Minimal/Basic Structure for a frontend Joomla component without using Joomla MVC

Question

What is a basic/minimal skeleton structure on which to build a component without extending the Joomla MVC classes? The skeleton should install and uninstall, not throw any errors, and be practically usable as a starting point for development. Subquestions include: what J4 changes may effect such a skeleton? & what features does one lose, eg. template overrides.

Warning: You should not take such an approach unless you know what you are doing. This approach is especially not suitable for applications built for distribution. If you are a beginner you are better off following the component tutorial in the docs and then using component creator or some other approach to speed up development and follow best practice etc.

Answer 1

Here is my suggestion which I would install using discovery.

• Doesn't include any Joomla access checks
• Doesn't allow any template overrides
• Doesn't allow for non-sef urls
• Doesn't allow for any JHtml built routes

===================================================

Manifest

Description: While it works to include the manifest in the frontend, if there is no administation file structure this does cause errors with uninstallion so I include the manifest there with an index.html file just to keep it company

Location: /administator/components/com_minimal/minimal.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<extension type="component" version="3.7.0" method="upgrade">

    <name>Minimal</name>
    <version>0.0.1</version>
    <description>Testing Only</description>
    <author>Minimal</author>
    <creationDate>Dec 2017</creationDate>

    <files folder="site">
        <filename>minimal.php</filename>
        <filename>router.php</filename>
        <folder>views</folder>
    </files>

    <administration>
        <files folder="admin">
            <filename>index.html</filename>
        </files>
    </administration>

</extension>

===================================================

Entry File

Location: /components/com_minimal/minimal.php

Description: Catches up to 5 url segments from the router, presumably one would inject whatever you want from joomla into your own code here

<?php
defined('_JEXEC') or die;

$max_segments = 5;

$jinput = JFactory::getApplication()->input;
$segments = [];
for($i=0;$i<$max_segments;$i++){
    $segments[] = $jinput->get('segment'.$i,'','CMD');
}

// load your own custom php application here
echo "<pre>" . print_r($segments,1) . "</pre>";

===================================================

Router

Location: /components/com_minimal/router.php

Description: splits the url segments into input variables starting from the component base menu item , ie. /menu-item/{segment0}/{segment1} etc. The build method is required to exist but is not used.

<?php
Class MinimalRouter extends JComponentRouterBase
{
    public function build(&$query)
    {
        return;
    }

    public function parse(&$segments)
    {
        $vars = [];
        foreach($segments as $i => $s){
            $vars['segment' . $i] = $s;            
        }
        return $vars;
    }
}

===================================================

Default Menu Item

Location: /components/com_minimal/views/minimal/tmpl/default.xml

Description: Provides a Menu Item Type to point to the component.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<metadata><fields name="params"></fields></metadata>