Starting with my first module/plugin (Piwik Top Keywords)

[formmailer]

Hi,

I am planning to build a module to get the Top Keywords for a page from Piwik (open source alternative for Google Analytics, http://piwik.org)

When finished the module should provide the same as the code below + css class references in order to make a tag cloud possible.

<?php

// This function will call the API to get best keyword for current URL.
// Then it writes the list of best keywords in a HTML list
function DisplayTopKeywords($url = "")
{
// Do not spend more than 1 second fetching the data
@ini_set("default_socket_timeout", $timeout = 1);
// Get the Keywords data
$url = empty($url) ? "http://". $_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"] . $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"] : $url;
$api = "http://www.my-statistics-domain.com/piwik/?module=API&method=Referers.getKeywordsForPageUrl&format=php&filter_limit=10&token_auth=f0b2a0sfhgsfga4523675ab4c01aff6d4a&date=previous1&period=week&idSite=3&url=" . urlencode($url);
$keywords = @unserialize(file_get_contents($api));
if($keywords === false || isset($keywords["result"])) {
	// DEBUG ONLY: uncomment for troubleshooting an empty output (the URL output reveals the token_auth)
	// echo "Error while fetching the <a href='$api'>Top Keywords from Piwik</a>";
	return;
}

// Display the list in HTML
$output = "<h2>Top Keywords for <a href='$url'>$url</a></h2><ul>";
foreach($keywords as $keyword) {
	$output .= "<li>". $keyword[0]. "</li>";
}
if(empty($keywords)) { $output .= "Nothing yet..."; }
$output .= "</ul>";
echo $output;
}

DisplayTopKeywords();

Since I am new to making moldules I figured that using an existing module as an example would be a good idea. I looked at some modules and found that Ryan's MarkupRSS module might be a good example to start with (since it contains a way to configure some settings from the adminarea, in my example would the Piwik URL be something that should be configured from the admin).

But before I start I would like to ask if there are special things to keep in mind and check if you agree that the MarkupRSS module would be a good example for my module.

Thanks in advance!

/Jasper

_{Updated "goal of the module"}

[ryan]

Jasper, is this something where the output would ultimately be used for the front end of the site or the admin?

I usually take the Helloworld.module as my starting point. But assuming it's not ultimately intended to be an admin Process module, then I think the MarkupRSS is a fine starting point, especially given that you want to make a Configurable Module. If you use MarkupRSS, you'll want to delete everything after the init() function, up until the getModuleConfigInputfields() function, and that will give you a better skeleton to start from.

[formmailer]

You are right Ryan, it will be a front end module. Hopefully the result will be a tag (or keyword) cloud with popular searches that users used in search engines to find the site.

I'll start working from the MarkupRSS module and will see where it brings me. 

/Jasper