Developer Support Required Please!

Also in my code above I have :

$this->EE =& get_instance();
//        $this->EE = get_instance();

I’ve noticed that the documentation says to use this line but I’ve noticed in other peoples plugins that they use the commented out line instead. Which is correct? Are they both correct? :-(

Best wishes,

Mark

You only need to set $this->return data if you are creating a single function plugin, ie {exp:test} instead of {exp:test:mine}. Otherwise you just return your output. =/=& for the get_instance shouldn’t matter in PHP5.

So would I just place everything from the mine function into the __construct function instead then?

Yep, except…you can’t use __construct for a single function plugin, you have to use the plugin class name:

class Test
{
    public $return_data = '';

    public function Test()
    {
        $this->EE = get_instance();
        return $this->EE->TMPL->tagdata;
    }
}

Actually trying that gives me an error saying :

Error The following tag cannot be processed: {exp:test} Please check that the ‘test’ module is installed and that ‘test’ is an available method of the module

Huh? It’s not even a module that I’m writing here :-(

Yep, except…you can’t use __construct for a single function plugin, you have to use the plugin class name:

class Test
{
    public $return_data = '';

    public function Test()
    {
        $this->EE = get_instance();
        return $this->EE->TMPL->tagdata;
    }
}

Thanks for the code there. So am I correct in thinking that say I wanted a plugin with more than one function in it that this sort of thing should work :

<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');


class Plugin_test
{

    var $return_data = "";

    function __construct()
    {
        $this->EE =& get_instance();
    }
    
    function test()
    {
        $this->return_data = $this->EE->TMPL->tagdata;
    }

    function another()
    {
        $this->return_data = $this->EE->TMPL->tagdata;
    }

}

So I should be able to do this :

{exp:plugin_test:test}This is a test{/exp:plugin_test:test}

and I should get back whatever is inside the plugin tags or am I completely misunderstanding what you said above? That has definitely been known to happen before with me 😉

Unfortunately the code I’ve shown here isn’t working either so I must definitely be misunderstanding something.

Best wishes,

Mark

P.S. Is there a Dummies book for this sort of thing that you would recommend as I’d love to learn all of this once and for all and the developer documentation (I think anyway) isn’t really that involved.

Actually I just tested your code in a folder plugin_test and a file pi.plugin_test.php like so :

<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');

class Plugin_test
{
    public $return_data = '';

    public function Plugin_test()
    {
        $this->EE =& get_instance();
        return $this->EE->TMPL->tagdata;
        echo "Test";
    }
}

I then placed this in the template :

{exp:plugin_test}This is a test{/exp:plugin_test}

and I don’t get anything spat out on the template.

Where am I going wrong on this? :-(

Thanks for all the help with this, it really is appreciated.

Best wishes,

Mark

Remember, a single function plugin needs to set return_data:

<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');

class Plugin_test
{
    public $return_data = '';

    public function Plugin_test()
    {
        $this->EE =& get_instance();
        $this->return_data = $this->EE->TMPL->tagdata;
    }
}

Sorry if you already read this post. Please ignore what was here.

Rob I was just wondering if there is a really good book that you’d perhaps suggest for me to learn all of this from?

I know enough PHP to be dangerous so I would be looking for a book which is more or less a dummies book, as that’s what I am 😉

Also to the moderators (if you’ve even seen this post yet?) I may be wrong on this and please do tell me if I am but in the plugin documentation on this page here there is this code :

class Hello_world
{

var $return_data = "";

  function __construct()
  {
    $this->EE =& get_instance();
    $this->return_data = "Hello World";
  }

}

This was what I was trying for ages to do but it seems like as Rob says if you are doing a single function then you need to name it the same as the class. This is not what the documentation states as an example and perhaps this thread could be noted as a documentation error?

Changing the code from the documentation to this :

class Hello_world
{

var $return_data = "";

  function Hello_world()
  {
    $this->EE =& get_instance();
    $this->return_data = "Hello World";
  }

}

and all starts to magically work. I’ve been literally banging my head on this for a day and a half now and it was only thanks to Rob that I’ve ever got this working. Finally I can get on with what I was trying to do ages ago.

Please please please please please update the documentation for developers and perhaps provide more working (very important word there) examples for us to learn from.

Best wishes,

Mark

I’d recommend doing the CodeIgniter tutorials/videos on their main site. It’ll give you some great insight.

I’d recommend doing the CodeIgniter tutorials/videos on their main site. It’ll give you some great insight.

Thanks again for all the help on this Rob. I will check the tutorials out once I’ve got this plugin fully working.

Best wishes,

Mark

Thanks for the assist, Rob.

Mark, we do have a development forum.. moving there so you can continue the conversation.