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Lessons

Delicious tutorials. 

  • Step-by-step

    One topic at a time

  • Concise

    Around 8-10 minutes per article

  • Battle tested

    Work on a real life project.

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Versions

All tutorials (22 articles)

Latest | All How to use guide
Data Extensions and SiteConfig

Lesson 12

Data Extensions and SiteConfig

In this tutorial, we'll discuss one of the major building blocks of modular and reusable code in SilverStripe Framework: extensions. We won't be writing a whole...

Introduction to ModelAdmin

Lesson 13

Introduction to ModelAdmin

In this lesson, we'll create the Property object that will drive most of the content in our application, and add a management interface for it in...

Controller Actions / DataObjects as Pages

Lesson 14

Controller Actions / DataObjects as Pages

In this lesson, we'll introduce the concept of a controller action, which is a URL route that executes a function on a controller.

Building a Search Form

Lesson 15

Building a Search Form

In this lesson, we'll create a form that can filter our listings by multiple parameters.

Lists and Pagination

Lesson 16

Lists and Pagination

In this lesson, we'll do an overview of different types of lists in SilverStripe, and we'll use PaginatedList to add pagination to our search results.

Ajax Behaviour and ViewableData

Lesson 17

Ajax Behaviour and ViewableData

In this tutorial, we'll add some Ajax behaviour to our site and cover a key player in the SilverStripe Framework known as ViewableData.

Dealing with arbitrary template data

Lesson 18

Dealing with arbitrary template data

In this tutorial, we're going to talk about adding non-database content to our templates.

Creating Filtered Views

Lesson 19

Creating Filtered Views

In this lesson we'll talk about filtering a list of items on a template through the navigation.

Beyond the ORM: Building custom SQL

Lesson 20

Beyond the ORM: Building custom SQL

In this tutorial, we'll build a date archive using custom SQL queries, and introduce the SQLQuery class.

Advanced Environment Configuration

Lesson 21

Advanced Environment Configuration

In this lesson, we'll talk about going beyond simple _ss_environment.php configurations and discuss how to deploy targeted functionality toward dev, test, and live environments.

How to use this guide

What are we building?

These tutorials are published in series, with each lesson demonstrating a new concept in SilverStripe development. To give them context, we have created an imaginary client that we’ll be working for, who needs a custom web application. Their application will allow users to book and list holiday rentals, much like HomeAway or AirBnB, only to give it an element of distinction, all the listings are in Middle Earth. The name of the website is appropriately One Ring Rentals.

Prerequisites

You should have a basic working knowledge of object-oriented PHP and MySQL. If you're new to PHP, we recommend Sitepoint. Since the project assumes that a designer has already done all of our HTML and CSS, there will be very little, if any, frontend work.

The format

Each lesson includes a screencast and a written tutorial. They follow each other very closely, and in general, share all the same information. Lessons move through the project in a linear fashion, putting most of the advanced topics further down the track.

Getting the source code

The source code for every lesson is on Github. Each lesson contains a link to its respective subdirectory in the repository. Lessons are subdivided into "begin" and "end" states, where the "begin" directory is the state of the code before the lesson begins, and the "end" is how it should look when the lesson is complete.

For example, if you're working on Lesson 11, you'll want to go to the "Lesson-11-begin" directory, run "composer install" and follow the tutorial. If you get stuck, or if you want to compare your work to the final outcome, go to the directory "Lesson-11-end".

Getting a copy of the tutorial

All the tutorials are published online, here in this section, but if you want a local copy, you'll find them all in the "__tutorials" directory in the source code repository. 

Getting the database and assets

Each lesson contains a folder named "__assets/" that contains any static files that are relevant to the lesson, as well as the current database. Additionally, uploaded assets (e.g. files added via the CMS) are included in "__assets/assets" (Yes, we are aware how confusing that may seem.) Typically, to get the content into the right state to begin the lesson, you'll want to overwrite your project "assets/" folder with "__assets/assets/" and import the database.sql file to your database. All database clients, such as PHPMyAdmin, Navicat, and Sequel Pro allow you to import SQL scripts very easily. You can also run the script from the command line, using

mysql -u [user] -p[password] [database_name] < __assets/database.sql

Getting support

The SilverStripe Community Slack channel, the SilverStripe Forum, and Stack Overflow (tagged SilverStripe or SilverStripe 4) should be your first point of call for any questions you may have. For more information about the various ways of connecting with the SilverStripe community refer to our Contributing guides.