Custom Modules for newbs?

We used to have a sort of ‘demo’ module you could take apart. It illustrated a lot of common issues and was simple enough to be a good teaching tool. But… it seriously needs updated.

What sort of behavior do you want to add? I bet we can get you pointed in the right direction.

I have a data driven website that I custom re-built with Codeigniter a few years back. I want to now expand on that but I was thinking it would be better with work it into EE so I can focus on functionality vs. security, articles, etc. because EE handles those things great.

Its built mainly using relational databases to manage and display data. I was thinking I could use Entries as the first main level, but I would need multiple other custom tables to store specific data, and functions for managing that data. (maybe over complicated it? Hard to explain)

I created the module, have the database table creation understood, grabbing that data not too difficult with queries from the previous app that just need to be tweaked for EE, I think I should be able to convert those ok.

[After Coffee Edit]

Areas I am confused on:

Getting custom data to a view on the CP side - I’m sure there is something that just isn’t registering in the brain on how that works, or the method used verse how I’m used to doing it (CI MVC) Simple example: How would I grab the “Title” from the Entry using the Entry_ID in the Control Panel and send that to a specific view?

Displaying and Editing the custom data from the module on the Front End

Is it worth viewing information / how to’s on previous versions of EE or is that going to cause more problems?

Re: before the coffee edit…

I’m not sure you’re going to need anything custom for that. And if you do, you may just need a custom field, rather than a full blown module. ExpressionEngine entries are SUPER flexible with a ton of custom fieldtypes. Rather than thinking in terms of how to transfer your current code to ExpressionEngine, I’d think in terms of how to get default EE to do everything you want. I’m betting it can do most of it.

Re: after coffee….

> Displaying and Editing the custom data from the module on the Front End

I personally wouldn’t have frontend editing if you don’t really need it. To get a feel for how to handle output/tags on the frontend, I’d skim plugin tags because they are really easy and modules follow the same structure. And if you want a fairly simple live example, take a look at the file module- the mod.file.php file. Pretty simple, pretty current.

CP info is more spread out, but definitely check views and all CP services. Then take a look at the mcp file for one of the native add-ons with a control panel- moblog or rte editor are simple ones. It should come together once you can see it in action.