How to create a custom system field in magento 1?

Question

Magento 1.9

I want to create a new tab in System > Configuration. In this tab, I need a group tab and in this group tab i want a textarea which is connected to a field of my database. If i edit my textarea, it will modify my database field too.

Look at this: https://prnt.sc/orwph1

I don't know how to connect my textarea with my db.. Create a new tab with a new group it's easy but connect it to the db..

Thanks!

Answer 1

Magento provides inbuild option to create custom config fields. Magento take care by itself for storing and retrieving data from database. You can create custom config field as 1. Create a new system.xml in your modules etc folder. 2. Put the content in system.xml as

<config>
    <tabs>
    <!--This will create a new Tab for you-->
        <customtab translate="label" module="helloworld">
            <label>Tab Name</label>
            <sort_order>99999</sort_order>
        </customtab>
    </tabs>    
    <sections>
        <!--This will create a new Section for Tab-->
        <custom_section translate="label" module="helloworld">
            <label>Custom Group - General</label>
            <tab>customtab</tab> <!--See the tab name matches above tab-->
            <frontend_type>text</frontend_type>
            <sort_order>1000</sort_order>
            <show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
            <show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
            <show_in_store>1</show_in_store>
        <groups>
        <!--This will create a new Group for Tab-->
                <general translate="label comment" module="ordercron">
                    <label>General Settings</label>
                    <frontend_type>text</frontend_type>
                    <sort_order>10</sort_order>
                    <show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
                    <show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
                    <show_in_store>1</show_in_store>
                    <fields>
            <!--This will create a new field in above group-->  
                    <custom_field translate="label">
                        <label>Custom Config Fields</label>
                        <frontend_type>text</frontend_type>
                        <sort_order>1</sort_order>
                        <show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
                        <show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
                        <show_in_store>1</show_in_store>                
                    </custom_field>
                    </fields>
                </general>
            </groups>
        </custom_section>
    </sections>   
</config>

3. Now you can access the stored data anywhere as

Mage::getStoreConfig('custom_section/general/custom_field');

and for accessing store specific information use

Mage::getStoreConfig('custom_section/general/custom_field',$storeId);

For more information please refer https://alanstorm.com/custom_magento_system_configuration/

Hope it finds you helpful.