Before writing our code, there are some queries that need to be run in order to register the plug-ins in the database. We will be creating three plug-ins two of them will format content and one will interact with Joomla!'s core search component. The queries will add records pointing to the folders where each plug-in can be found, along with their names.

In your SQL console, enter these three queries:

INSERT INTO jos_plugins (name, element, folder, published) VALUES ('Content - Reviews', 'reviews', 'content', 1);
INSERT INTO jos_plugins (name, element, folder, published) VALUES ('Content - Review Information', 'reviewinfo', 'content', 0);
INSERT INTO jos_plugins (name, element, folder, published) VALUES ('Search - Reviews', 'reviews', 'search', 1);

If you're using phpMyAdmin, pull up a screen to enter rows into the jos_plugins table, and enter the information shown in the following screenshot, in order to register the Content — Reviews plug-in in the database:

Using phpMyAdmin...