Developing a Component using RAD/FOF
Channel: J and Beyond e.V.
Date: 2014-09-16

One of the new feature since Joomla 3.2 is Rapid Application Development (RAD) framework.

A Joomla component is a PHP/MySQL web application that uses Joomla's framework. You can build your components on Joomla's framework and Joomla will take care of the database connection, the design (using templates), access levels, forms (JForms), etc. Using Joomla's framework saves you a lot of work and development time. However, it can be even faster!

Most Joomla components include the same functionality: In the front-end a list of records from the database hyperlinked to pages with details of each record individually. In the back-end the component list records from the database, with a link to a form where you can change the data and save.

Using the Rapid Application Development Framework (also known as FOF (Framework On Framework)) allows you to develop a component with common functionality with far fewer lines of code.

In this presentation, Peter shows how you can use Joomla's RAD to build a simple Joomla component to manage locations and categories and present those on the front-end to visitors on a Google Map.