Sharing a MVC resources library between two components

Question

Lets say my component is called dumbo. It contains all kind of MVC stuff and works well. Now i have a second component that is called jumbo. I need both components to share some models, controllers and views (and other stuff) from a central library.

Of course this is helpful regarding that question:

https://docs.joomla.org/Using_own_library_in_your_extensions/en

But it seams i have done something wrong.

I have setup a namespace loader:

JLoader::registerNamespace('Mylib',  JPATH_LIBRARIES  . '/mylib');

Here comes an example model and view from the central library that dumbo and jumbo should share and use:

Directory the model is in:

.\libraries\mylib\listings\model.php

The model itself:

defined('_JEXEC') or die;

use Joomla\CMS\MVC\Model\ListModel;  

class MylibListingsModel extends ListModel
{
    public function __construct($config = array())
    {
        echo "lib model";
        parent::__construct($config); 
    }

    ...
}

Directory the view is in:

.\libraries\mylib\listings\view.php

The view itself:

defined('_JEXEC') or die;

use Joomla\CMS\Toolbar\Toolbar;
use Joomla\CMS\Toolbar\ToolbarHelper;

class MylibListingsView extends JViewLegacy
{
    protected $items;
    protected $pagination;
    protected $state;

    public function display($tpl = null) 
    {
        echo "lib view";
        parent::display($tpl); 
    }

    ...
}

When calling the listings view from the dumbo component like this:

127.0.0.1/dumbo/administrator/index.php?option=com_dumbo&view=listings

The library structures are not found (View not found [Name, Typ, Präfix]: listings, html, dumboView)

I also added the JLoader::registerPrefix('Mylib', dirname(__FILE__)); into a system plugin (onAfterInitialise Event) without luck.

What am i missing? Thanks!

Answer 1

First of all, you're using different file structure and class naming conventions than Joomla! core. This won't work without rewriting related methods such as controller's getView().

That said, using standard naming conventions, I was able to get this to work by setting base_path option when fetching the controller in component's entry file:

$controller = JControllerLegacy::getInstance('Mylib', ['base_path' => JPATH_LIBRARIES . '/mylib']);

This loads the main controller named MylibController and located in libraries/mylib/controller.php. Models and views are then loaded correctly from within the component.

However, there could be many issues using a library like this. For instance, if it contains controllers extending from Joomla\CMS\MVC\Controller\FormController, you must set $option property to the name of the component currently being used (e.g. com_dumbo, you can get this from the input). Otherwise, library prefix mylib will be used to build redirect links which results in broken links.