Pnnconf wizard question on setup for joystick

I need some help pointing me in the right direction. One of my questions is, now that it is 2018 and also I am using linuxcnc master many of the examples I find online reference building or integrating the joystick jogging functions through hal, is this still the best way? I am not sure how dated some of the examples are online such as this one for a Simple Remote Pendant ( I had this same gamepad / joystick sitting around the house thus why it was appealing). Also there are other examples out there each with their own basic setup and spin yet all seem to basically use hal only as part of that setup.

Within the Pnnconf wizard you come to a page that involves external controls. There is a check box and a tab for USB Jogging. Once selected you can then designate Digital Control and Analog Control as well as default speed, a, b, ab speeds. I used the wizard to designate digital controls for x+, x-, y+, y-, z+, z-, speed a, speed b.

Upon completing the wizard I see the output into the main hal file for these setting and within hal show I can see that the buttons will trigger to true when pressed.

Here is where I am a bit lost:
The online documentation that I have found doesnt mention using the Pnnconfig but rather uses hal alone. By me using the config wizard is there a bridge I need to build inside of the custom hal file for the main hal to communicate with in order to get motion on the physical machine? As of right now despite the hal show indicating that when I press a button and it =True, there is no movement on any axis on the machine.

I am missing something somewhere but I am not sure which direction to turn whether it be plugging in custom hal code or adjusting a speed setting.

Thanks for your help guys!