This year we had a total of 5 presentations presented by our company. Below you can download each of the presentations and learn from them. Until next year…enjoy!

Rafael Corral

• PHP 5
• Speed! (how to gain more speed from your Joomla! site)

Jonathan Shroyer

• Badass CSS3
• Coding for SEO

Michael Pignataro

• E-Commerce the Joomla way

Thank you John and Linda, for all of your hard work of putting the expo together!

Best,

‘corePHP’ Staff

JAutosearch is one such project that may revolutionize the way visitors utilize your website’s search functionality; about as much as I can say about JAutosearch at this time, although it will likely be released by the time you read this (or very nearly!).

Ok lets get down to some Joomla! extension tips!

While working on JAutosearch (as well as many other projects) I have found that understanding Joomla’s caching system is very much a requirement if you want to design responsive, remote type systems for Joomla! It is important to  cache remote data without the visitor having to wait for it to load every single page view – even more so many remote services frown upon “really realtime” connections and could ban ya! Fearmongering aside, everyone should be able to see the advantages in caching and the freeing up of server resources it entails.

Today I would like to describe an especially useful caching method available to Joomla’s Framework API, this being the Cache Callback Method whereby you can cache the output from a procedural function or class method. Directions are commented to the code below.

//you may need to import the required libraries if they
//are not already available
jimport('joomla.cache.cache');
jimport('joomla.cache.callback');

$cache = JCache::getInstance( 'callback', array(
	//this will be the folder name of your cache
	//inside the "cachebase" folder
	'defaultgroup' => 'my_cache', ///
	'cachebase' => JPATH_BASE . '/cache/',
	//how long to store the data in cache (seconds
	'lifetime' => ( 5*60*60 ), // hours to seconds
	'language' => 'en-GB',
	'storage' => 'file'
));

//you can turn the caching on and off here handy for param control
$cache->setCaching( true );

//your cache id must be unique to what you are caching
//if something is pretty dynamic you can use what ever vars are constructing your method
$cache_id = md5( JRequest::getVar( 'option' ) . JRequest::getVar( 'view' ) .  JRequest::getVar( 'id' ) );			

//there are two ways to call the actual data depending on whether you are
//caching a method of a class or just a plain old function.

$CacheClass = new CacheClass;

//define time so we can check the time of caching
$time = date( 'r', time() );

//now we get our data - if the cache hasn't expired the cache contents will be supplied or the
//output of the function if it has (then cache will be re-populated)

//this is the way to cache a class method - note the first argument uses php's func_get_args function
//the way you populate the first argument depends on what type of function you are calling
//first we call the "cache_method" method of the $CacheClass class we defined earlier
$data = $cache->get( array( $CacheClass, 'cache_method' ), array( $time, $cache_id ), $cache_id );

//now we call a procedural type function
$data = $cache->get( 'cache_function', array( $time, $cache_id ), $cache_id );

echo $data;

//below are the test function and class used

function cache_function( $time, $cache_id ){
	return "CacheId: $cache_id Time: $time";
}

class CacheClass{
	function cache_method( $time, $cache_id ){
		return "CacheId: $cache_id Time: $time";
	}
}

Disclaimer: I wrote this on the fly without testing so if there are any bugs.. well let me know! You should get the concept from what is there anyway

Happy Caching!

Adam Stephen Docherty
Senior Developer – ‘corePHP’

It is good to reuse functionality whenever you can. Many think that there is a 1 to 1 relationship in regards to model and view, but this is not the case. In fact, the model can be called from anywhere. This means that you can quickly hook into functionality without duplicating code, which is always a good thing!

Let say for example that we have a component called com_foo and we want to access it’s items model from say a module (could be a plugin as well).

//first we import some help from the joomla framework
JLoader::import('joomla.application.component.model');

//Load com_foo's items model (notice we are linking to com_foo's model directory)
//and declare 'items' as the first argument. Note this is case sensitive and used to construct the file path.
JLoader::import( 'items', JPATH_ADMINISTRATOR . DS . 'components' . DS . 'com_foo' . DS . 'models' );

//Now instantiate the model object using Joomla's camel case type naming protocol.
$items_model = JModel::getInstance( 'items', 'FooModel' );

//Now that we have the item's model loaded, we can set its state
$items_model->setState( 'id', $myItemId );

//and use it's methods!
$items_model->get_item();

jimport('joomla.application.menu');
$menus = JSite::getMenu();
$m = $menus->getActive();

This checks for the active menus on the page and sets it into the variable $m so we can manipulate it. Next, you need to look at the menutype in the administrator Menu Manager (under Type). This is what we will use to determine which school is being viewed. I want to take this information and set a new variable named $school:

if($m->menutype == 'district-information') { $school = 'district-info'; }
if($m->menutype == 'cityname-elementary-school') { $school = 'cityname-elementary'; }
if($m->menutype == 'cityname-middle-school') { $school = 'cityname-middle'; }
if($m->menutype == 'cityname-high-school') { $school = 'cityname-high'; }

The first thing I did was echo the variable $school into an ID on the body tag.

body id="< ?php echo $school; ?>"

This allows me to style the CSS uniquely according to the school being viewed which gives you a lot of style control. To change the logo I can just call it by the school.

