Upgrading Plugins¶
Prepare your plugin for the next version of Elgg.
See the administrator guides for how to upgrade a live site.
Contents
- From 2.2 to 2.3
- PHP Version
- Deprecated APIs
- Deprecated Views
- New API for page and action handling
- New API for working with file uploads
- New API for manipulating images
- New API for events
- New API for signing URLs
- Extendable form views
- Metadata
access_id
- New API for extracting class names from arrays
- Notifications
- Entity list functions can output tables
- Inline tabs components
- API to alter registration and login URL
- Support for fieldsets in forms
- From 2.1 to 2.2
- From 2.0 to 2.1
- From 1.x to 2.0
- Elgg can be now installed as a composer dependency instead of at document root
- Cacheable views must have a file extension in their names
- Dropped
jquery-migrate
and upgradedjquery
to ^2.1.4 - JS and CSS views have been moved out of the js/ and css/ directories
fxp/composer-asset-plugin
is now required to install Elgg from source- List of deprecated views and view arguments that have been removed
- All scripts moved to bottom of page
- Attribute formatter removes keys with underscores
- Breadcrumbs
- Callbacks in Queries
- Comments plugin hook
- Container permissions hook
- Creating or deleting a relationship triggers only one event
- Discussion feature has been pulled from groups into its own plugin
- Dropped login-over-https feature
- Elgg has migrated from ext/mysql to PDO MySQL
- Event/Hook calling order may change
export/
URLs are no longer available- Icons migrated to Font Awesome
- Increase of z-index value in elgg-menu-site class
- input/autocomplete view
- Introduced third-party library for sending email
- Label elements
- Plugin Aalborg Theme
- Plugin Likes
- Plugin Messages
- Plugin Blog
- Plugin Bookmarks
- Plugin File
- Removed Classes
- Removed keys available via
elgg_get_config()
- Removed Functions
- Removed methods
- Removed Plugin Hooks
- Removed Actions
- Removed Views
- Removed View Variables
- Removed libraries
- Specifying View via Properties
- Viewtype is static after the initial
elgg_get_viewtype()
call - Deprecations
- From 1.10 to 1.11
- From 1.9 to 1.10
- From 1.8 to 1.9
- From 1.7 to 1.8
From 2.2 to 2.3¶
PHP Version¶
PHP 5.5 has reached end of life in July 2016. To ensure that Elgg sites are secure, we now require PHP 5.6 for new installations.
Existing installations can continue using PHP 5.5 until Elgg 3.0.
In order to upgrade Elgg to 2.3 using composer while using PHP 5.5, you may need to use --ignore-platform-reqs
flag.
Deprecated APIs¶
- Registering for
to:object
hook by the extender name: Useto:object, annotation
andto:object, metadata
hooks instead.ajax_forward_hook()
: No longer used as handler for ‘forward’,’all’ hook. Ajax response is now wrapped by theResponseFactory
ajax_action_hook()
: No longer used as handler for ‘action’,’all’ hook. Output buffering now starts before the hook is triggered inActionsService
elgg_error_page_handler()
: No longer used as a handler for ‘forward’,<error_code> hooksget_uploaded_file()
: Use new file uploads API insteadget_user_notification_settings()
: UseElggUser::getNotificationSettings()
set_user_notification_setting()
: UseElggUser::setNotificationSetting()
pagesetup, system
event: Use the menu or page shell hooks instead.elgg.walled_garden
JavaScript is deprecated: Useelgg/walled_garden
AMD module instead.elgg()->getDb()->getTableprefix()
: Useelgg_get_config('dbprefix')
.- Private
update_entity_last_action()
: Refrain from manually updating last action timestamp.- Setting non-public
access_id
on metadata is deprecated. See below.get_resized_image_from_existing_file()
: Useelgg_save_resized_image()
.get_resized_image_from_uploaded_file()
: Useelgg_save_resized_image()
in combination with upload API.get_image_resize_parameters()
will be removed.elgg_view_input()
: Useelgg_view_field()
. Apologies for the API churn.
Deprecated Views¶
resources/file/world
: Use theresources/file/all
view instead.resources/pages/world
: Use theresources/pages/all
view instead.walled_garden.js
: Use theelgg/walled_garden
module instead.
New API for page and action handling¶
Page handlers and action script files should now return an instance of \Elgg\Http\ResponseBuilder
.
