Month: September 2017

What is mean by WHMCS hook?

Standard way of modifying WHMCS features is using hook. WHMCS code is encrypted and we couldn’t change it. In addition to it, modifying core file is a bad idea. When we update WHMCS to the latest version all of our core file changes will be removed. So hook is a nice way to customize WHMCS features.

There are many hooks available in WHMCS. Available WHMCS hooks can be found in the link
https://developers.whmcs.com/hooks/hook-index/

Some of them can be used to run a piece of code just after an action is happened(ClientAdd executes just after a client is added to WHMCS). Some of them can be used used to run a piece of code just before an action(PreDeleteClient executes just before a client is deleted). There are hooks that can be used to run on certain pages(ClientAreaPageHome executes on the client area homepage).

Hooks can be include in the WHMCS in two ways.
1)We can create a php file with any name and can upload to the folder
/includes/hooks/.
2)We can create a file named hooks.php as a part of the addon module.

To get a better idea, let’s go through some examples now.
For now let’s just upload sample files to the folder /includes/hooks/.

Let’s add a hook ‘ClientAreaPage’ to a file named sample.php,
then let’s upload to the folder /includes/hooks/.
(see https://developers.whmcs.com/hooks-reference/client-area-interface/#clientareapage)

<?php
add_hook('ClientAreaPage', 1, function($vars) {
    echo "this is from clieant area hook";
    exit;
});

Then take any page in the client side, you will get a blank page with content
this is from clieant area hook. As we have exit in the code, nothing else will be displayed.

Now let’s modify the hook as shown below.

<?php
add_hook('ClientAreaPage', 1, function($vars) {
    echo "<pre>"; print_r($vars);
    exit;
});

Now the page will display an array.

To remove the hook, just delete the file from the folder /hooks/hook-index/.

Now let’s see another hook, ClientAreaPageCart.
Add the below code to a file named cart_hook.php and then upload to the folder
/includes/hooks/.

<?php
add_hook('ClientAreaPageCart', 1, function($vars) {
        echo "<pre>"; print_r($vars);
        exit;
});

This hook won’t run in all of the client are pages. But it will run in all of the
cart pages. For example take the url /cart.php then you will see an array printed in it.

WHMCS Addon development

WHMCS addon can be used to develop additional features in your WHMCS.

Here briefly explaining steps required to develop a simple addon, that just print some strings.
That’s enough to get started. After developing this simple addon you can move on to complex addons.

Addon name and folder name

Name of addon do have importance while developing a WHMCS addon.
Let’s name our addon as hello_world.

Then we have to create a folder named hello_world.
Within the folder, develop a file named hello_world.php.
Name used for the folder and file is hello_world, which is the name of the addon.
We have to upload the folder to the WHMCS folder /modules/addons/.

Functions to be defined in hello_world.php

We have to define some functions in the file hello_world.php.
Prefix for those functions should be same as the addon name.
As our addon name is hello_world, prefix for those functions
must be hello_world_.

Those functions are listed below.
1)hello_world_config
2)hello_world_activate
3)hello_world_deactivate
4)hello_world_output
5)hello_world_clientarea

hello_world_config

This function just returns an array.
Here we define addon name, version author etc.

function hello_world_config() {
    $configarray = array(
        "name" => "My first whmcs addon",
        "description" => "Just a sample addon, that just prints some strings",
        "version" => "1.0",
        "author" => "WHMCSTools.com",
        "language" => "english",
    );
    return $configarray;
}

hello_world_activate

This function is called when the addon module is activated from the admin side.
We can write table creation code within the function.

function hello_world_activate () {
    return array(
        'status' => 'success',
        'description' => 'Addon activated'
    );
}

hello_world_deactivate

This function is called when we are deactivating the addon from the admin side.
All addon table drop code should be added here.

function hello_world_deactivate() {
    return array(
        'status' => 'success',
        'description' => 'Addon deactivated'
    );
}

hello_world_output

Code written within this function will be executed when we take the url
www.ourwebsite.com/admin/addonmodules.php?module=hello_world

function hello_world_output($vars) {
    echo "just printing this in admin side";
}

hello_world_clientarea

This function is called when we take the url,
www.ourwebsite.com/index.php?m=hello_world

To display some contents in the client area, we have to create a smarty tpl file.
In the function hello_world_clientarea, we specified tpl file name as
‘templatefile’ => ‘template/clienthome’. So we have to create a folder named
template inside the folder /modules/addons/hello_world.
Then we have to create a file named clienthome.tpl in the folder template.
Note that we specified templatefile as ‘templatefile’ => ‘template/clienthome’, (no extension here) but we created file name as template/clienthome.tpl with the extension .tpl.

We have to pass parameters to the tpl file from the function hello_world_clientarea.
In the function we are passing the smarty key value pair as shown below.

'vars' => array(
            'name' => 'X ',
            'address' => 'Y',
            'phone' => 'Z',
),

Then in the tpl file we just have to write {$name} to display the name.

function hello_world_clientarea($vars) {
 
    $modulelink = $vars['modulelink'];
 
    return array(
        'pagetitle' => 'Addon Module',
        'breadcrumb' => array('index.php?m=hello_world'=>'Hello World Addon'),
        'templatefile' => 'template/clienthome', #smarty file name without .tpl extension
        'requirelogin' => true, # accepts true/false
        'forcessl' => false, # accepts true/false
        'vars' => array(  #smarty key value pair
            'name' => 'X ',
            'address' => 'Y',
            'phone' => 'Z',
        ),
    );
 
}

Content of the file template/clienthome.tpl is

    <h4> My Details </h4>

    <ul>
        <li>My name is : {$name} </li>
       <li>My address is : {$address} </li>
        <li>My phone number is : {$phone} </li>
    </ul>

How to create and drop tables in WHMCS 7 using PHP 7?

We might have to create a table from WHMCS addon while activating the module.
Also we might have to drop the table while deactivating the module.
Here we are going to write PHP 7 compatible codes to create and drop the table.

Create a table

Assume that we have to create a table named sample_table
with the following fields.
a)table_id
It’s an auto increment field, also it’s primary key of the table.

b)age
This field is an integer

c)name
This field should store string and maximum character length is 100.

d)created_at
It’s a date field

c)amount
It’s float field with two decimal points.

d)description
It’s a text field.

Then we can use below code for that.

 use Illuminate\Database\Capsule\Manager as Capsule;
 if (!Capsule::schema()->hasTable('sample_table')) {
        Capsule::schema()->create('sample_table', function($table) {
            $table->increments('table_id');
            $table->integer('age');
            $table->string('name', 100);
            $table->date('created_at');
            $table->float('amount', 8, 2);
            $table->text('description');
        });
    }

Drop the table.

To drop the table we can use the below code.

#add the below line only once in a file
use Illuminate\Database\Capsule\Manager as Capsule;
Capsule::schema()->dropIfExists('sample_table');