BEGINNERS’ GUIDE TO MAGENTO PLUGINS, EXTENSIONS, MODULES

BEGINNERS’ GUIDE TO
MAGENTO PLUGINS,
EXTENSIONS, MODULES

TABLE OF CONTENT
1. Introduction
2. What is a Magento Plugin?
4. What are Magento Modules?
3. What is a Magento Extension?
5. Summary
6. Contact Us
01
02
02
3.1. Beneﬁts of Magento Extensions 03
4.1. How to Create a Simple Module in Magento 2? 15
3.2. How to Develop a Magento Extension? 07
14
21
22

1. INTRODUCTION
If you’re planning to learn about Magento 2 plugins & Magento 2
extensions in 2021, then congratulations because you’ve stumbled
onto the perfect resource to learn just that.
With cutting-edge technology, beautiful design, and robustfulness,
Magento 2 has always been the market leader among eCommerce
platforms.
And to further extend the awesomeness of this platform, there are
thousands of Magento plugins & extensions available for Magento
merchants.
In simple words, these Magento plugins & extensions help Magento
merchants to integrate a wide range of additional features &
functionalities to enhance the shopping experience & boost their
customer engagement rate, customer retention rate, and overall sales.
BUY BUY BUY
SKU
1
QTY
Quick Order
****
2

2. WHAT IS A MAGENTO PLUGIN?
3. WHAT IS A MAGENTO EXTENSION?
Technically, a Magento plugin is something that allows you to insert code
dynamically without changing the original behavior of class.
In simple words, a Magento plugin basically allows you to extend the core
functionality without making any modifications to the core files.
Magento Extensions are basically add-on software modules that allow
Magento 2 stores to extend its functionalities.
Unlike Magento Plugins, Magento Extensions modify the core
functionality that is often needed because of either version
change or improvement.
They basically help to make each Magento 2 store unique, optimize, and
add additional features that are most beneficial for a specific store.
In simple words, Magento Extensions help to make a Magento 2 store
more attractive and grow conversions.
And the best part is, the number & type of Magento 2 Extensions that can
be developed is endless.

3.1. BENEFITS OF MAGENTO 2 EXTENSIONS
Cost & Time Saving on
Magento 2 Store Development
One of the key reasons why the Magento platform is extremely popular
across the globe is not just because of its flexibility, but also because it
allows you to tweak appearance, feel, and alter any functionality according
to your business requirements.
Let’s take a look at the 5 key benefits that you can reap from Magento 2
Extensions.
If you use Magento 2 Extensions for
functionalities that you want instead of
custom development, there will be
drastic reduction in the overall Magento
2 Store development cost.
This is mainly because developers wouldn’t need to write hundreds of
lines of code for specific functionalities and can directly integrate &
configure the appropriate extension for the same functionality.
This, as a result, not only helps you save money but also the time it takes
for your Magento 2 Store to be ready for launch.

Expands Your Business Reach
to Global Audience
Majority of eCommerce store owners
wish to expand their business to global
markets. But the main problem they all
face is the language barrier.
In simple words, when foreign customers are unable to understand
language used in your Magento 2 store, they often abandon your store
within seconds.
However, you can easily resolve this problem by simply integrating an
automatic language translator Magento 2 extension.
Here are the key functionalities provided by
language translator Magento 2 extension:
Enable mass translation
Set up multi-language stores
Translate product descriptions & meta details
Database search & translation
WYSIWYG editor

Enhances Inventory
Management
Inventory management is one of the
most vital processes in any eCommerce
business. Even a slightest mistake in
inventory management can make a
notable dent in your profits.
Therefore, it is critical to handle it with utmost care & attention.
To keep everything balanced and enhance the inventory management
process in your Magento 2 store, you must consider integrating an
appropriate Magento 2 Extension for the same.
An ideal Inventory Management Magento 2
extension can help you with:
Product Inventory Management
Sales Order Management
Purchase Order Management
Multi-Store Support
Supplier Management

