Modules and views

Every page of Exponential is produced by a view of a module. A module groups related functions (content, user, section, shop); a view is one page or action of it (content/view shows a node, content/edit edits an object, user/login signs in). The address of a page names both, so understanding modules and views is understanding Exponential's URLs.

The system address of a page

/<module>/<view>/<parameter>/<parameter>/(<name>)/<value>

/content/view/full/2                    module content, view view, ViewMode=full, NodeID=2
/content/view/full/2/(offset)/20        the same, with the unordered parameter offset=20
/content/edit/58/3/eng-US               edit object 58, version 3, in eng-US
/user/login                             the login form

The parameters after the view are ordered: their meaning comes from their position. Parameters in the form (name)/value are unordered (view parameters): they can come in any order and are passed to the template as $view_parameters. With URL translation, a readable address such as /about-us stands for its system address, and both work (see URL translation). Siteaccess matching by path adds the siteaccess name in front: /admin/content/view/full/2.

How a module is defined

A module is a directory with a module.php and a PHP script per view. The modules of the kernel are in kernel/<module>/ and kernel/private/modules/; extensions have theirs in extension/<extension>/modules/<module>/. module.php declares the views and the functions that policies can grant. An extract of kernel/content/module.php:

$Module = array( 'name' => 'eZContentObject',
                 'variable_params' => true );

$ViewList = array();
$ViewList['view'] = array(
    'functions' => array( 'read' ),
    'default_navigation_part' => 'ezcontentnavigationpart',
    'script' => 'view.php',
    'params' => array( 'ViewMode', 'NodeID' ),
    'unordered_params' => array( 'language' => 'Language',
                                 'offset' => 'Offset',
                                 'year' => 'Year',
                                 'month' => 'Month',
                                 'day' => 'Day' )
    );

$FunctionList = array();
$FunctionList['read'] = array( 'Class' => $ClassID,
                               'Section' => $SectionID,
                               'Owner' => $Assigned,
                               'Group' => $AssignedGroup,
                               'Node' => $Node,
                               'Subtree' => $Subtree );

The $FunctionList entries are what you see in the role editor as module functions, with their limitations (Class, Section, Subtree and so on). See Access control.

What a view returns

The view's script usually fetches data, sets template variables and renders a template; it returns the result in $Result['content'] together with the path for the breadcrumbs. The kernel then places it into the design's pagelayout.tpl. A view can also redirect, return a kernel error (such as "not found" or "access denied") or ask for another view to run.

Modules of extensions, and which modules a siteaccess allows

An extension makes its modules known in its settings/module.ini.append.php:

<?php /* #?ini charset="utf-8"?

[ModuleSettings]
ExtensionRepositories[]=myextension
ModuleList[]=mymodule

*/ ?>

ModuleList[] also keeps URL aliases from taking the name of a module. A siteaccess can switch modules off with site.ini [SiteAccessRules] Rules[] (for example Rules[]=access;disable followed by Rules[]=module;content/search), and the views a user may open are decided by roles. Views that everyone may use without a policy, such as user/login, are listed in site.ini [RoleSettings] PolicyOmitList[]. Building a module step by step: Extending Exponential 6.0, section 5.