Learning Joomla! 3 Extension Development, 3rd Edition

11/26/2013 · No Responses

Joomla 3 is the first of the major open source content management systems that was meant to be mobile friendly by default. Joomla uses object-oriented principles, is database agnostic, and has the best mix of functionality, extensibility, and user friendliness. Add to that the fact that Joomla is completely community driven, and you have a winning combination that is available to everyone, and is the perfect platform to build your own custom applications.

“Learning Joomla! 3 Extension Development, Third Edition” is an integrated series of practical, hands-on tutorials that guide you through building and extending Joomla plugins, modules, and components. With Joomla having been downloaded well over 35 million times, there is a huge market for Joomla extensions, so you could potentially earn some extra cash in your spare time using your newly acquired Joomla extension development skills.

We will start with developing simple plugins and modules, and then progress to more complex backend and frontend component development. Then we will try our hand at ethical hacking, so you will learn about common security vulnerabilities and what you can do to avoid them. After that we will look at how you can prepare your extensions for distribution and updates, as well as how you can extend your components with various plugins and modules. Finally, you will end up with a fully functioning package of extensions that you can use on your own site or share with others.

If you want to build your own custom applications in Joomla, then “Learning Joomla! 3 Extension Development” will teach you everything you need to know in a practical, hands-on manner.

What you will learn from this book

Extend Joomla using plugins
Develop both frontend and backend modules
Build a Joomla component that looks and behaves like the core components, to reduce the learning curve for your users
Discover common security vulnerabilities and what you can do to avoid them
Prepare your extensions for distribution
Manage updates and set up an update server
Integrate third party extensions in your component

Approach
A practical guide with step-by-step examples that build on each other so you can learn by doing and get hands-on knowledge about creating your plugins, modules, and components in Joomla.

Who this book is written for
“Learning Joomla! 3 Extension Development” is for developers who want to create their own Joomla extensions. It is assumed you will have some basic PHP, HTML, and CSS knowledge, but you don’t need any prior Joomla programming experience. This book will also be useful to people who just want to make minor customizations to existing Joomla extensions and build on the work of others in the open source spirit.