Question/Advice about PHP code development in Joomla!

Question

I want to develop some functionality: a "3-step-system" which will consist of 3 pages.**

1) In the first page the personal information of his customers will be collected,

2) In the second page, customers must answer to some questions,

3) In the third page, customers may select some of his products (his list has only 2-3 products to select and they are static products) and then they must pay via PayPal. At the end of the transaction e-mails must be sent to his clients and to himself.

All data must be registered in the database (MySQL). There is no need of HTTPS/SSL encryption.

My question:

I have an idea of how to develop this system in pure PHP language (on php script files). But how can I develop this inside Joomla!? Can the Joomla run pure PHP script files?

Do I am forced to make this only as an extension of Joomla!? If so, what kind of extension?

Answer 1

*First of all, it is generally a bad idea not to use HTTPS when dealing with sensitive data. Also storing the data itself in the database without any encryption may later lead to a leak. You should be the one educating your clients about this stuff. *

If you want to implement everything on your own, I will try to give you a brief description on what you can do.

Basically, relying on the build-in MVC model, you can have the following controllers:

• CustomerInformationController (the form with the customer information)
• CustomerQuestionnaire
• CatalogueController or ProductsController (here you select the product)
• CheckoutController (talks with PayPal and later returns from the PayPal site with a success message, send emails and so...)

And you navigate from controller to controller. The idea is to separate the concerns.

Answer 2

An extension like "Chronoforms" helps a lot. You can create forms and questionnaires, connect to the database, work with PayPal, divide the whole form into pages and send e-mails!

Answer 3

I would definitely try to do this with a form component. Chronoforms has been mentioned already, my favourite is RSForms Pro. It lets you run any code at any point in form processing. You can enter code directly in the form settings or load external files. Something like Sourcerer can let you run any code almost anywhere. But I'd only use that for small "quick & dirty" hacks, not for a workflow like the one you describe here.