Better Manage
On-Time Delivery & Tracking
Once your Magento 2 store is well-
established, you’ll start receiving a good
amount of orders per day. When this
happens, you need to be prepared &
ensure that you deliver all orders on time.
Now, if you use a manual approach to manage delivery, you’ll most
certainly end up landing yourself in big trouble.
But, if you leverage a delivery date Magento 2 Extension, not only will you be
able to better manage on-time delivery for all orders but you will also reap the
following beneﬁts:
Let customers select delivery time & date
Display delivery time & date with charges
Keep track of delivery orders
Surpass your customers’ expectations
DELIVERY

3.2. HOW TO DEVELOP A MAGENTO 2
EXTENSION?
Although, Magento 2 Extension Development is quite a complicated &
complex process.
But you can always begin to learn by developing a simple Hello World
extension.
Below is the complete, step-by-step process to develop a Hello World Ma-
gento 2 Extension.
Prerequisites:
Before you can begin to develop to a Magento 2 extension,
you need to make sure of the following:
1. Latest Magento 2 Version Installed
If you don’t know how to install Magento 2 on your system, you can refer
to our 5 Easy Steps to Install Magento 2 Using Composer Tutorial.
2. Magento Cache Disabled
Once you’ve installed Magento 2, you need to disable the Magento Cache.
The easiest way to disable Magento Cache is by logging in to your admin
panel and navigating to Admin > System > Cache Management and select
all cache types & disable them all.

3. Magento Developer Mode Enabled
To put your Magento 2 Store into Developer Mode, open your terminal and
execute the following command:
php bin/magento deploy:mode:set developer
So, now that you have fulfilled all prerequisites for Magento 2 Extension
Development, it’s time we finally dive into the step-by-step process.
Step 1 - Extension Setup
First of all, you need to create the extension folder and necessary files to
register a Magento extension.
Specifically, you need to create the following folders:
app/code/MageDelight
app/code/MageDelight/HelloWorld
MageDelight is the Extension namespace and HelloWorld is the extension
name.
After creating the extension folders, you need to create a module.XML file
in the app/code/MageDelight/HelloWorld/etc directory and copy the
below code:
<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<conﬁg xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance” xsi:noN-
a m e s p a c e S c h e m a L o c a t i o n = ” u r n : m a g e n t o : f r a m e w o r k : M o d -
ule/etc/module.xsd”>
<module name=”MageDelight_Helloworld” setup_version=”1.0.0″></module>
</conﬁg>

Next, we need to register the above module.
For this, you need to create a registration.php file in the
app/code/MageDelight/HelloWorld directory and copy the following code:
<?php
MagentoFrameworkComponentComponentRegistrar::register(
MagentoFrameworkComponentComponentRegistrar::MODULE,
‘MageDelight_Helloworld’,
__DIR__
); ?>
Now, open the terminal in your system, navigate to the Magento 2 root
folder, and execute the following command:
php bin/magento setup:upgrade
After that, we need to make sure that the extension is installed
successfully.
To verify, simply open the admin panel, navigate to Admin > Stores >
Configuration > Advanced > Advanced and you’ll be able to see the name
of your new extension in the list.

Step 2 - Create a Controller
The next step of creating a Magento 2 Extension is to create a controller.
And for this, we need to create a routes.XML file in the app/code/
MageDelight/HelloWorld/etc/frontend directory and copy the below code:
<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<conﬁg xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance” xsi:noN-
amespaceSchemaLocation=”urn:magento:framework:App/etc/routes.xsd”>
<router id=”standard”>
<route id=”helloworld” frontName=”helloworld”>
<module name=”MageDelight_Helloworld” />
</route>
</router>
</conﬁg>
As you can see in the above code, we have defined the frontend router &
route with “helloworld” id.
In Magento 2, the URLs are constructed as shown below:
<frontName>/<controler_folder_name>/<controller_class_name>
So, in our case, the final URL of our new Magento 2 Extension will look like
this:
helloworld/index/index

Next, you need to create an index.php file in the app/code/
MageDelight/HelloWorld/Controller/Index directory and copy
the following code:
<?php
namespace MageDelightHelloworldControllerIndex;
use MagentoFrameworkAppActionContext;
class Index extends MagentoFrameworkAppActionAction
{
protected $_resultPageFactory;
public function __construct(Context $context, MagentoFrame-
workViewResultPageFactory $resultPageFactory)
{
$this->_resultPageFactory = $resultPageFactory;
parent::__construct($context);
}
public function execute()
{
$resultPage = $this->_resultPageFactory->create();
return $resultPage;
}
}

