Magento Helloworld Module

Here are 8 steps to get started with Magento by creating your very first Magento module, helloworld.

1. Create the below directories:
app/code/local/Magentotutorial
app/code/local/Magentotutorial/Helloworld

2. Under the directory Helloworld, create the below directories:
/Block
/controllers
/etc
/Helper
/Model
/sql

3. Create a xml file Magentotutorial_Helloworld.xml under
app/etc/
With the below content:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <modules>
        <Magentotutorial_Helloworld>
            <active>true</active>
            <codePool>local</codePool>
        </Magentotutorial_Helloworld>
    </modules>
</config>

4. Create a xml file config.xml under
app/code/local/Magentotutorial/Helloworld/etc/
With the below content:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>    
    <modules>
        <Magentotutorial_Helloworld>
            <version>0.1.0</version>
        </Magentotutorial_Helloworld>
    </modules>
	
	<frontend>
        <routers>
            <helloworld>
                <use>standard</use>
                <args>
                    <module>Magentotutorial_Helloworld</module>
                    <frontName>helloworld</frontName>
                </args>
            </helloworld>
        </routers>
        <layout>
            <updates>
                <helloworld>
                    <file>helloworld.xml</file>
                </helloworld>
            </updates>
        </layout>   
    </frontend>
	
</config>

5. Create a php file IndexController.php under
app/code/local/Magentotutorial/Helloworld/controllers/
With the below content:

<?php
class Magentotutorial_Helloworld_IndexController extends Mage_Core_Controller_Front_Action {        

    public function indexAction() {
        Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->addSuccess("Hello world message from the controller"); 

        $this->loadLayout();
    	$this->_initLayoutMessages('customer/session');
    	$this->renderLayout();
    }
}

6. Create the layout xml file helloworld.xml under app/design/frontend/default/default/layout

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<layout version="0.1.0">
    <helloworld_index_index>
        <reference name="root">
            <action method="setTemplate">
                <template>page/1column.phtml</template>
            </action>
        </reference>
        <reference name="content">
            <block type="core/template" name="helloworld" template="helloworld/helloworld.phtml"></block>
        </reference>
    </helloworld_index_index>
</layout>

7. Create the helloworld.xml template file under app/design/default/default/template/helloworld/

<?php
echo "hello world from the template php code";
?>
<h1>Hello world message from the template html h1 tag</h1>

6. Clear the cache by deleting all the files and directories under var/cache/

8. Assume you magento home link is http://localhost/, then you can test what you’ve done above by going to this http://localhost/helloworld/index
You should see Hello World! on the page.