Extending ηCMS¶

ηCMS system is created as a new a web project based on Java platform. Thereby, an ηCMS user has a wide range of possibilities for farther project development and can extend every part of the platform.

The name of our project will be myncms, so the project structure will be like this:

myncms
│
├── qx/
│   ├── src/...
|   |      main/qooxdoo/classes/myncms/Application.js
│   └── pom.xml
├── tomcat/
│   ├── context.xml
│   └── server.xml
├── web/
│   ├── src/...
|   |      main/java/com/myncms/AppModule.java
|   |      main/java/com/myncms/AppHttlMethods.java
|   |      main/java/com/myncms/AppBoot.java
│   └── pom.xml
├── pom.xml
└── README.md

After creating a new project, the new Guice module is created. It’s possible to register custom project specific modules in its context:

package com.myncms;

import com.google.inject.AbstractModule;
import com.google.inject.Singleton;
import com.softmotions.weboot.WBConfiguration;

/**
 * Custom application Guice module
 */
public class AppModule extends AbstractModule {

    private final WBConfiguration cfg;

    public AppModule(WBConfiguration cfg) {
        this.cfg = cfg;
    }

    @Override
    protected void configure() {
        // Register your modules here
    }
}

While generating a new project, a blank custom HTTL module is created. Its static methods are available in all httl-templates:

package com.myncms;

public class AppHttlMethods {

    private AppHttlMethods() {
    }

    public static String helloFromHttl(String name) {
        return "Hello " + name;
    }
}

Using of helloFromHttl in HTTL temlplates:

<!-- The output of the string: Hello Andy -->
${helloFromHttl('Andy')}

A client part of the ηCMS GUI is implemented with Qooxdoo framework http://qooxdoo.org

The main class of ηCMS GUI Qooxdoo application is defined by a file src/main/qooxdoo/classes/myncms/Application.js in the qx subproject.

/**
 * App site application.
 */
qx.Class.define("myncms.Application", {
    extend: ncms.Application,

    members: {

        main: function () {
            this.base(arguments);
        },

        createActions: function () {
            return new myncms.Actions();
        }
    }
});

In this starting point of the ηCMS GUI application (myncms.Application) you can create and register custom Qooxdoo elements, extending and customizing the functionality of the GUI.