TJReports Architecture Overview

Overview

In terms of data structure, the TJ Reports framework is a typical Joomla MVC List view, with added features for saving queries, modifying columns and dynamic filters. Since reports are typically tabular data, reusing existing list view infrastructure was an obvious choice. So under the hood, it simply extends JModelList. The key difference is that instead of a single model, the framework allows plugins to extend the base reports model and provide a query or list for the report.

Plugin Architecture

TJ Reports allows a plugin driven approach to creating "pluggable models" that can be rendered as a report. Each plugin is essentially a model class that can have Joomla's getListQuery() or simply getItems() methods to either return a query object, or directly the array of items to display. So TJReports does not use plugins in their classic event/dispatcher pattern. Instead, TJ Reports uses plugins to simplify installation and set any defaults via parameters.

To implement filters, sorting and dynamic columns there are additional methods that allow setting column names, toggle sortable and filter columns and choose which columns may be hidden by the user.