

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Introduction

Within Joomla there are manifest files for all of the extensions. These files include the general installation information as well as parameters for the configuration of the extension itself. Since Joomla! 1.6 , there are very few differences between the manifest file formats for the different types of extensions, allowing each type to access the full power of the Joomla! installer.

Naming conventions

The file must be named manifest.xml or <extension_name>.xml and located in the root directory of the installation package.

Syntax

Root element

The primary tag of the installation file is:

<extension></extension>

This starting and closing tags are now valid for all extensions. The new tag <extension> replaces the old <install></install> from Joomla . The following attributes are allowed within the tag:

Attribute	Values	Applicable to	Description
type	component module plugin template	All extensions	This attribute describes the type of the extension for the installer. Based on this type further requirements to sub-tags apply.
version	1.6	All extensions	String that identifies the version of Joomla for which this extension is developed. For Joomla 1.6 a version higher than 1.5 is required.
method	new upgrade	All extensions	The default value install will be also used if the method attribute is not used. In these cases the installer will gracefully stop if he finds any existing file/folder of the new extension
client	site administrator	Modules	The client allows to specify for which application client the new module is available.
group	string	Plugins	The group name specifies for which group of plugins the new plugin is available. The existing groups are the folder names within the directory /plugins. The installer will create new folder names for group names that do not exist yet.

Metadata

The following elements can be used to insert metadata. None of these elements are required; if they are present, they must be a child of the root element.

• <name> – raw component name (e.g. com_banners)
• <author> – author's name (e.g. Joomla! Project)
• <creationDate> – date of creation or release (e.g. April 2006)
• <copyright> – a copyright statement (e.g. (C) 2005 - 2011 Open Source Matters. All rights reserved.)
• <license> – a license statement (e.g. NU General Public License version 2 or later; see LICENSE.txt)
• <authorEmail> – author's email address (e.g. admin@joomla.org)
• <authorUrl> – URL to the author's website (e.g. www.joomla.org)
• <version> – the version number of the extension (e.g. 1.6.0)
• <description> – the description of the component. This is a translatable field. (e.g. COM_BANNERS_XML_DESCRIPTION)

Front-end files

    <files folder="from-folder">
        <filename>example.php</filename>
        <folder>examples</folder>
    </files>

Files to copy to the front-end directory should be placed in the <files> element. You can use the optional folder attribute to specify a directory in the ZIP package to copy from. Each file to copy must be represented by a <filename> element. If you want to copy an entire folder at once, you can define it as a <folder>.

Administration section

    <administration>

The administration section is defined in the <administration> element. Since only components apply to both the site and the administrator, only component manifests can include this element.

Back-end files

Files to copy to the back-end directory should be placed in the <files> element under the <administration>. You can use the optional folder attribute to specify a directory in the ZIP package to copy from. See Front-end files for further rules.

Menu links and submenus

        <menu>COM_EXAMPLE</menu>
        <submenu>
            <menu link="anoption=avalue">COM_EXAMPLE_SUBMENU_ANOPTION</menu>
            <menu view="viewname">COM_EXAMPLE_SUBMENU_VIEWNAME</menu>
        </submenu>

The text for the main menu item for the component is defined in the <menu> item, a child of <administration>. A <submenu> element may also be present (also a child of <administration>), which may contain more menu items defined by <menu>.

Additionally, each <menu> item can define the following attributes:

Attribute	Description
link	A link to send the user to when the menu item is clicked
img	The (relative) path to an image (16x16 pixels) to appear beside the menu item
alt
string	An URL parameter to add to the link. For example, <menu view="cpanel">COM_EXAMPLE</menu> in com_example's XML manifest would cause the URL of the menu item to be index.php?option=com_example&view=cpanel.

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

</source>

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:

Attribute	Values	Description
type	extension collection	The update server type
priority	integer	The priority of the update server
name	string	The name of the update server

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