Now, the next step is to create a simpleWhat are Magento Modules?
block class along with getHelloWorldTxt() method which will return
“Hello World” text upon execution.
For this, first you need to create a HelloWorld.php file in the
app/code/MageDelight/HelloWorld/Block directory and copy the
following code:
<?php
namespace MageDelightHelloworldBlock;
class Helloworld extends MagentoFrameworkViewElementTem-
plate
{
public function getHelloWorldTxt()
{
return ‘Hello MageDelight, This is your ﬁrst hello world magento
Extension!’;
}
}
The layout & template files in Magento 2 are generally placed inside the
view folder of your extension.
And inside the view folder, you can create 3 subfolders: adminhtml, base,
& frontend.
The adminhtml folder is for admin, frontend folder is for frontend, and
base folder is for admin & frontend files both.
Step 3 - Create a Block
Step 4 - Create Layout & Template Files

Now, let’s start with creating the layout & template ﬁles.
First of all, create a helloworld_index_index.XML file in the
app/code/MageDelight/HelloWorld/view/frontend/layout directory and
copy the following code:
<page xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance” xsi:noN-
a m e s p a c e S c h e m a L o c a t i o n = ” . . / . . / . . / . . / . . / . . / . . / l i b / i n t e r -
nal/Magento/Framework/
View/Layout/etc/page_conﬁguration.xsd” layout=”1column”>
<body>
<referenceContainer name=”content”>
<block class=”MageDelightHelloworldBlockHelloworld” name=”helloworld”
template=”helloworld.phtml” />
</referenceContainer>
</body>
</page>
You see, every page in the Magento 2 store has a layout handle. And for
our controller action, the layout handle is helloworld_index_index.
In addition, we have also added a block to the content container in our
layout file & set the template to helloworld.phtml, which will create just
below.
Next, create a helloworld.phtml file in the app/code/MageDelight/
view/frontend/templates directory and copy the following code:
<h1><?php echo $this->getHelloWorldTxt(); ?></h1>
The $This variable in the above code is referencing our block class &
calling the getHelloWorldTxt() method that will return the “Hello World”
string.
And that’s about it!
You have now finally completed all steps to create a simple Magento 2
Extension.

4. WHAT ARE MAGENTO MODULES?
A Magento module is basically a folder that contains blocks, models,
controllers, helper, etc. files that are required to develop a specific
business feature.
It is an independent component or a set of components that provide a
Magento 2 store with business logic & features.
Put another way, all the functionalities in Magento 2 stores are
implemented and delivered in components, which are known as modules.
In a nutshell, a module & an extension in Magento 2 is basically the same
thing.
That being said, let’s look at the step by step process to create a simple
module in Magento 2.

4.1 HOW TO CREATE A SIMPLE MODULE
IN MAGENTO 2?
Here’s an easy-to-follow tutorial on How to create a simple
module in Magento 2.
Prerequisites for Creating a Simple Module in Magento 2
Directory for the module
Configuration for the module
Registration for the module
Front-end router file
Controller file
Block file
Front-end layout file
Front-end template file
Install setup and Enable module

So, these are the steps we need to take in order to create a simple module
in Magento 2.
Let’s get started!
Directory for the module
In order to create a simple Magento 2 module, firstly we need to set up the
structure of the module.
And for that, we need to create the following Folders in app/code.
MageDelight: namespace name
Helloworld: module name
Controller: Controls the flow of the module action
Block: Contains the PHP file of the module
etc: Configuration related file of the module.
etc/frontend: front-end router file will be available here.
view/frontend/layout: frontend layout (XML) file will be available here.
view/frontend/template: frontend template (.phtml) file.

