MidCOM component development

1. MidCOM component basics
2. Quick start
3. Component interface classes
4. Advanced component development
5. Development tools

MidCOM components are object-oriented PHP applications that can be run anywhere on a Midgard CMS powered website or application. The MidCOM framework provides centralized services like internationalization, configuration and output templating for the components.

The components must provide some defined interface classes that MidCOM utilizes to place the component seamlessly into the site.

This guide aims to help developers with existing PHP skills to port or develop new applications as part of the MidCOM framework.

MidCOM component basics

• Tips for Writing Midgard Applications
• Namespacing in MidCOM
• Component directory structure
• Coding standards

Quick start

To make it easy to contribute your component into MidCOM's Subversion repository you should run MidCOM from Subversion. This setup will also provide you with the phing tool that can be used to generate a running skeleton for your component.

To generate the skeleton, go to the trunk directory of your Subversion checkout and run:

$ phing scaffold -Dmodule=net.nemein.calendar

This would generate a basic component into directory src/net.nemein.calendar that you can then start to edit.

To get the component run in your Midgard installation you have to symlink the component directory under the actual executed MidCOM tree, either by running phing install or by manually linking:

$ ln -s /home/bergie/devel/trunk/src/net.nemein.calendar /usr/local/lib/midcom/lib/net/nemein/calendar

Then just call the /midcom-cache-invalidate on your site to get the component manifest loaded and the component should appear in folder creation screen.

Component interface classes

• Component manifest - config/manifest.inc
• Component interface class - midcom/interfaces.php
• Request handler class - viewer.php
• Administrative handler class - admin.php
• Navigation information class - navigation.php

Advanced component development

• Using templates with the component
• Localizing the component
• Making the component configurable
• Using Datamanager for form handling
• Using standard toolbars with the component
• Packaging the component
• Using Microformats in the component
• Adding online documentation to the component

Development tools

• Using Eclipse IDE with MidCOM
• Using PhpDoc with MidCOM
• MidCOM debug logging system