Plugins should use the following convenience functions to build responses:
elgg_ok_response()
sends a 2xx response with HTML (page handler) or JSON data (actions)elgg_error_response()
sends a 4xx or 5xx response without content/dataelgg_redirect_response()
silently redirects the request
New API for working with file uploads¶
elgg_get_uploaded_files()
- returns an array of Symfony uploaded file objectsElggFile::acceptUploadedFile()
- moves an uploaded file to Elgg’s filestore
New API for manipulating images¶
New image manipulation service implements a more efficient approach to cropping and resizing images.
elgg_save_resized_image()
- crops and resizes an image to preferred dimensions
New API for events¶
elgg_clear_event_handlers()
- similar toelgg_clear_plugin_hook_handlers
this functions removes all registered event handlers
New API for signing URLs¶
URLs can now be signed with a SHA-256 HMAC key and validated at any time before URL expiry. This feature can be used to tokenize action URLs in email notifications, as well as other uses outside of the Elgg installation.
elgg_http_get_signed_url()
- signs the URL with HMAC keyelgg_http_validate_signed_url()
- validates the signed URLelgg_signed_request_gatekeeper()
- gatekeeper that validates the signature of the current request
Extendable form views¶
Form footer rendering can now be deferred until the form view and its extensions have finished rendering. This allows plugins to collaborate on form views without breaking the markup logic.
elgg_set_form_footer()
- sets form footer for deferred renderingelgg_get_form_footer()
- returns currently set form footer
Metadata access_id
¶
It’s now deprecated to create metadata with an explicit access_id
value other than ACCESS_PUBLIC
.
In Elgg 3.0, metadata will not be access controlled, and will be available in all contexts. If your plugin relies on access control of metadata, it would be wise to migrate storage to annotations or entities instead.
New API for extracting class names from arrays¶
Similar to elgg_extract()
, elgg_extract_class()
extracts the “class” key (if present), merges into existing class names, and always returns an array.
Notifications¶
- A high level
'prepare','notification'
hook is now triggered for instant and subscription notifications and can be used to alter notification objects irrespective of their type.'format','notification:<method>'
hook is now triggered for instant and subscription notifications and can be used to format the notification (e.g. strip HTML tags, wrap the notification body in a template etc).- Instant notifications are now handled by the notifications service, hence almost all hooks applicable to subscription notifications also apply to instant notifications.
elgg_get_notification_methods()
can be used to obtain registered notification methods- Added
ElggUser::getNotificationSettings()
andElggUser::setNotificationSetting()
Entity list functions can output tables¶
In functions like elgg_list_entities($options)
, table output is possible by setting
$options['list_type'] = 'table'
and providing an array of table columns as $options['columns']
.
Each column is an Elgg\Views\TableColumn
object, usually created via methods on the service
elgg()->table_columns
.
Plugins can provide or alter these factory methods (see Elgg\Views\TableColumn\ColumnFactory
).
See the view admin/users/newest
for a usage example.
Inline tabs components¶
Inline tabs component can now be rendered with page/components/tabs
view. The components allows to switch between pre-poluated and ajax-loaded.
See page/components/tabs
in core views and theme_sandbox/components/tabs
in developers plugin for usage instructions and examples.
API to alter registration and login URL¶
elgg_get_registration_url()
should be used to obtain site’s registration URLelgg_get_login_url()
should be used to obtain site’s login URLregistration_url, site
hook can be used to alter the default registration URLlogin_url, site
hook can be used to alter the default login URL
Support for fieldsets in forms¶
elgg_view_field()
replaceselgg_view_input()
. It has a similar API, but accepts a single array.elgg_view_field()
supports#type
,#label
,#help
and#class
, allowing unprefixed versions to be sent to the input view$vars
.- The new view
input/fieldset
can be used to render a set of fields, each rendered withelgg_view_field()
.
