How to create a custom query inside a plugin in Craft?

Question

Can you give an example of returning entries from a section in JSON format using a custom query?

Answer 1

Easy enough:

$query = craft()->elements->getCriteria(ElementType::Entry);
$query->section = 'mySection';
$results = $query->find();

You can obviously refine the query before calling find():

$query->limit   = null;
$query->myCustomField = 'value';