Connecting to the database

So now the next file we need to create is helper.php which contains our database connection and gets the data ready to display in the view. You should create this file in your mod_latestextensions folder.

<?php
defined('_JEXEC') or die;

abstract class mod_latestextensionsHelper
{
  public static function getList(&$params)
  {
    $db = JFactory::getDbo();
    $query = $db->getQuery(true);

    $query->select('name, extension_id, type');
    $query->from('#__extensions');
    $query->order('extension_id DESC');
    $db->setQuery($query, 0, $params->get('count', 5));

    try
    {
      $results = $db->loadObjectList();
    }
    catch (RuntimeException $e)
    {
      JError::raiseError(500, $e->getMessage());
      return false;
    }

    foreach ($results as $k => $result)
    {
      $results[$k] = new stdClass;
      $results[$k]->name = htmlspecialchars( $result->name );
      $results[$k]->id = (int)$result-&gt...