Configuration

Rename build.properties.dist to build.properties and set the src.dir variable to the Joomla! path. For example

src.dir=/var/www/joomla

This is where the script will look for the components you are trying to build.

Naming conventions

The script uses the extension prefix to determine the extension type, so you have to use the following prefixes to the extension=VALUE

• component : “com_”
• module : “mod_”
• template : “tpl_”
• plugin: “plg_GROUP_”

Administrator modules and templates must use the following prefixes

• module: “mod_admin_”
• template: “tpl_admin_”

Language files

When using this script, the language files for an extension needs to be stored within the folder of the extension itself and not in the global language folder.

Usage examples

Building an extension from the joomla source tree

phing -Dextension=com_content build

Creating a package

Once you have built an extension you can create an installable package from the build using the following command.

phing -Dextension=com_content

This will create a package file “com_content_DATE.zip”

If you also wish to add a version number you can use the following procedure

phing -Dextension=com_content -Dversion=2.5

Download latest version
or…
Take a peek at the source

<?php define('_JEXEC', 1);
define('DS', DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR);
 
if (file_exists(dirname(__FILE__) . '/defines.php')) {
    include_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/defines.php';
}
 
if (!defined('_JDEFINES')) {
    define('JPATH_BASE', dirname(__FILE__));
    require_once JPATH_BASE.'/includes/defines.php';
}
 
require_once JPATH_BASE.'/includes/framework.php';
 
/* Your code here */

If we take a closer look at the code, the first if construct will check if there exists a defines.php file in the directory of your external PHP script, and use if in case it does. If that file is not found, it will look in the includes subdirectory for defines.php. After the defines are included, the platform is loaded. There is really not much more to it, now you will be able to use the Joomla! platform like you would inside Jooml!. For example by instantiating JDatabase through $database = JFactory::getDBO(); or accessing the request through JRequest.

So here is how you do it, if you need to know how to create an installer script for your component, please refer to the official Joomla! MVC Component tutorial.

class Com_HelloworldInstallerScript {
    function postflight($type, $parent){
        if ($type == 'install' || $type == 'update') {
            $db = JFactory::getDBO();
            $query = $db->getQuery(true);
            $query->delete('#__menu');
            $id = JComponentHelper::getComponent('com_helloworld')->id;
            $query->where('component_id = '.$id);
            $query->where('client_id = 1');
            $db->setQuery($query);
            $db->query();
        }   
    }   
}

Note that during uninstall of a component which has had its menu entry removing in this manner, there will be a warning/error in versions 1.7.0 and older. The component will still uninstall like it should so do not worry if you see this error.

• Reading or writing a byte
• Reading or writing a word aligned on a 16-bit boundary
• Reading or writing a double word aligned on a 32-bit boundary

       asm ( assembler template 
           : output operands
           : input operands
           : list of clobbered registers
           );

#define LOCKED   = 1
#define UNLOCKED = 0
 
static int test_and_set(int *address)
{
	int value = LOCKED;
	asm volatile ("xchg (%%eax), %%ebx"
		      :"=b" (value)
		      :"0"(value), "a"(address));
	return value;
}

There is also a very nice via ferrata climbing route there which I hope to be able to do in the near future.

After spending the day walking around in the old castle (yes, plenty of stairs…) we went for a nice climbing trip at Leaz, which is a small village at the foot of the Jura mountains.

The following application displays a 3D model of a cube representing the monitored laptop, a server running on that laptop is sending real-time updates using information it gets from the IBM Hard Drive Active Protection System (HDAPS). This allows a remote client to monitor the movement of the laptop. The application itself is not very impressive, but I included a screenshot anyway.

Gospergun

                             #
                           ####
                  ##     #### ##         ##
                #  #   #   ## ###        ##
       ##      #       #   ## ##
       ##      #      #   #####
               #       ###   #
                #  #
                  ##

                               #
                                ##
                               ##

Our Java class

class ReadFile {
    native static int[] readEvent();
 
    //Load the library
    static {
        System.loadLibrary("nativelib");
    }
 
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        while(true){
            int event[] = new ReadEvents().readEvent();
            System.out.print("Event: ("+event.length+" bytes): ");
            for(int b: event)
                System.out.print(new Integer(b) + " ");
                System.out.println();
        }
    }
}

The Makefile used to build the shared library

CC=gcc
JC=javac
JH=javah
 
CFLAGS= -shared -Wall
INCLUDEPATH= \
     -I/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.16/include/ \
     -I/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.16/include/linux
 
all:
$(JC) ReadEvents.java
$(JH) ReadEvents
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o libnativelib.so $(INCLUDEPATH) events.c

This is really all the C code we need to pass the axes array

#define EVENTNODE "/dev/input/event6"
 
int axes[6] = {0,0,0,0,0,0};
int btns[2] = {0,0};
int fd = 0;
 
JNIEXPORT jintArray JNICALL Java_ReadEvents_readEvent(
    JNIEnv* env, jclass cl)
{
        if(fd == 0){
                fd = open(EVENTNODE , O_RDONLY);
        }
        struct input_event ev;
        read(fd, &ev, sizeof(struct input_event));
 
        switch (ev.type){
                        case EV_KEY:
                                btns[ev.code] = ev.value;
                                break;
                        case EV_REL:
                                axes[ev.code] = ev.value;
                                break;
        }
        jintArray jb;
        jb = (*env)->NewIntArray(env, 6);
        (*env)->SetIntArrayRegion(env, jb, 0, 6, (jint *)axes);
        return (jb);
}