Hi all,

We are experienced CMS and PHP developers but new to Joomla! and K2; usually working with MODX, Magento and Typo3.

We are working on an existing solution which uses K2. We are trying to implement more dynamic and customized functionality and have investigated K2 Plugins. But with a lack of official documentation (and a lack of fundamental understanding at this point) we are struggling. We will have some questions along the way and here is the first one.

We had a look at the K2 Example Plugin and get the front-end capabilities of it. But we are also looking for more flexibility in the back-end. Currently we are looking to do the following:

Have a dynamically populated Extra Field. There are two main categories of items (Venues + Events). In the events items we want a dynamically populated select object with all the registered venues. We can achieve that with this approach in the Plugin's xml

<field name="title" type="sql" default="10" label="Select an article" query="SELECT id, title FROM #__content" key_field="id" />

Now here is where we are currently struggling:

1. How can we ensure this dynamic field only appears on items with category (and sub-categories) Events, but not on Venues
2. How can we achieve different dynamic population in the front-end. (Obviously the creator of Venue X should only be able to select Venue X and not Venue Z).
3. As an alternative to 2., how can we have one one Extra Field show in the back-end (show all venues) and another in the front-end (only show user's venues).

We are well versed in PHP, we don't need code, but conceptual hints as we are not yet familiar with Joomla! and K2.

Any tips, hints (or examples) are welcome.

Adrian

Hi,

For Q1, you can override the onRenderAdminForm function to restirect displaying the dynamic field to specific categories.

I think all your work will be on this function, either for backend or frontend.

Hi I also tried to create dynamic extrafield by this following ways

1. Using "onRenderAdminForm" but I do't know how to override it if I echo it not appear as tab it appeared above the Title. If I return then the k2 predefined tab "K2tab7" will enabled but my content will not display any more.

2. Using "xml k2 params" I used params field as remote field every thing as I think but I can't get current itemid. If I can get current Item id in that remote field I'll finish it within 3 days.

OK. Got around this project again. Still struggling here. However, this may help Abu Reviewer (the code in example.xml below does work if item category condition does not matter.)

We can render a form item only if item is of cat X. We can dynamically populate a form field. It is the actual combination dynamic field and displaying it only if the item in question is of type X.

So here is where we are:

example.xml
Used by itself, it successfully populates the field with the data we want and it also saves the data to the item correctly.

example.php
Renders the field only in items with catid 2. However, it does not save the selected option to the DB.

I am sure we are approaching this from the wrong way in the example.php. Is there no option to load the plugin from config (XML) when certain conditions are met?

Next Question

Also, the onRenderAdminForm method as we have it only works if the item already exists, i.e. has a catid in the object. How can we achieve the same effect with new items? (Similar to Extra Fields is populated only after category is selected.)

Really looking for some help here.
Adrian

BitSirenDev wrote: Next Question

Also, the onRenderAdminForm method as we have it only works if the item already exists, i.e. has a catid in the object. How can we achieve the same effect with new items? (Similar to Extra Fields is populated only after category is selected.)

This can be done using jQuery/AJAX