From 2.1 to 2.2¶
Deprecated APIs¶
elgg.ui.river
JavaScript library: Remove calls toelgg_load_js('elgg.ui.river')
from plugin code. Updatecore/river/filter
andforms/comment/save
, if overwritten, to require component AMD moduleselgg.ui.popupOpen()
andelgg.ui.popupClose()
methods inelgg.ui
JS library: Useelgg/popup
module instead.lightbox.js
library: Do not useelgg_load_js('lightbox.js');
unless your code references deprecatedelgg.ui.lightbox
namespace. Useelgg/lightbox
AMD module instead.elgg.embed
library andelgg.embed
object: Do not useelgg_load_js('elgg.embed')
. Useelgg/embed
AMD module instead- Accessing
icons_sizes
config value directly: Useelgg_get_icon_sizes()
can_write_to_container()
: UseElggEntity::canWriteToContainer()
Deprecated Views¶
elgg/ui.river.js
is deprecated: Do not rely on simplecache URLs to work.groups/js
is deprecated: Usegroups/navigation
AMD module as a menu item dependency for “feature” and “unfeature” menu items instead.lightbox/settings.js
is deprecated: UsegetOptions, ui.lightbox
JS plugin hook ordata-colorbox-opts
attribute.elgg/ckeditor/insert.js
is deprecated: You no longer need to include it, hook registration takes place inelgg/ckeditor
moduleembed/embed.js
is deprecated: Useelgg/embed
AMD module.
Added elgg/popup
module¶
New elgg/popup module can be used to build out more complex trigger-popup interactions, including binding custom anchor types and opening/closing popups programmatically.
Added elgg/lightbox
module¶
New elgg/lightbox module can be used to open and close the lightbox programmatically.
Added elgg/embed
module¶
Even though rarely necessary, elgg/embed
AMD module can be used to access the embed methods programmatically. The module bootstraps itself when necessary and is unlikely to require further decoration.
New API for handling entity icons¶
ElggEntity
now implements\Elgg\EntityIcon
interfaceelgg_get_icon_sizes()
- return entity type/subtype specific icon sizesElggEntity::saveIconFromUploadedFile()
- creates icons from an uploaded fileElggEntity::saveIconFromLocalFile()
- creates icons from a local fileElggEntity::saveIconFromElggFile()
- creates icons from an instance ofElggFile
ElggEntity::getIcon()
- returns an instanceofElggIcon
that points to entity icon location on filestore (this may be just a placeholder, useElggEntity::hasIcon()
to validate if file has been written)ElggEntity::deleteIcon()
- deletes entity iconsElggEntity::getIconLastChange()
- return modified time of the icon fileElggEntity::hasIcon()
- checks if an icon with given size has been createdelgg_get_embed_url()
- can be used to return an embed URL for an entity’s icon (served via /serve-icon handler)
User avatars are now served via serve-file
handler. Plugins should start using elgg_get_inline_url()
and note that:
/avatar/view
page handler and resource view have been deprecated/mod/profile/icondirect.php
file has been deprecatedprofile_set_icon_url()
is no longer registered as a callback for"entity:icon:url","user"
plugin hook
Group avatars are now served via serve-file
handler. Plugins should start using elgg_get_inline_url()
and note that:
groupicon
page handler (groups_icon_handler()
) has been deprecated/mod/groups/icon.php
file has been deprecated
File entity thumbs and downloads are now served via serve-file
handler. Plugins should start using elgg_get_inline_url()
and elgg_get_download_url()
and note that:
file/download
page handler and resource view have been deprecatedmod/file/thumbnail.php
file has been deprecated- Several views have been updated to use new download URLs, including:
mod/file/views/default/file/specialcontent/audio/default.php
mod/file/views/default/file/specialcontent/image/default.php
mod/file/views/default/resources/file/view.php
mod/file/views/rss/file/enclosure.php
Removed APIs¶
Just a warning that the private entity cache functions (e.g. _elgg_retrieve_cached_entity
) have been removed. Some plugins may have been using them. Plugins should not use private APIs as they will more often be removed without notice.
Improved elgg/ckeditor
module¶
elgg/ckeditor module can now be used to add WYSIWYG to a textarea programmatically with elgg/ckeditor#bind
.
From 2.0 to 2.1¶
Deprecated APIs¶
ElggFile::setFilestore
get_default_filestore
set_default_filestore
elgg_get_config('siteemail')
: Useelgg_get_site_entity()->email
- URLs starting with
/css/
and/js/
:Use elgg_get_simplecache_url()
elgg.ui.widgets
JavaScript object is deprecated byelgg/widgets
AMD module
Application::getDb()
changes¶
If you’re using this low-level API, do not expect it to return an Elgg\Database
instance in 3.0. It now
returns an Elgg\Application\Database
with many deprecated. These methods were never meant to be made
public API, but we will do our best to support them in 2.x.
