Joomla View Builder System Plugin

🌟 Features

• In-Context Editing: Edit view files directly where they are rendered.
• Safe Overrides: Automatically creates template overrides in templates/[your_template]/html/. Never modifies core files directly.
• Syntax Validation: Checks PHP syntax before saving to prevent "White Screen of Death" errors.
• Access Control: Restrict usage to specific user groups (default: Super Users).
• Flexible Activation:
  • Frontend only
  • Frontend & Backend
  • Or via tp=1 URL parameter (Template Preview mode)
• Translation Editor: Edit language strings directly on the frontend with automatic key detection and override generation.
• Easy Revert: One-click revert to delete the override and restore the original view.

🚀 Installation

1. Download the plugin package.
2. Install via the Joomla Extension Manager.
3. Enable the plugin System - View Builder.

⚙️ Configuration

Go to System > Plugins > System - View Builder.

| Option | Description |
| :--- | :--- |
| Active | Control where the builder is active (Disabled, Frontend, Frontend & Backend, or via ?tp=1). |
| Mode | On Page (default): drag handles and edit buttons directly on block wrappers in the page. Popup: hover labels with edit/builder popups. |
| Allowed Groups | User groups permitted to use the tool (Default: Super Users). |
| Excluded Components | Comma-separated list of components to ignore. |
| Enable Translation Editor | Enable/Disable the frontend translation editing features. |

🛠 Usage

1. Login to the frontend (or backend) with a user in an allowed group.
2. Ensure the plugin is Active.
3. Navigate to the page you want to modify.
4. The View Builder overlay will appear, allowing you to select and edit view elements.
5. Make your changes in the code editor and hit Save.
   • The plugin uses secure AJAX requests to handle file operations.
   • If a PHP syntax error is introduced, the system will prevent the save and alert you.

🏗 Architecture

The plugin utilizes a modern Joomla 5/6 architecture:

• Autoloader Interception: Uses ViewOverrideLoader, FormFieldOverrideLoader, and TextOverrideLoader to hook into Joomla's loading mechanism via spl_autoload_register. This allows interception of JoomlaCMSMVCViewHtmlView (for views), JoomlaCMSFormFormField (for forms), and JoomlaCMSLanguageText (for translations).
• Event Driven: Subscribes to system events like onContentPrepareForm (for form interception), onBeforeCompileHead (for assets), and onAjaxViewbuilder (for API requests).
• Web Asset Manager: Standard Joomla Web Asset Manager for loading CSS/JS resources.
• Override Injection:
  • Views: OverrideInjector uses ViewParser to inject delimiters into auto-created view overrides.
  • Forms: FormBuilderHelper manipulates JoomlaCMSFormForm objects at runtime to apply XML overrides.

⚠️ Requirements

• Joomla 4.0+ / 5.x / 6.x
• PHP 7.4 or higher recommended

🥷 Author

Developed by Hikari Software.
Visit us at www.hikashop.com.

📄 License

GNU General Public License version 2 or later.
Copyright (C) 2026 Hikari Software. All rights reserved.