adminhtml config action location

Question

I am trying to learn about creating modules by looking at the core code to see how the directory structure is formatted. I was looking at the Magento 1.9 sales module.

In the adminhtml.xml file, The mage_sales module has children which each have their own action. These actions contain 'adminhtml/sales_order' or 'sales_invoice' for example. How is this method accessed? I thought because it depends on Mage_Sales, this means in the Mage/Sales directory and then the action implies the directory of where that method that's being called. So i assumed it would be in Mage/Sales/Block/adminhtml/'and be here'.

I just want to understand where these actions are located and how they are being called as I can't find them and I would like to know how Magento structures their modules so I have some guidelines to follow by looking at their code.

Answer 1

Magento keeps all routes in the controllers folder under app/code/[codePool]/[Package]/[Module]/etc/ directory.

Below is a sample:

http://example.com/catalog/product/view/id/2

Base URL: http://example.com/

Module's front name: catalog

Controller class: product

Action name: view

Parameters and respective values: id/2

You can have multiple parameters in the same pattern.

Block folder is meant for serving functions which are called by phtml files using $this->functionName()

To deep dive into Magento's module structure, you can start from here.

Please let me know if you find any problem.