Added elgg/widgets
module¶
If your plugin code calls elgg.ui.widgets.init()
, instead use the elgg/widgets module.
From 1.x to 2.0¶
Elgg can be now installed as a composer dependency instead of at document root¶
That means an Elgg site can look something like this:
settings.php
vendor/
elgg/
elgg/
engine/
start.php
_graphics/
elgg_sprites.png
mod/
blog
bookmarks
...
elgg_get_root_path
and $CONFIG->path
will return the path to the application
root directory, which is not necessarily the same as Elgg core’s root directory (which
in this case is vendor/elgg/elgg/
).
Do not attempt to access the core Elgg from your plugin directly, since you cannot rely on its location on the filesystem.
In particular, don’t try load engine/start.php
.
// Don't do this!
dirname(__DIR__) . "/engine/start.php";
To boot Elgg manually, you can use the class Elgg\Application
.
// boot Elgg in mod/myplugin/foo.php
require_once dirname(dirname(__DIR__)) . '/vendor/autoload.php';
\Elgg\Application::start();
However, use this approach sparingly. Prefer Routing instead whenever possible as that keeps your public URLs and your filesystem layout decoupled.
Also, don’t try to access the _graphics
files directly.
readfile(elgg_get_root_path() . "_graphics/elgg_sprites.png");
Use Views instead:
echo elgg_view('elgg_sprites.png');
Cacheable views must have a file extension in their names¶
This requirement makes it possibile for us to serve assets directly from disk for performance, instead of serving them through PHP.
It also makes it much easier to explore the available cached resources by navigating to dataroot/views_simplecache and browsing around.
- Bad:
my/cool/template
- Good:
my/cool/template.html
We now cache assets by "$viewtype/$view"
, not md5("$viewtype|$view")
,
which can result in conflicts between cacheable views that don’t have file extensions
to disambiguate files from directories.
Dropped jquery-migrate
and upgraded jquery
to ^2.1.4¶
jQuery 2.x is API-compatible with 1.x, but drops support for IE8-, which Elgg hasn’t supported for some time anyways.
See http://jquery.com/upgrade-guide/1.9/ for how to move off jquery-migrate.
If you’d prefer to just add it back, you can use this code in your plugin’s init:
elgg_register_js('jquery-migrate', elgg_get_simplecache_url('jquery-migrate.js'), 'head');
elgg_load_js('jquery-migrate');
Also, define a jquery-migrate.js
view containing the contents of the script.
JS and CSS views have been moved out of the js/ and css/ directories¶
They also have been given .js and .css extensions respectively if they didn’t already have them:
Old view | New view |
---|---|
js/view |
view.js |
js/other.js |
other.js |
css/view |
view.css |
css/other.css |
other.css |
js/img.png |
img.png |
The main benefit this brings is being able to co-locate related assets.
So a template (view.php
) can have its CSS/JS dependencies right next to it
(view.css
, view.js
).
Care has been taken to make this change as backwards-compatible as possible, so you should not need to update any view references right away. However, you are certainly encouraged to move your JS and CSS views to their new, canonical locations.
Practically speaking, this carries a few gotchas:
The view_vars, $view_name
and view, $view_name
hooks will operate on the
canonical view name:
elgg_register_plugin_hook_handler('view', 'css/elgg', function($hook, $view_name) {
assert($view_name == 'elgg.css') // not "css/elgg"
});
Using the view, all
hook and checking for individual views may not work as intended:
elgg_register_plugin_hook_handler('view', 'all', function($hook, $view_name) {
// Won't work because "css/elgg" was aliased to "elgg.css"
if ($view_name == 'css/elgg') {
// Never executed...
}
// Won't work because no canonical views start with css/* anymore
if (strpos($view_name, 'css/') === 0) {
// Never executed...
