Archived:Version 1.6 Developer Notes

Compilation of developer notes on changes in 1.6.

Schema

• Added ACL tables (todo - list them)
• Removed jos_groups table
• Removed jos_plugins table in favour of jos_extensions
• Added update tables
  • jos_updates
  • jos_update_sites
  • jos_update_sites_extensions
  • jos_update_categories

Framework

JAuthorization

Remove JAuthorization::_mos_add_acl.

Added JAuthorization::getUserAccessLevels( $section [, $action = 'view'] ).

JDatabase

JDatabase::setQuery casts the sql variable to a string. This allows you to pass an object that implements the __toString magic method.

JFile

Both JFile::write and JFTP::write now use a reference for its second argument. Code like JFile::write($filename,'string'); will fail, however $data = 'string'; JFile::write($filename, $data); will work for both 1.5 and 1.6

JModel

JModel::getState will now take an optional second argument to set the default. $value = $model->getState( 'foo', 'bar' );

JModel has an addition contruction option and internal variable __state_set. This is used to lazy-load model initialisation.

New API

Added JTableTree as an abstract class for tree-based tables.

Made JObject abstract. It can no longer be directly instantiated. Use JStdClass instead.

Added JDocumentXML to allow easy generation of valid XML files.

Changes to XML-RPC support

On april the 9th. Louis Landry explained his intended changes to the way Joomla will handle XML-RPC in version 1.6. You can view his detailed explanation here.

Components

Join for access level

Before:

LEFT JOIN #__groups AS g ON g.id = c.access

After:

LEFT JOIN #__core_acl_axo_groups AS g ON g.value = a.access

Legacy Mode

Only available in legacy mode (to be dropped in future versions):

• global $mainframe - Use $app = &JFactory::getApplication() instead.
• JTemplate (patTemplate completely deprecated)
• Multiple client language install packs (e.g. where site and administrator language files are in the same installation file), use packages with two language install packages

Files/Features Dropped

• Support for constants as language strings with JLanguage
• Polls component

Templates

Mapping of positions in Milky Way 1.5 to new positions.

• user3->position-1
• breadcrumb->position-2
• right->position-3,position-4
• left->position-7
• user1->position-9
• user2->position-10
• footer->position-5,position-8,position-11
• user4->position-12
• syndicate->position-14

Migration issues

Please use Version_1.6._Migration_Notes to track migration issues that are not schema changes.