ProcessWire 'Hello world' demonstration module

This module does a lot of useless stuff purely for demonstration purposes. It serves as a good intro to module development in ProcessWire.

Please note this is completely different from the Helloworld module that comes with ProcessWire’s core. You’ll want to replace that one with this one.

To install

Replace the /site/modules/Helloworld/ files that come with the core with the files from this module. In your admin, go to Modules > Refresh. Then click “install” for the “Hello World” module (on the Site tab).

What this module does

Everything that this module does is purely for demonstration purposes. It doesn’t do anything particularly useful, but reveals a lot about what you can do with modules and hooks. Specifically:

• Adds a hook after Page::render to output a hello world message at the bottom of editable pages (if enabled in the module configuration). Just to make it somewhat useful, clicking it takes you to the editor for that page.

• Adds a hook after Pages::save to display a hello notification every time you save a page.

• Adds a $page->hello() method to all pages, which simply returns your hello world message and information about the page. Optionally provide an argument with some text, i.e. $page->hello('some text') to have it included in the return value.

• Adds a $page->hello_world property to all pages. Accessing it simply returns: “Hello user-name”.

• Adds a ProcessPageEdit::execute hook which displays a notification to you only when you edit the homepage.

• Demonstrates the optional install(), uninstall() and upgrade() methods. The install method creates database table hello_world, while the uninstall method removes it. The upgrade method congratulates the user when they upgrade from version 0.0.3 or prior.

• ProcessWire 3.0.173 and newer: Demonstrates URL/path hooks. Try accessing these URLs on your site:

  • /hello/world/ - URL hook 1: answers only this URL
  • /hello/planet/mars - URL hook 2: allows earth, mars or jupiter
  • /hello/anything/ - URL hook 3: replace 'anything' with any word

• ProcessWire 3.0.181 and newer: Demonstrates inclusion of language translations with the module. Requires that ProcessWire’s core multi- language support modules are installed. Language translation files are .csv files exported from ProcessWire’s language translator tools that are stored in a /languages/ directory of of your module’s directory.

How to explore and test this module

1. Install the module from your admin (Modules > Site > Hello World).

2. Configure the module in the admin and Save.

3. Look at the code and read the comments in the module file. The comments and examples in the module are the point of this module, so step through and test them one by one and test where interested.

How to use this to make your own module

To see exactly what this module does, you may want to install it as-is first. Then uninstall and follow the instructions below.

1. Rename the directory and all files, replacing Helloworld with the name of your module.

2. Change the class name in the module file to be ModuleName (replacing with your module name that you want to use). This should be the same name that you used for your module file (minus the ".module.php" part).

3. Modify the code of the module to do what you want. You can simply remove all of the methods in it or you may wish to leave these method definitions in place:

   • __construct() if you want to set defaults for a configurable module.
   • init() for module initialization or attaching hooks.
   • ready() if an “autoload” module requires knowing the current $page API var.
   • install() to handle module installation and/or requirements verification.
   • uninstall() to undo whatever the install method did.
   • getModuleConfigInputfields() if you want to have a configurable module.

4. Rename the Helloworld.info.php file to ModuleName.info.php and update the values in the file to be specific for your module.

5. If you DO want your module to be configurable, do ONE of the following:

   • Option A: Use a getModuleConfigInputfields() method in the module:
     Edit the getModuleConfigInputfields() method at the bottom of the .module file and update as needed for your configuration. Update the __construct() method to set your default configuration values. Update the phpdoc comments at the top of the .module file to provide documentation for your configurable settings.

   • Option B: Use an external ModuleName.config.php file:
     Copy the extras/Helloworld.config.php file to ModuleName.config.php (placing it in the same directory as your module) and update the file as needed. Remove the getModuleConfigInputfields() method from the .module file. You may also remove the setting of default configuration values from the __construct() method, as ProcessWire will handle this for you when using an external configuration file. Optionally add phpdoc comments at the top of the .module file to provide documentation for your configurable settings.

6. If you DO NOT want a configurable module, do the following:

   • Remove the Helloworld.config.php file.
   • Remove the getModuleConfigInputfields() method from the .module file.
   • Remove the ConfigurableModule interface from the top of the .module file.
   • Remove the setting of default configuration values from the __construct() method.
   • Remove any phpdoc comments documenting config settings in the .module file.

7. Update/replace this README.md file to contain information specific to your module.

8. If you want to include translations for other languages with your module, see the next section in this file: “Bundling multi-language translations with your module.” If you do not want to bundle language translations then you can remove the /languages/ directory.

9. Remove the /extras/ directory included with this module, as it is just examples and your module will not need it.

When you’ve got something you'd like to share, post your module to GitHub and to the ProcessWire modules directory at: https://processwire.com/modules/

Bundling multi-language translations with your module

This requires ProcessWire 3.0.181+ and that you have multi-language support installed.

• Locate the files you want to translate from your admin: Setup > Languages > language > Site files > Find files to translate. Select the file(s) and submit. ProcessWire will generate new empty .json files for the files you selected to translate.

• In Setup > Languages > language, click the "edit" link for file(s) added for your module. Translate the text into the desired language and save. Near the top of the translation screen is a link to "Download a CSV file". Click that to save the CSV file of translations.

• Copy the CSV file(s) you downloaded in the previous step into a /languages/ directory in your module’s path. For instance /site/modules/Helloworld/languages/ is the one you'll see with this module. While not required, I recommend naming your files with the ISO-639-1 language code. For instance, German would be de.csv, Spanish would be es.csv, Finnish would be fi.csv, etc.

• If your module has multiple translatable files, you can bundle all the translations into a single CSV file (just copy and paste into one), or you can have multiple .csv files for each language. For instance, if this module had both Helloworld.module and ProcessHelloworld.module files, we might choose to name our csv files es-main.csv and es-process.csv. Or we could just have an es.csv file that merges that translations from both of them.

• In your module’s documentation, instruct the user to install translations from your module’s info/config screen. It’s in the “Module Information” fieldset “Languages” row, where there is an “install translations” link. When new versions of your module also update the translations, make note of that in your changelog so that users will know to click the “install translations” again to update the translations.

Stop by the ProcessWire forums anytime and we will be glad to help with any questions.

Other ProcessWire demo modules by Ryan:

• Process module demonstration: https://processwire.com/modules/process-hello/
• Fieldtype and Inputfield module demonstration: https://processwire.com/modules/fieldtype-events/

ProcessWire Copyright 2021 by Ryan Cramer