How to write a component for Joomla!^TM 1.5 with marco's! Component maker for Joomla!

Develop components with marco's Component maker is relatively easy because the program will build all the skeleton of the component in this way the components generator allows the programmer to focus only on business logic, or over which is his main task.

In order to explain how to act on a component generated by the components generator, we are writing this series of articles that explain how to create a simple component for managing content.

YES: I know Joomla! do it by himself...

But, really, do you need another 'Hello word'?

We will use  marco's! Component maker for Joomla!, for building a quick component using table already present in a database for Joomla! 1.5: jos_sections, jos_categories and jos_content

The presence in each table, of the three fields:

• `Id` int (11) NOT NULL auto_increment
• `Published` tinyint (1) NOT NULL default '1 '
• `Ordering` int (11) NOT NULL default '100 '

are not required in version past 1.5.0, but indication of a numeric primary key is still mandatory.

Now create the component, according to the instructions, and using this data suggested...

1. set up & configuration files

Download and install mysql connector from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/. Set right version of connector in marcoComponentMaker.exe.config. At the time of writing, the latest version of the mysql connector is 6.3.5

<bindingRedirect oldVersion="6.2.3.0" newVersion="6.3.5.0"/>

Add/modify connections string for data base access in <connectionStrings> section.

2. run the component creator for joomla!

First step/page: keep default values and press 'Next Step'

3. select db & tables

1. select your db from drop down select and press 'Select Server'
2. check these tables:
   • jos_sections
   • jos_categories
   • jos_content
3. press 'Next Step'

4. configure fields

4.1 jos_sections

Select the jos_sections tab and edit the following fields:

• title: set the 'Get Field Data' check box
• description: select 'RTE' from 'Render As' drop down

4.2 jos_categories

Select the jos_categories tab and edit the following fields:

• title: set the 'Get Field Data' check box
• description: select 'RTE' from 'Render As' drop down

Please pay attention!
'Get Field Data' doesn't check if method name is valid. so if you select the field 'name' will be generated the getName() method overriding the  JModel->getName(). In doubt add a suffix to auto-generated method!

4.3 jos_content

Select the jos_content tab and edit the following fields:

• introtext: select 'RTE' from 'Render As' drop down
• fulltext: select 'RTE' from 'Render As' drop down
• sectionid: select 'Select List' from 'Render As' drop down
• catid: select 'Select List' from 'Render As' drop down
• access: select 'Select List' from 'Render As' drop down

Press 'Next Step' twice and 'End Work'. The component in now ready to install (it is in com_mcm sub folder): install it!

Now you are ready to follow instructions for use profitably marco's Component maker in your work.

Manage the back end article

Manage the front end article