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📐 Dynamic GET (Visual SQL Engine)

📁 Snippets, Templates, Layouts, Libraries

Round-Trip Code Integration

Seamlessly preserve and reinject manual code edits into future builds.

Round-Trip Code Integration in Joomla Component Builder (JCB) enables an advanced, bi-directional synchronization between your live Joomla component code and the blueprint inside JCB. This feature allows you to inject, preserve, update, and even extract code snippets directly from compiled components, making iterative development seamless and safe.

Round-trip code refers to the ability to:

Insert or Replace custom code (HTML or PHP) into the compiled Joomla extension.
Preserve that custom code across multiple rebuilds of the component in JCB.
Update or modify that code from either the GUI or the file system.
Extract and reintegrate code from already-deployed components for editing or review.

Key Benefits

Maintain full customization flexibility without losing changes on recompilation

Collaborate safely by syncing real project code into JCB GUI

Eliminate the need for post-compilation patching or manual merging

Reverse-engineer code changes into reusable blocks for reuse across multiple projects

What Is Round-Trip Code?

How It Works

JCB uses special comment-based tags (known as Insert/Replace Tags) that act as markers to track and reintegrate code during builds. These markers are parsed and mapped to Custom Code entities in the JCB backend.

For Insertion:

`/***[INSERT<>$$$$]***/` and  `/***[/INSERT<>$$$$]***/`

For Replacement:

`/***[REPLACE<>$$$$]***/` and  `/***[/REPLACE<>$$$$]***/`

Each custom code block is:

Identified by a unique key

Injected into specific files or code locations

Persisted and versioned inside the JCB interface

Learn more in the wiki:

Round Trip Development Tags & Syntax

Use Cases

Replace logic inside controllers/models with version-aware custom logic
Override layout HTML in generated templates
Dynamically inject logic into admin/backend forms or views
Maintain sensitive integration code (like payment logic) without losing it during component rebuilds
Extract snippets from a working project for reuse or refactoring

Fail-Safe Mechanisms

If JCB cannot find the original location for reinserting the code, it does not delete or ignore the block. Instead, it comments it out and alerts you during compilation, making it easy to review and fix manually.

Cannot match a placeholder to its compiled context?

The code is preserved and commented for review
Line tracking and UUID mapping?

Debug and verify where custom code is injected
Updates and modifications?

Placeholder blocks are tracked and versioned

Related Features

Custom Code Entities

Reusable blocks linked by key

Super Powers & Joomla Powers

Can be injected via custom code

Compiler Debug Logs

Exactly where and how code blocks are injected

Summary

Round-Trip Code Integration is a defining feature that turns JCB from a one-way code generator into a true bi-directional development platform. It ensures your handcrafted logic never gets overwritten and enables agile collaboration in professional Joomla development workflows.