Add color picker in Magento Admin Configuration Page

Sometimes you may want to add color picker in the admin configuration page of your Magento module or extension. You may think this as a big task but believe me this is as simple as anything. Few lines of XML code will do it for you. Here are the exact steps to do this.

I hope you know how to add custom configuration options in Magento. If not, read this tutorial: Creating Custom Configuration Options in Magento Admin.
Namespace: Color
Module name: Picker

1. In adminhtml/default/default/layout directory, create the layout XML file for your module. Lets name it as picker.xml. Write following content in picker.xml:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<layout version="0.1.1">
 <adminhtml_system_config_edit>
  <reference name="head">
   <action method="addJs"><file>jscolor/jscolor.js</file></action>
  </reference>
 </adminhtml_system_config_edit>
</layout>

2. Declare the layout file in your module’s config.xml as:

<config>
...
 <adminhtml>
  <layout>
   <updates>
    <basket>
     <file>picker.xml</file>
    </basket>
   </updates>
  </layout>
 </adminhtml>
...
</config>

3. In your module’s system.xml, add the color picker field as:

<config>
...
 <sections>
   <myconfig module="picker" translate="label">
   ...
   <groups>
    <my_group translate="label">
     ...
      <my_color>
       <label>Background Color</label>
       <frontend_type>text</frontend_type>
       <validate>color</validate> <!-- This is important -->
       <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>
       <comment>Specify the background color.</comment>
      </my_color>
    <my_group>
   </groups>
   <myconfig>
 </sections>
...
</config>

This is it and you are done.