What is the order that we should follow, while creating an extension in magento?

Question

The question I am sharing here is not about creating an extension, but about the order in which we should proceed.

This question will help a lot of people who want to create extensions. Because whenever we are creating an extension we usually try to check the impact our code has done so far.

So the question here is while creating an extension in magento which file/folder should be created in the order of first to last.

Also the extension I am talking about here, is a basic admin extension, with a tab in header in admin as well.

Answer 1

Step 1: Module Declaration Create app/etc/modules/M4U_HelloWorld.xml and write below code

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
         <modules>
                <M4U_HelloWorld>
                        <active>true</active>
                        <codePool>local</codePool>
                </M4U_HelloWorld>
         </modules>
</config>

Step 2: Module Configuration

app/code/local/M4U/HelloWorld/controllers/IndexController.php

class M4U_HelloWorld_IndexController extends Mage_Core_Controller_Front_Action
{
    public function indexAction()
    {
     $this->loadLayout(array('default'));
     $this->renderLayout();
    }
}

b. Create a Block class

app/code/local/M4U/HelloWorld/Block/HelloWorld.php

class M4U_HelloWorld_Block_HelloWorld extends Mage_Core_Block_Template { // necessary methods }

c. create configuration xml in app/code/local/M4U/HelloWorld/etc/config.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <global>
        <modules>
                <m4u_helloworld>
                        <version>0.1.0</version>
                </m4u_helloworld>
        </modules>
    <blocks>
            <helloworld>
                <rewrite>
         <helloworld>M4U_HelloWorld_Block_HelloWorld</helloworld>
        </rewrite>
            </helloworld>
     </blocks>

        </global>
       <frontend>
                <routers>
                        <helloworld>
                                <use>standard</use>
                                <args>
                                      <module>M4U_HelloWorld</module>
                                      <frontName>helloworld</frontName>
                                </args>
                        </helloworld>
                </routers>
        <layout>
            <updates>
                <helloworld>
                      <file>helloworld.xml</file>
                </helloworld>
            </updates>
            </layout>
        </frontend>
</config>

Define Frontend Template :

1. Define page layout in app/design/frontend/M4U/default/layout/helloworld.xml

N.B: Use default instead of M4U as template location if you use default design packages. Means create file in app/design/frontend/default/default/layout/helloworld.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>

    <layout version="0.1.0">

        <helloworld_index_index>
            <reference name="root">
                <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/1column.phtml</template></action>
            </reference>
            <reference name="content">
                <block type="helloworld/helloworld" name="hello" template="helloworld/helloworld.phtml"/>
            </reference>
        </helloworld_index_index>

    </layout>

1. Create template file app/design/frontend/M4U/default/template/helloworld/helloworld.phtml and write down

N.B: Use default instead of M4U as template location if you use default design packages. Means create file in app/design/frontend/default/default/template/helloworld/helloworld.phtml

Hello World ! I am a Magento Guy..

Hey, new module is ready to run and hit browser with url

http://Yourdomain.com/projectname/index.php/helloworld/

and see result.

That’s it……..