Serfe - Talento y Creatividad en TI - Desarrollo Web - Diseño Web

This article will explain how to develop customized components for Joomla in the 1.0.x version, showing the files and basic steps, as well as some useful methods such as access to the database, paged results, etc. It is recommended to have knowledge of PHP and HTML to read this article.

Directory structure

Joomla has a directory structure divided into 2 big groups. Administrator, where are all the files needed for the backend to work and the various directories that are located in the root directory.

The directories of interest are the components, both within the administrator directory, as in the root directory, since here is where the files for each component are, which in turn are in sub-directories as follows, com_componentName, example com_users.

If we want to see the files corresponding to the users component, must look at

• Administrator/components/com_users (backend)
• Components/com_users (frontend)

Another important is the includes directory, since within it we find files that have classes that are going to be used in the component, for example to connect the database (database.php), to manage user data, paging, etc (joomla.php).

The components are stored in the database, more precisely in the jos_components table.

Files that make up a component

A component to be installed must be compressed in a zip file, with the following format com_ComponentName.zip example com_users.zip.

This file must have at least 8 files that are going to be described in brief:

• admin.componentName.php (backend)
• admin. componentName.html.php (backend)
• toolbar. componentName.php (backend)
• toolbar. componentName.html.php (backend)
• componentName.xml (backend)
• componentName.class.php (opcional)
• componentName.php (frontend)
• componentName.html.php (frontend

The following describes each file. (more…)

This article aim will be to provide an introduction to the content management system called Joomla, describe its main features and how it is made.

What is Joomla?

Joomla is an open source Content Management System (CMS) built with PHP under a GPL license. This o Content Management System can be used to create a website with dynamic content, using a MySQL database.

Features:

• Websites organization.
• Publication of contents.
• Scalability and implementation of new functionalities.
• User’s management.
• Websites design.
• Navigation and menu.
• Image manager.
• Modifiable modules order.
• Polls.
• Advertising.
• Statistics of visits.
• And more…

Which websites can be created with Joomla?

With Joomla we can create news websites, corporate sites, community portals, and we can also create with Joomla systems operating on closed networks (Intranets) to manage internal information (communications, users, etc) from companies or business firms. (more…)

This article will explain how to create a mambot on Joomla 1.0.x (Plugins from Joomla 1.5). It is recommended to have knowledge of PHP and HTML to read this article.

What is a Mambots?

Mambots are the applications that intercept the contents (documents or items of components) before being published and displayed by the system, and add or alter information dynamically, thus completing the total content that will be delivered the end user’s browser. The Mambots can be called by special commands, or can be displayed by default for certain content / components.

Mambots are located in the directory /mambots. As the components and modules can be installed/uninstalled, configured and published from the backend of Joomla.

Triggers:

At present there are 5 factors (documented) to trigger a Mambots:

• onPrepareContent
• onSearch
• onInitEditor
• onGetEditorContents
• onEditorArea

Each event require a numer and parameters.

Example of a Mambot:

As modules, Mambots are composed of two core files. One is the .xml file that gives the configuration for the installation, and the other is .php file that allows us to codify what the mambots will do. Al the mambot files should start with “mos”.

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What is a module?

Modules are small programs that can be inserted anywhere in a site that uses Joomla.

Depending on the template (the part that handles the entire display) can be placed anywhere dynamically configuring it on the backend.

The function of the modules is basically display information in a small box, for example, could be used to show user data, date and time, temperature of a place in particular, etc. You can also use a module to link it to component and use it as a submenu.

Needed Files

You need 2 files to create a module: One is the XML file that is used for installing and configuring the module in Joomla. The other is the PHP file itself, which perform the task of displaying data on the site. Is necessary to respect the nomenclature putting “mod_” to the name of the module. This is important in order to install it on the Joomla´s backend.

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