Book Image

Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and Framework Development Second Edition

Book Image

Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and Framework Development Second Edition

Overview of this book

Joomla! is one of the world’s top open source content management systems, which enables you to build websites and powerful online applications. Out of the box, Joomla! does a great job of managing the content needed to enhance the functionality of your website. But for many people, the true power of Joomla! lies in its application framework that makes it possible for thousands of developers around the world to create powerful add-ons and extensions. This book will guide you through the complexities of implementing add-ons, components, modules, and plugins in Joomla! 1.5. If you feel that you’ve mastered the basics of creating Joomla! extensions, then this book will take you to the next level. Packed with expert advice on all aspects of programming with Joomla!, this book is an invaluable reference guide you will turn to again and again for your Joomla! development tasks. The book starts by explaining the structure and design of the Joomla! Framework. Then we move on to extending and storing data in standard fields and dealing with multilingual requirements. Further, you will discover best practices, design, and coding methods for Joomla! components, modules, plugins, and other extensions. Along the way, you will actually design and create a component, module, and plugin that work together to add functionality to the Joomla! framework. You will also learn about customizing the page output using JavaScript effects, making use of Web Services from within Joomla! and ensuring that your code is secure and error-free. You will discover how to easily create sophisticated extensions that are robust, user-friendly, and professional by taking advantage of the many libraries and utilities provided by the Joomla! framework. A comprehensive, up-to-date reference to the Joomla! Framework API is also included in the book. Finally, we will discuss advanced methods for rendering your extensions more robust, secure, and professional.

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Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and Framework Development Second Edition
May, 2010 | 560 pages
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Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and Framework Development
Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and Framework Development
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewer
About the Reviewer
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Introduction to Joomla!
Introduction to Joomla!
Overview
Joomla! 1.5 Framework
Extension types and their uses
Extension Manager
Requirements
Joomla Extension Directory (JED)
Development tools
Summary
2
Getting Started
Getting Started
A quick object lesson
The Joomla! process
Directory structure
Summary
3
The Database
The Database
The core database
Database naming conventions
Additional points to consider
Using the database
Summary
4
Extension Design
Extension Design
Supporting classes
Helpers
Using and building getInstance() methods
Using the registry
The user
The session
The browser
Assets
Extension structure
Extension packaging
Summary
5
Component Design
Component Design
Component design
Building the MVC component
Dealing with component configuration
Help files
Routing
Summary
6
Module Design
Module Design
First steps
Module settings (parameters)
Helpers
Layouts (templates)
Translating
Summary
7
Plugin Design
Plugin Design
Events
Listeners
Plugin groups
Loading plugins
Using plugins as libraries (in lieu of library extensions)
Translating plugins
Dealing with plugin settings (parameters)
Summary
8
Rendering Output
Rendering Output
Improving components
Component backend
Itemized data
Summary
9
Customizing the Page
Customizing the Page
Application message queue
Redirecting the browser
Using menu item parameters
Modifying the document
Translating
Using JavaScript effects
Summary
10
APIs and Web Services
APIs and Web Services
XML
AJAX
LDAP
Email
File transfer protocol
Web services
Building a web service (XML-RPC plugin)
Summary
11
Error Handling and Security
Error Handling and Security
Errors, warnings, and notices
Dealing with CGI request data
Access control
Attacks
Summary
12
Utilities and Useful Classes
Utilities and Useful Classes
Dates
File system
Arrays
Trees
Log files
Summary
Joomla! Core Classes
Joomla! Core Classes
JApplication
JController
JDatabase
JDocument
JDocumentRenderer
JFactory
JModel
JObject
JPlugin
JTable
JUser
JView

File system

We normally store data in the database; however, we can also store data within the file system. Joomla! provides us with the joomla.filesystem library. This library enables us to work easily with the native file system. There are four main classes included in this library:

  • JPath

  • JFolder

  • JFile

  • JArchive

Paths

The static JPath class is integral to the library. Before we jump in, we must import the relevant library in order to use the JPath class:

jimport('joomla.filesystem.path');

The first three methods we will discuss are:

  • clean()

  • check()

  • find()

The clean() method is used to tidy up a path by removing any unnecessary directory separators and ensuring that all remaining directory separators are of the correct type for the current system. We use the clean() method as follows:

$path = JPATH_BASE.'\foo//bar\\baz';
$cleanPath = JPath::clean($path);

The following examples demonstrate the values associated with $path and $cleanPath respectively (assuming JPATH_BASE is equal to /var/www/html...

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