Artur Baldyga wrote:
I want to create my own extension. I made my extension using this link:
http://dev.radiantcms.org/radiant/wiki/HowToUseMailerExtension
Is there any bigger tutorial with more details what I have to do , step
by step or something else??
I'm working on one, but it is unfinished. (See attached.)
--
John Long
http://wiseheartdesign.com
Getting Started with Radiant Extensions
---------------------------------------
One of the most exciting aspects of Radiant 0.6 is the support that has been
added for extensions. Since Radiant is a "no-fluff" content management system
there are a lot of features supported by other systems that will never make it
into Radiant. I've tried to keep things clean and simple so that Radiant is
easy to learn and easy to support. The trouble is, my opinion of what features
constitute "fluff" and what features are absolutely necessary is probably
different than your own. Extensions give you the opportunity to change this.
Using extensions you can customize nearly every aspect of Radiant. And because
Radiant is made with Ruby on Rails developing an extension is almost as easy as
developing a regular Ruby on Rails application.
In this tutorial I want to help you get started with your first extension. We
will cover:
* Using extension generators
* Creating a custom model and controller
* Running extension migrations
* Creating custom tags
This tutorial assumes that you already have the latest Radiant gem installed on
your local computer and that you have a basic understanding of Ruby on Rails.
If you have never used Ruby on Rails before please run through the Rolling with
Rails tutorials ("Part
I":http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2006/12/14/revisiting-ruby-on-rails-revisited.html,
"Part
II":http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2007/01/05/revisiting-ruby-on-rails-revisited-2.html,
and "Part
III":http://www.slash7.com/articles/2005/01/24/really-getting-started-in-rails)
before you begin.
Creating a New Project
----------------------
Let's create a test project. Open up a command prompt and "cd" to the
appropriate directory, then execute the `radiant` command to create a new
project:
<pre><code>
% radiant -d sqlite3 path/to/new/project
</code></pre>
As you can see I've chosen to use SQLite 3 as my database engine, but you are
welcome to choose MySQL or PostgreSQL instead.
The `radiant` command will create a skeleton for our new project and then
output the following instructions:
<pre>
== Installation and Setup
Once you have extracted the files into the directory where you would like to
install Radiant:
1. Create the MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite databases for your Web site. You only
need to create the "production" database, but you may also want to create
the "development" and "test" databases if you are developing extensions
or running tests.
2. Edit config/database.yml to taste.
3. Run the database bootstrap rake task:
% rake production db:bootstrap
(If you would like bootstrap your development database run `rake
development db:bootstrap`.)
4. Start it like a normal Rails application. To test execute:
% script/server -e production
And open your Web browser on port 3000 (http://localhost:3000). The
administrative interface is available at /admin/. By default the bootstrap
rake task creates a user called "admin" with a password of "radiant".
When using Radiant on a production system you may also need to set permissions
on the public and cache directories so that your Web server can access those
directories with the user that it runs under.
Once you've installed Radiant on your own Web site, be sure to add your name
and Web site to the list of radiant users:
http://dev.radiantcms.org/radiant/wiki/RadiantUsers
</pre>
If you've chosen to use SQLite 3 as your database engine for this tutorial you
can ignore steps 1 and 2. Otherwise create all three databases for the
development, production, and test environments and edit "config/database.yml"
to taste. Then run the bootstrap rake task for the production and development
environments:
<pre><code>
% rake db:bootstrap
% rake production db:bootstrap
</code></pre>
Once you have bootstrapped both databases, start Radiant up from the command
line and verify that the site is running correctly before continuing:
<pre><code>
% script/server -e production
</code></pre>
Now go to "http://localhost:3000"; and verify that the site is running
correctly. You should see a screen that looks like this if Radiant is
configured correctly:
Once you've verified that Radiant is running correctly go back to the console
and press Ctrl+C to stop the test server.
Generating an Extension
-----------------------
Let's create our first extension now. The extension we will be creating is one
that will make it easy for us to manage a list of links on our Web site. To
create a new extension you should use the extension generator. The format for
the command is:
<pre><code>
script/generate extension ExtensionName
</code></pre>
In our case we will call our extension LinkRoll. At the command prompt type:
<pre><code>
% script/generate extension LinkRoll
</code></pre>
You should see the following output:
<pre><code>
create vendor/extensions/link_roll/app/controllers
create vendor/extensions/link_roll/app/helpers
create vendor/extensions/link_roll/app/models
create vendor/extensions/link_roll/app/views
create vendor/extensions/link_roll/db/migrate
create vendor/extensions/link_roll/lib/tasks
create vendor/extensions/link_roll/test/fixtures
create vendor/extensions/link_roll/test/functional
create vendor/extensions/link_roll/test/unit
create vendor/extensions/link_roll/README
create vendor/extensions/link_roll/Rakefile
create vendor/extensions/link_roll/link_roll_extension.rb
create vendor/extensions/link_roll/lib/tasks/link_roll_extension_tasks.rake
create vendor/extensions/link_roll/test/test_helper.rb
create
vendor/extensions/link_roll/test/functional/link_roll_extension_test.rb
</code></pre>
As you can see, the extension generator has created a skeleton extension for us
in the vendor/extensions/link_roll folder. The extension we will create will be
entirely contained in the link_roll folder. To use it in another project all we
need to do is copy the link_roll folder into that project's vendor/extensions
folder.
Open up the "link_roll_extension.rb" file. It should look something like this:
<pre><code>
class LinkRollExtension < Radiant::Extension
version "1.0"
description "Describe your extension here"
url "http://yourwebsite.com/link_roll";
# define_routes do |map|
# map.connect 'admin/link_roll/:action', :controller => 'admin/link_roll'
# end
def activate
# admin.tabs.add "Link Roll", "/admin/link_roll", :after => "Layouts",
:visibility => [:all]
end
def deactivate
# admin.tabs.remove "Link Roll"
end
end
</code></pre>
Let's edit the attributes of the LinkRollExtension. First, change the
description to:
Allows you to add a link roll to your Web site.
Then change the url to:
http://dev.radiantcms.org/radiant/browser/trunk/extensions/link_roll/
We will deal with the other two attributes in a moment. For now, let's start
the server up again:
<pre><code>
% script/server -e production
</code></pre>
And open your web browser up to "http://localhost:3000/admin/";. Click the
"Extensions" link in the upper right corner. In the list of extensions you
should now see the "Link Roll" extension:
Note that the description and the website correspond to the attributes that you
just edited._______________________________________________
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