Installing a PHP based sig. banner generator

Question

I have a PHP based signature banner generator (a 'proud X for N years N Months, N days' type of deal) that I need to include in a site served via Joomla, but am a bit confused as to how to do that.

I looked at:

• Joomla Banners Tutorial: which seems to be focused on banners that are included in the site itself, but this banner is not never going to be included within the site it is hosted on, it is for visitors to use for their communication in forums. The places it will be hosted will just have an image request (HTML based img element).
• It seems to be generically an Extension, but how to import/upload it for use by other sites?
  • Component: "Components are the main functional units of Joomla!; they can be seen as mini-applications." - this seems the most likely.
  • Library: "A library is a package of code which provides a related group of functions." This almost seems to fit, if one single function can be considered a 'group'.
  • A Package is an "extension that is used to install multiple extensions in one go." So that seems inappropriate in that this is a single PHP that relies on nothing else, rather than a collection of extensions. But then, the PHP relies on both a font and a base image over which to write the text. Are they all considered 'extensions'?
  • Plugin seems wrong since a request from an external site (to generate and deliver an image) would not be a 'trigger event'.

Should I be looking to upload the PHP as a Component? If not, what should I be looking into?

Answer 1

It sounds like you should be looking into making a Joomla module. It's fairly simple to build a basic module, and you can also make it as complex as needed.

In addition, the end user can publish the module to any available module position in their template, which might be important for a banner.

On the other hand, if this is something you need to implement on a single site, it might be quicker to include your PHP code directly inside a Joomla article or module.

There are several extensions that allow you to add PHP code in your content, here are some ideas:

• Sourcerer (http://extensions.joomla.org/extension/sourcerer) - plugin
• Custom HTML Advanced (http://extensions.joomla.org/extension/custom-html-advanced) - module
• Flexi Custom Code (http://extensions.joomla.org/extension/flexi-custom-code) - module