Configuration for the module
The next step is to set the configuration for our module.
In order to that, we need to create module.xml file in the following directory
- app/code/MageDelight/Helloworld/etc
Now, paste the following code into the module.xml file.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noN-
a m e s p a c e S c h e m a L o c a t i o n = " . . / . . / . . / . . / . . / l i b / i n t e r -
nal/Magento/Framework/Module/etc/module.xsd">
<module name="MageDelight_Helloworld" schema_version="0.0.1"
setup_version="0.0.1">
</module>
</config>
Registration of Module
Now, we need to perform the registration of our module.
To do this, we need to create a registration.php file app/code/MageDe-
light/Helloworld and paste the following code:
<?php
MagentoFrameworkComponentComponentRegistrar::register(
MagentoFrameworkComponentComponentRegistrar::MODULE,
'MageDelight_Helloworld',
__DIR__
);

Front-end router file
The front-end router file is basically required to set a router name for the
front page to be able to access it from the front side.
So, let’s create the routes.xml file in app/code/MageDelight/
Helloworld/etc/frontend and add the following code:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noN-
amespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:App/etc/routes.xsd">
<router id="standard">
<route id="helloworld" frontName="helloworld">
<module name="MageDelight_Helloworld"/>
</route>
</router>
</config>
Controller File
Once you’ve created the front-end router file, it’s time to move forward and
create a Controller file, which will be used to execute the action of our
module.
So, let’s go ahead and create index.php file in app/code/MageDelight/
Helloworld/Controller/Index and paste the following code for executing
the module’s action.

<?php
namespace MageDelightHelloworldControllerIndex;
class Index extends MagentoFrameworkAppActionAction
{
/**
* @var MagentoFrameworkViewResultPageFactory
*/
protected $resultPageFactory;
/**
* @param MagentoFrameworkAppActionContext $context
* @param MagentoFrameworkViewResultPageFactory resultPageFac-
tory
*/
public function __construct(
MagentoFrameworkAppActionContext $context,
MagentoFrameworkViewResultPageFactory $resultPageFacto-
ry
)
{
$this->resultPageFactory = $resultPageFactory;
parent::__construct($context);
}
/**
* Default customer account page
*
* @return void
*/
public function execute()
{
$resultPage = $this->resultPageFactory->create();
$resultPage->getConﬁg()->getTitle()->prepend(__('Welcome to
MageDelight Helloworld module'));
return $resultPage;
}
}
?>
Once you’ve pasted the code, it’s time we check the output via the
following URL: http://domain.com/helloworld/index/index

Block ﬁle
The block file will basically contain PHP view classes.
So, let’s create a file name called helloworld.php inside app/code/
MageDelight/Helloworld/Block directory with the following code:
<?php
namespace MageDelightHelloworldBlock;
class Helloworld extends MagentoFrameworkViewElementTemplate
{
public function __construct(
MagentoFrameworkViewElementTemplateContext $context,
array $data = []
)
{
parent::__construct($context, $data);
}
public function getHelloworldData()
{
return 'MageDelight Helloworld block ﬁle call successfully';
}
}
?>
Front-end Layout File
Now, we need to call block function as well as execute some design codes.
So, let’s create a helloworld.html file inside the app/code/
MageDelight/Helloworld/view/frontend/templates directory and add the
below code.
<h3>
<?php echo $block->getHelloworldData(); ?>
</h3>

SUMMARY
Magento plugins, extensions, & modules have become a critical part of
all Magento 2 stores nowadays. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to
leverage its power when building a Magento 2 store to both survive &
thrive in today’s competitive market.
That being said, whether you’re looking for the best Magento 2
Extensions in the market or need to build custom Magento 2 Extensions
for specifically your online store, share your requirements with us & we
promise to deliver 100% accurate & high quality according to your
business requirements.
Send an email to sales@magedelight.com or fill out the contact us form
on our website and our expert consultants will get in touch with you
within 24 hours.

CONTACT US
Harness Our High-end Magento Deliverables to Stay
Abreast the Latest Trends Following eCommerce.
Our team of experts will be
happy to assist you.
Details Available on
www.magedelight.com
For Queries, Write Us At..
sales@magedelight.com
Call Us on
079 2644 7810

BEGINNERS’ GUIDE TO MAGENTO PLUGINS, EXTENSIONS, MODULES

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