He is an MCP and studies IT
part-time at the British Open University. His main interests are web development,
Windows and Linux administration, Robotics, and Java software development (JMF,
motion detection, CV, and distributed systems).
He loves Linux and he is a proud member of the local Linux User Group: GROLUG.
He tries to innovate ways to substitute Windows-based technologies with Linux and
open-source alternatives.
Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: Introduction to Joomla! 7
Overview 7
History 8
Requirements 9
Extension Types and Their Uses 9
Components 10
Modules 10
Plugins 10
Languages 11
Templates 11
Tools 11
Extension Manager 12
JED and JoomlaCode.org 12
Development Tools 13
J!Code 14
J!Dump 14
Summary 16
Chapter 2: Getting Started 17
The Application and Document 17
Request to Response 18
The Process 18
URI Structure 22
Directory Structure 24
Libraries 26
A Quick Lesson in Classes 27
Inheriting from JObject 28
Table of Contents
[ ii ]
Working with the Request 29
The Factory 30
The Session 31
Predefined Constants 32
Multilingual Support 34
UTF-8 String Handling 34
Coding Standards 36
phpDocumentor 37
Summary 39
Chapter 3: The Database 41
The Core Database 41
Extending the Database 42
Table Prefix 42
Schema Conventions 42
Common Fields 42
Schema Example 44
Dealing with Multilingual Requirements 45
Querying the Database 46
Writing Queries 46
Getting Results 47
loadResult( ) : string 48
loadResultArray( numinarray : int=0 ) : array 48
loadAssoc( ) : array 48
loadAssocList( key : string='' ) : array 49
loadObject( ) : stdClass 49
loadObjectList( key : string='' ) : array 50
loadRow( ) : array 50
loadRowList( key : int ) : array 51
Using ADOdb 51
JTable 52
CRUD 54
Manipulating Common Fields 58
Publishing 59
Hits 59
Checking Out 59
Ordering 60
Parameter Fields 61
Date Fields 62
Summary 63
Chapter 4: Component Design 65
Setting up a Sandbox 65
The Structure 67
Table of Contents
[ iii ]
The MVC 68
Building a Model 70
Building a View 75
Building a Controller 78
Building an MVC Component 82
Rendering Other Document Types 87
Feed 87
PDF 90
Raw 91
Dealing with Component Configuration 93
Elements and Parameters 95
Extending JElement 96
Using Custom JElement Classes 98
Help Files 99
Routing 100
Packaging 102
XML Manifest File 103
SQL Install and Uninstall Files and Queries 110
Install and Uninstall Files 111
Summary 113
Chapter 5: Module Design 115
Setting Up a Sandbox 115
First Steps 116
Standalone Modules 117
Modules and Components Working Together 118
Frontend and Backend Module Display Positions 119
Module Settings (Parameters) 120
Helpers 121
Layouts (Templates) 124
Media 126
Translating 126
Packaging 127
XML Manifest File 127
Summary 131
Chapter 6: Plugin Design 133
Setting Up a Sandbox 134
Events 136
Listeners 138
Registering Listeners 138
Handling Events 138
Table of Contents
[ iv ]
Plugin Groups 141
Authentication 142
Content 144
Editors 146
Editors-xtd 148
Search 151
System 152
User 152
XML-RPC 155
Loading Plugins 155
Using Plugins as Libraries (in Lieu of Library Extensions) 156
Translating Plugins 159
Dealing with Plugin Settings (Parameters) 160
Packaging 161
XML Manifest File 162
File Naming Conflicts 165
Summary 165
Chapter 7: Extension Design 167
Supporting Classes 167
Helpers 168
Using and Building getInstance() Methods 169
Using the Registry 174
Saving and Loading Registry Values 175
The User 177
User Parameters 178
The Session 184
The Browser 185
Assets 189
Summary 190
Chapter 8: Rendering Output 193
The joomla.
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