Custom Fields in Joomla

Presented at Sydney Joomla User Group 14th June 2016

By Tim Plummer

What are custom fields?

• Allow you to add your own pieces of information to Joomla content

Joomla 3.7

• It is planned that custom fields (com_fields) will be added to Joomla core in version 3.7 later this year.– Based on DP Fields (third party extension by

Digital Peak)– https://github.com/joomla-projects/custom-fields– https://joomla.digital-peak.com/blog/198-custom-

fields-in-joomla-3-6

Concept of DP Fields

• It’s not a CCK• It’s not a standalone component• Works like com_categories• Can be integrated with third party extensions

What is DP Fields?

• Is a component and a system plugin• Extends Jform• Users JFormFields• Is MVC coded• Uses JLayouts

Installation

• DP Fields can be installed like any other third party extension

System plugin

System plugin should be automatically enabled during install

Where to find it?

Does not appear in components menuBut in article manager, you will see two new views

Creating a field

Need to enter a title, select type, and enter a label

Using custom fields

• In any article, you will now see the fields tab with your custom fields

Displaying custom fields

• If data entered in field, it will automatically appear at top of article

How to control where field appears

• To specify where in the article the field appears, you can use

{{#dpfields}} {{label}}:{{{value}}} {{/dpfields}}

To stop fields appearing twice

• Create a field with alias disable-default-rendering, type=Yes No, Default value=Yes

Now field only appears once

Inserting individual fields

• You can use the editor Insert field button if you want to insert individual fields in different places in your article rather than all together

For developer

• To integrate into your extension– Add menu item sidebar– Fields added to form during

onContentPrepareForm– Fields are saved through onContentAfterSave

event

Versioning

• No versioning in com_fields (going into core), but may be added in future. Original DP Fields does have versioning.

Something to be aware of

• After you save field the first time, the type cannot be changed.

Can I search custom fields?

• Basic search needs a join, look at the plg_search_content plugin

• Smart search is automatically supported

Questions?

Tim Plummerwww.tamlynsoftware.com

@bfsurvey