Creating a (very) basic Magento 2 module

In this tutorial we will learn the fundamental aspect of being a Magento 2 developer, namely customising Magento 2 with your own modules. This is a basic module that will get you started on the road to bigger and better things!

What files does a Magento 2 module need?

The following are the minimum files required by a Magento 2 module

1. registration.php file
2. etc/module.xml file
3. composer.json file (This is only required if your code will be managed by composer)

Creating our basic module

Lets first create a folder in ROOT_MAGENTO_FOLDER/app/code using the name “Novxweb”. Inside this folder create another folder called “Helloworld”.

All modules need a namespace and module name. In this case our namespace will be “Novxweb” and our module name will be “Helloworld”.

Creating our registration.php file

In Novxweb/Helloworld create a file called registration.php and paste in the following code:

<?php 
	\Magento\Framework\Component\ComponentRegistrar::register(
		\Magento\Framework\Component\ComponentRegistrar::MODULE, 'Novxweb_Helloworld',
		__DIR__
);

Creating our module.xml file

In Novxweb/Helloworld/etc create a file called module.xml and paste in the following code

<?xml version="1.0"?>
	<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:Module/etc/module.xsd">
		<module name="Novxweb_Helloworld" setup_version="0.0.1">
		</module>
	</config>

Installing the module

Using ssh change directory to the root of the Magento installation and then issue the command

bin/magento setup:upgrade

In the output you should see your module “Novxweb_Helloworld”. That’s it! you have created a Magento 2 module.

This was a very a basic module that we will need to build on to make it do something useful.