Wika 2011 Video on Youtube

Over the weekend I uploaded my first video to youtube. Jay! :)

Video follows:

Joomla 1.5 - Created date to mySql

Joomla! allows you to set date values through the Joomla! framework whenever you want to save a date to the database.

To use a the current date/time in your JModel entended class, do the following.

In the store() method after the $row->bind() method, add:

//Get a JDate object
$createdate = &JFactory::getDate();
//Create a date in MySQL's datetime format
$row->created = $createdate->toMySQL();
//PS: make sure your table have a created field :)

Joomla!'s JDate also allows you to set custom Unix dates simply by passing in the date to JFactory::getDate() method. E.g.

$createdate =& JFactory::getDate(time());

Note that you wil override the date everytime you save to the database. See if you can modify the model to set the create date only on new saves. :)

See Joomla!'s API documentation for more on what JDate can do.

http://api.joomla.org/Joomla-Framework/Utilities/JDate.html

Joomla 1.5 Additional select tag values

This continues on my blog post on how to add a select tag through the Joomla! framework. The code that follows will show you how to add to the ObjectList for a Select tag. This is especially useful where you have to use a select tag in a search form.

I normally use a value of 0 to indicate a search of "All Values".

The first thing you do is create a class at the top of your page as follows:

<?php
class MySelectObject{
var $id;
var $name;
}
?>

Then to use it do the following:

<?php
$db = &JFactory::getDBO();
$query = "SELECT `id`,`name` FROM
#__town";
$db->setQuery($query);
$townlist = $db->loadObjectList();

/*Create an instance of MySelectObject*/
$mso = new MySelectObject();

/*Set values*/
$mso->id = 0;
$mso->name = 'Any Town';

/*Create an array for insertion*/
$tmpArr = array(0 => $mso);

/*Merge with array result from query. Add to the front of list*/
$selectList =
array_merge($tmpArr,$townlist);

/*Make MySelectObject the default selected*/
echo
JHTML::_('Select.genericlist',$selectList,'town',"","id","name",0);

?>

Joomla 1.5 - Creating RAW output for the front end

If you want your component to create RAW output on the front end, like xml data to be returned for an AJAX POST/GET, then this is what you have to do.

1. In your component's views/view/ folder, add a view.raw.php file. E.g. if your component has a view called smile your will add view.raw.php to your views/smile/ folder . i.e. com_mycomponent/views/smile/view.raw.php

2. Whenever you call your component via a url simply append format=raw to the url. E.g. index.php?option=com_mycomponent&format=raw

Notes: For the backend administrator side, you can just specify format=raw without having to add the view.raw.php file to your views folder.

Joomla 1.5 Raising Errors, Notices and Warnings through code

Sometimes it is neccessary to inform an user that incorrect information was entered, like with a login or form validation or sometimes the users needs to be notified what fields needs to be filled in when the form gets loaded.


Making use of Joomla!'s JError class it is possible to display this kind of messages theough the Joomla! framework. To use simply call the JError::raiseError, JError::raiseNotice or JError::raiseWarning methods.

<?php

$msg = 'Error Message';
JError::raiseError(0,$msg);

$msg = 'Notice Message';
JError::raiseNotice(0,$msg);

$msg = 'Warning Message';
JError::raiseWarning(0,$msg);

?>

[update - 11 Feb 2010]
For more go to the following url:
http://docs.joomla.org/Display_error_messages_and_notices