Basics of Developing or modifying extensions

For developers!

The instructions provided in this document are designed for those who have experience programming Joomla extensions (plugins, modules, or components) or at least with some basic PHP skills. These instructions may have you modify your existing PHP files or database tables. You should never do this on a live site and should always have a back-up of your system prior to making any of the changes listed here. If you have an active support subscriptions you can request assistance with this process in our Support Center; however, if you need us to make custom modifications to your installation there maybe a fee for this service.

The Need

Sometimes you won't be able to find an extension that will do exactly whaqt you need. By creating your extension or modifying an existing one you can create the function that you need.

The Solution

Here are some of the basics methods you will need to know for developing a Joomla! plugin and for integrating with existing extensions.

This article is by no means exhaustive, and does not intend to be, but rather is to introduce you to what you will need to know for the very basic task of creating a plugin for Joomla. If you would like more information on developing for Joomla!, please see any of the resources at the bottom of this article.

Connecting to the Joomla! Database

To execute a query on the Joomla! database, you will need to

Create a database connection:
Create the query
Set the query
Execute the query (and capture the returned records, if necessary)

$database = & JFactory::getDBO();
$query = "SELECT * FROM #__ambrasubs_types "
. " WHERE 1 "
. " AND `id` = '".$id."' "
;
$database->setQuery( $query );
$data = $database->loadObjectList();