Acts Media » joomla

Joomla Component Ordering, Positioning Rows

Bryn Knatterud — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:44:44 +0000

When creating a custom component in Joomla admin area it is somewhat frequent that one wants the ability to order items based on an order value associated with each row. Just like how articles have an order in the Joomla “Article Manager”.

The following are the necessary code snippets that allow you to make this possible.

I hope to add a little more explanation to these soon.

controller.php

function saveorder()
{
	global $option;
	// Initialize variables
	$db	=& JFactory::getDBO();
	$cid	= JRequest::getVar( 'cid', array(), 'post', 'array' );
	$total	= count( $cid );
	$order= JRequest::getVar( 'order', array(0), 'post', 'array' );
	JArrayHelper::toInteger($order, array(0));
 
	$row =& JTable::getInstance('article', 'Table');
 
	// update ordering values
	for( $i=0; $i < $total; $i++ ) {
		$row->load( (int) $cid[$i] );
 
		if ($row->ordering != $order[$i]) {
			$row->ordering = $order[$i];
			if (!$row->store()) {
				JError::raiseError(500, 
                                     $db->getErrorMsg() );
			}
		}
	}
 
	$row->reorder();
 
	$msg 	= 'New ordering saved';
	$this->setRedirect('index.php?option='.$option, $msg);
}

views/all/tmp/default.php


	 echo JHTML::_('grid.sort',   'Position', $row->ordering, @$lists['order_Dir'], @$lists['order'] ); ?>
	 echo JHTML::_('grid.order',  $this->rows ); ?>

views/all/tmp/default.php


         echo $this->pagination->orderUpIcon( $i, ($i > 0), 'orderup', 'Move Up'); ?>
	 echo $this->pagination->orderDownIcon( $i, $n, ($i < $n ), 'orderdown', 'Move Down'); ?>
	 echo $row->ordering; ?>" class="text_area" style="text-align: center" />

Joomla: Adding Meta Description & Keywords

Bryn Knatterud — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:33:24 +0000

When using Joomla to run your website it is important to add Meta information to your articles. This information will be used by Search Engine Robots that index your site. The following is a quick guide to adding this information.

Log into the Joomla back-end at http://./administrator
Once logged in navigate using the upper navigation bar to Content > Article Manager
Click on any article in the manager to open the article
On the right column click on the bar that says “Meta Information”
The area will expand to show a few input areas. The ones we are concerned with are labeled “Description” and “Keywords” respectively.
In the “Description” input type a one sentence summary of the content in this article. You could to two sentences but one is really best.
Now in the “Keywords” box type in 2-3 keywords for the article. The words should be separated using semi-colons e.g. acts media; web design; web development; Also, notice that you can type key phrases not just words. You should try to keep the keywords at 3 or below.
When you are done inputting this information click on “Save” or “Apply” in the upper-right of the screen.
Great! Search Engines will now be able to better index this page of your site.

Joomla Loading Plug-Ins in Custom Components

Bryn Knatterud — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:07:49 +0000

I was having some trouble determining how to access and use a plugin in a custom component in Joomla.

I finally figured it out and the rather simple code snippet is below…

 
//Gives access to all plugins in the content folder
JPluginHelper::importPlugin('content');
// This variable is passed by reference so we need it later
$campinfo = "";
//I created my own trigger below, but "onContentPrepare" would work fine here
$dispatcher->trigger('onCampPrepare', array ($id, &$campinfo));
//assign are variable to be acessed in the template
$this->assignRef('campinfo', $campinfo);

Joomla Component Global Models

Bryn Knatterud — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 03:29:35 +0000

One thing that I often find necessary when creating a custom component in Joomla is the need to have a “Global” model that I can use in some or all of my views. It took me awhile to find documentation on this and what I did find was outdated documentation, so I think it is worth providing some here…

I will use some simple code examples so you can get an idea of how it works.

Prerequisite knowledge

Basic understanding of Joomla component MVC

1. Create your global model

Create a file called “global.php” and place it in the “models” folder of you component.

Insert the following code…[global.php]


defined('_JEXEC') or die ('Resctricted access');
jimport('joomla.application.component.model');
JModel::addIncludePath(JPATH_COMPONENT.DS.'models');
class CustomComponentModelGlobal extends JModel
{
	var $data = null;
	function getData()
	{
		if(empty($this->data))
		{
			$this->data = "My Global Data";		
		}
		return $this->data;
	}
}

2. Modify Controller Code

We will modify the code of the display method in the controller to make our global model available in all of the views.

controller.php

function display()
{
	$view = JRequest::getVar('view');
	if(!$view){
		JRequest::setVar('view', 'default');
	}
 
	$model = $this->getModel('Global');
 
	$document =& JFactory::getDocument();
	$viewType	= $document->getType();
	$viewName	= $view;
	$view = & $this->getView( 
                             $viewName,
                             $viewType, 
                             '',
                             array( 'base_path'=>$this->_basePath));
	$view->setModel($model);
 
	parent::display();
}

3. Access the Global model in the view

view.html.php

function display($tpl=null)
{
	/*
	 * The model can now be accessed in the view
	 * in either way below
	 */
 
	$data =& $this->get('data', 'Global');
        $globalModel = $this->getModel('Global');
        $data =& $globalModel->getData();
 
        //assign the data to a ref for output in the html
        $this->assignRef('myGobalData', $data);
}