Skeleton Plugin for Joomla! 2.5+

This repository is just a simple template to get you started creating a Joomla Plugin.

It includes all the base files and a languages folder with easily replaced "skeleton" placeholders to insert your own unique details and plugin name.

Getting started

Download the files (zip) or fork the repository.

Replace Plugin Type and Name####

Make a copy of the files and using your favourite editor do a case sensitive search and replace on the following to turn it into a starting point for your plugin.

In this order:

• plg-group should be replaced by the plugins group (e.g. content)
• PLG-GROUP should be replaced by the plugins group
  (note the all caps for language token keys is a Joomla style).
• Plg-Group should be replaced by the plugins group (e.g. Content)
  (note CamelCase for class/method names is a Joomla style).
• _skeleton should be replaced by your _pluginName
  (usually something indicative of the functionality e.g. _embedtweet)
• Replace skeleton with your pluginName
  • skeleton.php with the name of your plugins main file e.g. embedtweet.php
  • plugin="skeleton" should change to plugin="pluginName" e.g. plugin="embedtweet"
• _SKELETON should also be replaced by your plugins name (e.g. _EMBEDTWEET)
• Skeleton Plugin with the human name of your plugin (e.g. Embed Tweet Plugin)
• Skeleton with class name of your plugin (e.g. EmbedTweet)
• Copyright (C) YYYY Me or My Company with your details e.g. Copyright © 2015 Craig Phillips Pty Ltd
• My Name with your name e.g. Craig Phillips
• me@mydomain.com with your email address (or support email address).
• www.mydomain.com with your website e.g. www.craigphillips.biz
• M YYYY with the creation month and year e.g. JULY 2015

Finally do a case insensitive search for skeleton to find any remnants that may exist in sample text.

Plugin groups are defined on the Joomla Doc's website.

Change File & Folder names####

For a plugin the top-level folder, and each of the files must follow a naming convention shown in the current file and folder structure:

/skeleton/
	skeleton.php
	skeleton.xml
	languages/en-GB/en-GB.plg_plg-group_skeleton.ini
	languages/en-GB/en-GB.plg_plg-group_skeleton.sys.ini

Specifically, they must all match the name of the plugin in the XML file. That means where you find plg-group in a file name it must be replaced by the plugins group and where you find skeleton in a file name you should replace it with the name of your plugin.

So, for example if you have a content plugin with this name element in the XML <name>plg_content_embedtweet</name> the plugin file folder should be named:

/embedtweet/
	embedtweet.php
	embedtweet.xml
	languages/en-GB/en-GB.plg_content_embedtweet.ini
	languages/en-GB/en-GB.plg_content_embedtweet.sys.ini

Annoyances

For Joomla 2.5.x+ in your plugins XML if you use a language key like PLG_EMBEDTWEET_XML_DESCRIPTION in the <description> element you must make sure that your package file (zip/gzip) doesn't include an extra folder level. To ensure your language files are loaded by the installer, files and directories of your plugin must be in the top-level of the zip file. For example for a packaged extension called plg_content_embedtweet.zip the structure should be like this:

plg_content_embedtweet.zip                      <-- the zip file
  embedtweet.php
  embedtweet.xml
  language/                                     <-- the language directory
    en-GB/                                      <-- the English language directory
      en-GB.plg_content_embedtweet.ini
      en-GB.plg_content_embedtweet.sys.ini