Integrating Your Component

Third-party developers can easily integrate JomSocial features into their components. Among other things, Third-party components can:

  1. Support JomSocial built-in personal messaging system.
  2. Use JomSocial avatars.
  3. Use and extend JomSocial user object, CUser.
  4. Include user actions in JomSocial activity stream and reward users with points.
  5. Extend JomSocial via new plugins.

Support JomSocial Built-In Personal Messaging System

To support private messaging within your component, you can use this snippet:

include_once JPATH_ROOT.'/components/com_community/libraries/core.php';
include_once JPATH_ROOT.'/components/com_community/libraries/messaging.php';
// Add a onclick action to any link to send a message
// Here, we assume $usrid contain the id of the user we want to send message to
$onclick = CMessaging::getPopup($userid);
echo '<a onclick="'.$onclick.'" href="#">Send message</a>';


Use JomSocial Avatars

To acquire a path to a JomSocial Avatar, you can simply request a cUser object and call a simple getThumbAvatar function to retrieve the avatar url.

include_once JPATH_ROOT.'/components/com_community/libraries/core.php';
// Get CUser object
$user = CFactory::getUser($userid);
$avatarUrl = $user->getThumbAvatar();
echo '<img src="'.$avatarUrl.'">';


Use and Extend JomSocial User Object, CUser

JomSocial has its own user object that can be extended further. The following are few examples how can you use it inside your component.

Getting a User's Friend Count

Retrieving a specific user's friend count is similar to how you would request a CUser object, by calling the getFriendCount method.

include_once JPATH_ROOT.'/components/com_community/libraries/core.php';
// Get CUser object
$user  = CFactory::getUser( $userid );
$count = $user->getFriendCount();
echo 'Total friends: ' .$count;


Getting a User's Status

To retrieve the status that is set by the user, load the CUser object and call the method, getStatus.

include_once JPATH_ROOT.'/components/com_community/libraries/core.php';
// Get CUser object
$user  = CFactory::getUser( $userid );
$status = $user->getStatus();
echo 'User Status: ' . $status;


Getting a User's Display Name

Since JomSocial allows displaying the name with either the username or the real name, use the getDisplayName method from the CUser object.

include_once JPATH_ROOT.'/components/com_community/libraries/core.php';
// Get CUser object
$user  = CFactory::getUser( $userid );
$name = $user->getDisplayName();
echo 'User name: '.$name ;


Getting a User's Online Status

To get the online status of the current user, use the isOnline method from the CUser object.

include_once JPATH_ROOT.'/components/com_community/libraries/core.php';
// Get CUser object
$user  = CFactory::getUser( $userid );
$isOnline = $user->isOnline();
if( $isOnline )
{
	echo 'User is online now!';
}


Getting a User's View Count

To get a user's view count, use the method, getViewCount, from the CUser object.

include_once JPATH_ROOT.'/components/com_community/libraries/core.php';
// Get CUser object
$user  = CFactory::getUser( $userid );
$count = $user->getViewCount();
echo 'Views: ' .$count. '';


Link to a User's Personal Profile Page

By using our own library, CRoute, which is a replacement for JRoute, the link to any part of JomSocial will have the correct Itemid and will help avoid any duplicate links.

include_once JPATH_ROOT.'/components/com_community/libraries/core.php';
// Get CUser object
$link = CRoute::_('index.php?option=com_community&view=profile&userid='.$userid);
echo '<a href="/.$link." mce_href="http://www.jomsocial.com/.$link.">View user profile</a>';