How should I use view.raw.php properly

Question

I'm trying to add a custom JToolbar button to my list view that will export the list contents to excel. I created a new task in my list controller to render the raw view class in a file called view.raw.php. However I can't get the content to load the raw data only.

I copied the relevant controller code from com_banners tracks.raw.php controller

Controller method:

public function exportToExcel()
{
    // Get the document object.
    $document   = JFactory::getDocument();
    $vName      = 'Mylist';
    $vFormat    = 'raw';

    // Get and render the view.
    if ($view = $this->getView($vName, $vFormat))
    {
        // Get the model for the view.
        $model = $this->getModel($vName);

        // Push the model into the view (as default).
        $view->setModel($model, true);

        // Push document object into the view.
        $view->document = $document;

        $view->display();
    }
}

And a simple test display method in my view.raw.php file:

public function display($tpl = null)
{
   echo "Test";
}

This displays "Test" but loads the template too.

I've tried using $document->setType('Raw') but this is giving me an

Unable to load renderer class

error.

The reason for this is that it is looking for

libraries/joomla/document/raw/renderer/modules.php

which does not exist.

Maybe I'm going about this in the wrong way but how should I do this correctly?

Answer 1

You need to specify the document type in the URL call with format=raw. Joomla will then automatically load the view.raw.php file. You don't even need a special controller for that.

To create the toolbar button you can use this:

    $bar = JToolBar::getInstance('toolbar');
    $bar->appendButton('Custom', '<button onclick="window.location.href = \'http://www.google.com\';">Export</button>', 'export');