shadowfacts.net/site/tutorials/forge-modding-112/basic-items.md

```
metadata.title = "Basic Items"
metadata.date = "2016-05-07 16:32:00 -0400"
metadata.series = "forge-modding-112"
metadata.seriesName = "Forge Mods for 1.12"
```

Now that we've got the basic structure of our mod set up, we can create our first item. This item will be fairly simple, just a copper ingot.

### Base Item

Before we actually begin creating items, we'll want to create a base class just to make things easier.

```java
package net.shadowfacts.tutorial.item;

import net.minecraft.creativetab.CreativeTabs;
import net.minecraft.item.Item;
import net.shadowfacts.tutorial.TutorialMod;

public class ItemBase extends Item {

	protected String name;

	public ItemBase(String name) {
		this.name = name;
		setUnlocalizedName(name);
		setRegistryName(name);
	}
	
	public void registerItemModel() {
		TutorialMod.proxy.registerItemRenderer(this, 0, name);
	}
	
	@Override
	public ItemBase setCreativeTab(CreativeTabs tab) {
		super.setCreativeTab(tab);
		return this;
	}

}
```

Our `ItemBase` class will make it simpler to add basic items quickly. `ItemBase` primarily has a convenience constructor that sets both the unlocalized and the registry names.

- The unlocalized name is used for translating the name of the item into the currently active language.
- The registry name is used when registering our item with Forge and should _never, ever change_.

The `setCreativeTab` method is an overriden version that returns `ItemBase` instead of `Item` so we can use it in our `register` method without casting, as you'll see later.

You will have an error because we haven't created the `registerItemRenderer` method yet, so let's do that now. In the `CommonProxy` class add a new method called `registerItemRenderer` that accepts an `Item`, an `int`, and a `String`.

```java
public void registerItemRenderer(Item item, int meta, String id) {
}
```

We'll leave this method empty, because it's in the common proxy so it can't access any client-only code, but it still needs to be here becuase `TutorialMod.proxy` is of type `CommonProxy` so any client-only methods still need to have an empty stub in the `CommonProxy`.

To our `ClientProxy` we'll add the actual implementation of `registerItemRenderer`:

```java
@Override
public void registerItemRenderer(Item item, int meta, String id) {
	ModelLoader.setCustomModelResourceLocation(item, meta, new ModelResourceLocation(TutorialMod.modId + ":" + id, "inventory"));
}
```

This method calls `ModelLoader.setCustomModelResourceLocation` which will tell Minecraft which item model to use for our item.

### Registration

Nextly, we'll need to update our main mod class to actually register our items and models. In the main class, will create a static inner class called `RegistrationHandler` to, as the name implies, handle the registration. This class will have the `@Mod.EventBusSubscriber` annotation which signals Forge that it needs to be subscribed to the main event bus.

```java
// ...
public class TutorialMod {
	// ...

	@Mod.EventBusSubscriber
	public static class RegistrationHandler {
	
	}
}
```

The event bus is Forge's system for allowing mods to register (or subscribe) handler methods to be run when specific events happen. Forge provides numerous events for all sorts of things in the game, however the ones we're currently concerned with are the registry events. (Registries are Forge's method of keeping track of all the objects of various types in the game, both vanilla Minecraft and modded ones.)

One of the events Forge provides is the `RegistryEvent.Register<T>` event, which is fired at the appropriate time to register objects of type `T` with Forge. Since we're working with items, we'll be using the `RegisteryEvent.Register<Item>` event.

To subscribe to this event, we'll create a `static` method called `registerItems` with a return type of `void` and single parameter of type `RegistryEvent.Register<Item>`. The method will be annotated with `@SubscribeEvent` to indicate to Forge that this method handles an event.

```java
// ...
public class TutorialMod {
	// ...

	@Mod.EventBusSubscriber
	public static class RegistrationHandler {
	
		@SubscribeEvent
		public static void registerItems(RegistryEvent.Register<Item> event) {
			
		}
	
	}
}
```

When the event is fired, we'll want to register our items. Instead of registering every single item in our main mod class, we'll leave that to the `ModItems` class which we'll build in the next section. For now, what's important is that we'll have a `register(IForgeRegistry<Item>)` method in the `ModItems` class which we can call during the registry event.

```java
@Mod.EventBusSubscriber
public static class RegistrationHandler {

	@SubscribeEvent
	public static void registerItems(RegistryEvent.Register<Item> event) {
		ModItems.register(event.getRegistry());
	}

}
```

Nextly, we'll add another event handler for the `ModelRegistryEvent` which is fired at the appropriate time for models to be registered. In this event handler, we'll have a call to `ModItems.registerModels` which will handle the model registration.

```java
@Mod.EventBusSubscriber
public static class RegistrationHandler {

	// ...

	@SubscribeEvent
	public static void registerItems(ModelRegistryEvent event) {
		ModItems.registerModels();
	}

}
```

### `ModItems`

Create a class called `ModItems`. This class will contain the instances of all of our items. In Minecraft, items are singletons so we'll only ever have on instance, and a reference to this instance will be kept in our `ModItems` class.

```java
package net.shadowfacts.tutorial.item;

import net.minecraft.item.Item;
import net.minecraftforge.registries.IForgeRegistry;

public class ModItems {

	public static void register(IForgeRegistry<Item> registry) {
	}
	
	public static void registerModels() {
	}

}
```

Right now the `register` and `registerModels` methods are empty, but this is where we'll register our items and their models. 

### Copper Ingot

Now to create our actual item, the copper ingot. Because we've created the `ItemBase` helper class, we won't need to create any more classes. We'll simply add a field for our new item and create/register/set it in the `init` method of our `ModItems` class.

```java
public static ItemBase ingotCopper = new ItemBase("ingot_copper").setCreativeTab(CreativeTabs.MATERIALS);

public static void register(IForgeRegistry<Item> registry) {
	registry.registerAll(
			ingotCopper
	);
}

public static void registerModels() {
	ingotCopper.registerItemModel();
}
```

This will:

1. Create a new `ItemBase` with the name `ingot_copper`
2. Set the creative tab to the Materials tab.
3. Register our item with the `GameRegistry`.

Now, if you load up the game and go into the Materials creative tab, you shoulds see our new copper ingot item (albeit without a model)! Next time we'll learn how to make basic JSON models and add a model to our copper ingot!

![Copper Ingot Item Screenshot](http://i.imgur.com/6uHudqH.png)