#cityname-high .logo {background: url(../images/logo-highschool.jpg);}

Another thing I did was load a unique module position according to the school so I could publish modules in all pages the menu shows up on. I did this by doing the following:

if($school == 'district-info') {
    echo '<jdoc :include type="modules" name="district_module" style="raw" />';
};
if($school == 'cityname-elementary') {
    echo '<jdoc :include type="modules" name="elementary_module" style="raw" />';
};
if($school == 'cityname-middle') {
    echo '<jdoc :include type="modules" name="middle_module" style="raw" />';
};
if($school == 'cityname-high') {
    echo '<jdoc :include type="modules" name="high_module" style="raw" />';
};

As you can see this can give you the ability to do things you may not have been able to do before in Joomla!. I know it saved me from a major headache!

Out of all the control structures, if() is probably one of the most used and has the most flexible ways of being written. Readability should be taken into account when you decide which way to write it. Using braces is the wisest since it doesn’t leave any room for error in what the author meant to include in the statement. if() statements may be written inside functions / methods, inside and outside most other control structures, procedural PHP, and HTML files.

if ( expr )
    statement

-or-

if ( expr ) {
    statement;
} elseif ( expr ) {
    statement;
} else {
    statement;
}

The brace-less semicolon way is best for intermingling PHP with HTML. (i.e. view scripts from your MVC layout.) This way you can naturally write your HTML in your statements without having to use any quotes.

<?php if(expr) : ?>
    HTML Code 1
<?php else: ?>
    HTML Code 2
<?php endif; ?>

The Ternary (ter•na•ry) Operator is a special if() statement for small expressions. You can nest the ternary as many times as you would like, but more than once is usually frowned upon since your intentions will be unclear for other developers.

(expr1) ? (expr2) : (expr3);
(test for true) ? (do this if true) : (do this if false);
echo TRUE ? 'Yes, I am true' : 'I am not true';

prints: Yes, I am true

$value = FALSE ? 'Yes, I am true' : 'I am not true';
echo $value;

prints: I am not true

jimport( 'joomla.application.module.helper' );
if(count(JModuleHelper::getModules('left'))) {
	put your code here
}

A very powerful addition to you Joomla! PHP library!

The easiest way I have found to add the Krumo library is to use the auto_prepend_file for php. The auto_prepend_file declaration can be inserted into either the php.ini (for your entire web server), the httpd.conf file if you want it for just one site, or in your .htaccess file for a particular sub-directory. This will allow you to prepend a php script before any of your scripts run.

Create a new file on your web server called prepend.php.

include_once('krumo/class.krumo.php');

For php.ini, use:

auto_prepend_file = “auto_prepend.php"

For .htaccess or httpd.conf, use:

php_value auto_prepend_file auto_prepend.php

Resources:

http://krumo.sourceforge.net/

http://php.net/

Today I am going to be talking about the array_walk php function which can help you cut down on lines of code and organize your code better.

An easy way to think of array_walk() is think of it as an automatic way to loop through arrays of data. From time to time in your coding duties there are likely to be occasions when you find yourself writing these kind of loops over and over again:

$my_array = array( 'dog', 'cat', 'rabbit', 'bird' );

foreach( $my_array as $animal ){

process_animal( $animal );
}

The above routine can be reflected with less lines of code using the array_walk() function:

$my_array = array( 'dog', 'cat', 'rabbit', 'bird' );

array_walk( $my_array, 'process_animal' );

As you can see above, there is quite a reduction in code happening here. To find out more about array_walk please look at the PHP manual excerpt here.

Upon scraping the web for possible solutions I came across this gem:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />

Who should come? The CMS expo has their own answer (www.cmsexpo.net), but the simple answer is EVERYONE. This key seminar will send you home with new knowledge and tips designed to benefit your business! No matter what your job is, this expo will help you – and your company – grow by leaps and bounds.

‘corePHP’ will bring several of talented minds to the convention. Steven Pignataro, Jonathan Shroyer and Rafael Corral will be present to share their secrets in web development. Below is just a glimpse of what these amazing classes will involve!

Steven’s Joomla! Development I

Jonathan’s CSS Done Right

Rafael’s PHP5 Must-Know Techniques

This is just a glimpse of our presentations. We’ll also lead presentations on Joomla! Development II, Killer Photoshop Tips, and WordPress for Joomla!

So what are you waiting for? Sign up now! Trust me… it truly is worth it! You will learn a lot, meet developers face to face and have a great time!

See you in Chicago!