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 To be honest I wasn't quite sure where to file this article; module development or hack? It is both, as I have had to add extra functionality to the mambo core to provide some functionality for my modules parameters, which were not previously available.
The module I have developed is called troozFlash, for want of a better name, which allows the administrator to define which content item they want displayed in the module area - a bit like newsflash but without the randomisation (a customisation asked for).
The hack? Well, to enable parameters within a module you need to define these within an XML file along with the module script. The mambo core does provide some pre-defined drop down lists, such as categories, but not one listing the content items available within the site. The following describes how to enable this, which can be downloaded as a hack here, and as a module here.
/path-to-mambo/includes/mamboxml.php
On line 316, before "function _form_jos_category", enter the code highlighted in yellow; /**
* @var string The name of the form element
* @var string The value of the element
* @var object The xml element for the parameter
* @return string The html for the element
*/
function _form_jos_content( $name, $value, &$node ) {
global $database;
$database->setQuery( "SELECT id AS value, title AS text FROM #__content WHERE state=1 ORDER BY title" );
$options = $database->loadObjectList();
array_unshift( $options, mosHTML::makeOption( '0', '- Select Content Item -' ) );
return mosHTML::selectList( $options, "params[$name]", "class='inputbox'", 'value', 'text', $value );
}
function _form_jos_category( $name, $value, &$node ) {
global $database;
This allows a developer to include a dropdown of published content items within a modules parameter file, like the following example; /path-to-mambo/modules/mod_yourmodulename.xml
<param name="contentid" type="jos_content" default="0" label="Content item" description="A content item" /> <param name="image" type="radio" default="0" label="Show images" description="Display content item images"> <option value="1">Yes</option> <option value="0">No</option> </param> That's it, all of the above allows you to display a specific content item within your module area, or if you are a developer, to display your published content items within a modules parameters (as shown below). 
These are now available within the downloads page, or linked within this article. Hopefully someone will find a use for this; if you do, drop me a line 
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