Chapter 1, Understanding CMS Extensions, introduces the key differences between tags, user-defined tags, and modules, and teaches you to determine which is optimal for any given purpose. This chapter focuses on understanding the different approaches and deciding which to use to solve any particular problem.

Chapter 2, Programming with Smarty and Core Modules, demonstrates the use of Smarty and template logic to achieve complex functionality without installing anything beyond the CMS Made Simple core. You'll see how to do things you never thought were possible - all without writing any PHP code.

Chapter 3, Getting the Most out of Tags and User-Defined Tags, gives examples of Tags and User-Defined Tags, and shows how to create tags to handle such varied tasks as setting Smarty variables, filtering content, interfacing with modules, and interacting with web services. This chapter also includes information on some key CMS components, security pointers, and more.

Chapter 4, Getting Started with Modules, shows how you can use tools to jump start the module writing process, and demonstrates how to write fully-localizable modules in a maintainable and memory-efficient fashion. This chapter will give you a good basic understanding of how modules are organized and how they work.

Chapter 5, Using the Database API, shows how to interact with the underlying database using the Database API for safe, platform-independent access. This also includes discussion of updating database tables during module upgrades, getting better performance from your database with indexes, and generating unique IDs.

Chapter 6, Using the Module Form API, demonstrates how to render and process complex forms and user interfaces with the Form API. This chapter includes an example of a complete web form-handling application, along with tricks for debugging forms and sanitizing parameters.

Chapter 7, Your Module and the Community, gets you fully involved in the CMS Made Simple community. This chapter gives you a brief tour of the Developer's Forge, shows you how to use shared source-control repositories, and explains how to publish your modules.

Chapter 8, Creating Useful Admin Panels, teaches you how to build tabbed admin-side panels so site administrators can manage and configure your module. This chapter also covers custom content block types, admin permissions, setting preferences, and displaying messages to site administrators.

Chapter 9, Using Events, demonstrates handling events with User-Defined Tags, and both triggering and handling events with modules. This chapter explains how you can use events to enable complex interactions with tags and modules.

Chapter 10, Advanced Module Tricks and SEO, explains how to implement SEO-friendly URLs, making your module's content available to site search, override module strings, and export module data to desktop applications.

The minimal requirements for this book would be a web server with PHP 5.2 (5.2.18 or later preferred) and a database server (MySQL version 4.1 or later, or PostgreSQL). Any web server should work, but one recipe uses Apache's mod_rewrite, so to test that one, an Apache-compatible web server would be needed. We will also need a modern web browser (IE 8+, Firefox 3.x+, Safari, or Chrome), some kind of text editor, and, of course, CMS Made Simple version 1.9.x.

CMS Made Simple's full requirements can be found at http://wiki.cmsmadesimple.org/index.php/User_Handbook/Installation/Requirements and the code can be downloaded at http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/project/files/6.

If you are a CMS Made Simple user wanting to expand your skill set, or a programmer who wants to develop for CMS Made Simple, this book is for you. You will need working knowledge of PHP, HTML, and SQL. Some experience with CMS Made Simple is recommended.

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: "Custom URLs are accomplished entirely in your module's SetParameters() method, by creating new CmsRoute objects, and registering them with the CMS."

A block of code is set as follows:

<?php
class Monsters extends CMSModule
{
function GetName()
{
return 'Monsters';
}
function GetVersion()
{
return '0.1';
}
}
?>

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

mkdir MyModule/lang/ext

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Click on the XML button next to your module, and save the exported file in some easily accessible directory".

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