How can I share code between Joomla plug-ins and components?

Question

I'm writing a Joomla plug-in that accesses the data stored in a self-written component.

How can I access the code of that component? I'm especially interested in the tables and models.

Is there an official way for doing that?

Answer 1

Getting models is pretty easy. Just include the model in the plug-in code and create object. It is better to handle all table manipulation in the model, but there are way to load table in the plug-in itself.

Here is how you load the model from plug-in:

<?php

//  Path to component
$componentPath = JPATH_ADMINISTRATOR . DS . 'components' . DS . 'mycomponent';

//  Include model 
require_once $componentPath . DS . 'models' . DS . 'example.php';

//  You need to specify table_path because by default model uses 
//  JPATH_COMPONENT_ADMINISTRATOR . DS . 'tables'
//  and you will not have correct JPATH_COMPONENT_ADMINISTRATOR in the plu-in
//  unless you specify it in config array and pass it to constructor
$config = array(
    'table_path' => $componentPath . DS . 'tables'
);

//  Create instance
$model = new MycomponentModelExample($config);

?>

Here is how you load the table from plug-in:

<?php

//  1. Add the path so getInstance know where to find the table
$tablePath = JPATH_ADMINISTRATOR . DS . 'components' . DS . 'mycomponent' . DS . 'tables';
JTable::addIncludePath($tablePath);

// 2. Create instance of the table
$tbl = JTable::getInstance('tableName', 'Table');

?>