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Your first extension

Build a working extension in fifteen minutes - by hand or with the RAD module wizard - with a module, a view, a policy function, a template and settings, then activate it, give it a role and check it in the browser.

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Address: https://doc.exponential.earth/exphelp/viewer/help/creators/app-creators/your-first-extension.md

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Your first extension

This page is for application creators who want a running extension quickly. You build expdemo, an extension with one module, one view that lists the latest articles, one policy function and one template. You can let Setup > RAD write it (RAD tools) or type it yourself as below; both give the same result.

Contents

  1. The files
  2. Activate and register
  3. Give it a role
  4. Check it
  5. What you learned

The files 

extension/expdemo/
├── extension.xml
├── ezinfo.php
├── modules/expdemo/module.php
├── modules/expdemo/latest.php
├── design/standard/templates/expdemo/latest.tpl
└── settings/module.ini.append.php

settings/module.ini.append.php tells the kernel the extension has modules:

<?php /* #?ini charset="utf-8"?
[ModuleSettings]
ExtensionRepositories[]=expdemo
ModuleList[]=expdemo
*/ ?>

modules/expdemo/module.php declares the module, its view and its policy function:

<?php
$Module = array( 'name' => 'Demo' );

$ViewList = array();
$ViewList['latest'] = array(
    'script' => 'latest.php',
    'functions' => array( 'read' ),
    'default_navigation_part' => 'ezcontentnavigationpart',
    'params' => array( 'Limit' ) );

$FunctionList = array();
$FunctionList['read'] = array();

modules/expdemo/latest.php is the view; it fetches content and renders a template:

<?php
/** @var array $Params set by eZModule */
$limit = isset( $Params['Limit'] ) ? max( 1, min( 50, (int)$Params['Limit'] ) ) : 10;

$nodes = eZContentObjectTreeNode::subTreeByNodeID(
    array( 'ClassFilterType' => 'include',
           'ClassFilterArray' => array( 'article' ),
           'SortBy' => array( 'published', false ),
           'Limit' => $limit ),
    (int)eZINI::instance( 'content.ini' )->variable( 'NodeSettings', 'RootNode' ) );

$tpl = eZTemplate::factory();
$tpl->setVariable( 'nodes', $nodes ?: array() );

$Result = array();
$Result['content'] = $tpl->fetch( 'design:expdemo/latest.tpl' );
$Result['path'] = array( array( 'text' => 'Latest articles', 'url' => false ) );

subTreeByNodeID() checks content/read for the current user, so the list only shows what the user may read.

design/standard/templates/expdemo/latest.tpl:

<h1>{'Latest articles'|i18n( 'extension/expdemo' )}</h1>
<ul>
{foreach $nodes as $node}
  <li><a href={$node.url_alias|ezurl}>{$node.name|wash}</a></li>
{/foreach}
</ul>

ezinfo.php and extension.xml describe the extension for the about page (Anatomy of an extension).

Activate and register 

# settings/override/site.ini.append.php
[ExtensionSettings]
ActiveExtensions[]=expdemo
php bin/php/ezpgenerateautoloads.php -e
php bin/php/ezcache.php --clear-tag=ini --allow-root-user
php bin/php/ezcache.php --clear-id=design_base,template-override --allow-root-user

Under Velocity: php bin/php/console exp:velocity deploy.

Give it a role

In Users > Roles, add the policy expdemo / read to the role that should see the page (Anonymous for a public page). Without it, the view answers "access denied": the module's policy is checked before the script runs.

Check it

Open /expdemo/latest/5 on the site. Expected: a heading and five links. Then /expdemo/latest/abc: the cast to int makes it 1, never an error. Logged out without the policy: access denied.

What you learned

PieceLesson
module.ini.append.phpmodules of an extension are registered by settings
module.phpviews, parameters and policy functions are declared, not coded
the view$Params in, $Result out; templates do the HTML
the policyaccess is checked by the kernel before your code
the template|wash on everything you print

Next: Custom modules and views, and the class-based form of views (Commands, cronjob parts and module views as classes).

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Documentation license

This documentation is free documentation, licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 or later.

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