}
});
Please let us know about any other BC issues this change causes. We’d like to fix as many as possible to make the transition smooth.
fxp/composer-asset-plugin
is now required to install Elgg from source¶
We use fxp/composer-asset-plugin
to manage our browser assets (js, css, html)
with Composer, but it must be installed globally before installing Elgg in order
for the bower-asset/*
packages to be recognized. To install it, run:
composer global require fxp/composer-asset-plugin
If you don’t do this before running composer install
or composer create-project
,
you will get an error message:
[InvalidArgumentException]
Package fxp/composer-asset-plugin not found
List of deprecated views and view arguments that have been removed¶
We dropped support for and/or removed the following views:
- canvas/layouts/*
- categories
- categories/view
- core/settings/tools
- embed/addcontentjs
- footer/analytics (Use page/elements/foot instead)
- groups/left_column
- groups/right_column
- groups/search/finishblurb
- groups/search/startblurb
- input/calendar (Use input/date instead)
- input/datepicker (Use input/date instead)
- input/pulldown (Use input/select instead)
- invitefriends/formitems
- js/admin (Use AMD and
elgg_require_js
instead of extending JS views)- js/initialise_elgg (Use AMD and
elgg_require_js
instead of extending JS views)- members/nav
- metatags (Use the ‘head’, ‘page’ plugin hook instead)
- navigation/topbar_tools
- navigation/viewtype
- notifications/subscriptions/groupsform
- object/groupforumtopic
- output/calendar (Use output/date instead)
- output/confirmlink (Use output/url instead)
- page_elements/contentwrapper
- page/elements/shortcut_icon (Use the ‘head’, ‘page’ plugin hook instead)
- page/elements/wrapper
- profile/icon (Use
elgg_get_entity_icon
)- river/object/groupforumtopic/create
- settings/{plugin}/edit (Use plugins/{plugin}/settings instead)
- user/search/finishblurb
- user/search/startblurb
- usersettings/{plugin}/edit (Use plugins/{plugin}/usersettings instead)
- widgets/{handler}/view (Use widgets/{handler}/content instead)
We also dropped the following arguments to views:
- “value” in output/iframe (Use “src” instead)
- “area2” and “area3” in page/elements/sidebar (Use “sidebar” or view extension instead)
- “js” in icon views (e.g. icon/user/default)
- “options” to input/radio and input/checkboxes which aren’t key-value pairs will no longer be acceptable.
All scripts moved to bottom of page¶
You should test your plugin with the JavaScript error console visible. For performance reasons, Elgg no longer
supports script
elements in the head
element or in HTML views. elgg_register_js
will now load all
scripts at the end of the body
element.
You must convert inline scripts to AMD or to external scripts loaded with
elgg_load_js
.
Early in the page, Elgg provides a shim of the RequireJS require()
function that simply queues code until
the AMD elgg
and jQuery
modules are defined. This provides a straightforward way to convert many inline
scripts to use require()
.
Inline code which will fail because the stack is not yet loaded:
<script>
$(function () {
// code using $ and elgg
});
</script>
This should work in Elgg 2.0:
<script>
require(['elgg', 'jquery'], function (elgg, $) {
$(function () {
// code using $ and elgg
});
});
</script>
Attribute formatter removes keys with underscores¶
elgg_format_attributes()
(and all APIs that use it) now filter out attributes whose name contains an
underscore. If the attribute begins with data-
, however, it will not be removed.
Breadcrumbs¶
Breadcrumb display now removes the last item if it does not contain a link. To restore the previous behavior,
replace the plugin hook handler elgg_prepare_breadcrumbs
with your own:
elgg_unregister_plugin_hook_handler('prepare', 'breadcrumbs', 'elgg_prepare_breadcrumbs');
elgg_register_plugin_hook_handler('prepare', 'breadcrumbs', 'myplugin_prepare_breadcrumbs');
function myplugin_prepare_breadcrumbs($hook, $type, $breadcrumbs, $params) {
// just apply excerpt to titles
foreach (array_keys($breadcrumbs) as $i) {
$breadcrumbs[$i]['title'] = elgg_get_excerpt($breadcrumbs[$i]['title'], 100);
}
return $breadcrumbs;
}
Callbacks in Queries¶
Make sure to use only valid callable values for “callback” argument/options in the API.
Querying functions will now will throw a RuntimeException
if is_callable()
returns false
for the given
callback value. This includes functions such as elgg_get_entities()
, get_data()
, and many more.
Comments plugin hook¶
Plugins can now return an empty string from 'comments',$entity_type
hook in order to override the default comments component view. To force the default comments component, your plugin must return false
. If you were using empty strings to force the default comments view, you need to update your hook handlers to return false
.
Container permissions hook¶
The behavior of the container_permissions_check
hook has changed when an entity is being created: Before 2.0, the hook would be called twice if the entity’s container was not the owner. On the first call, the entity’s owner would be passed in as $params['container']
, which could confuse handlers.
In 2.0, when an entity is created in a container like a group, if the owner is the same as the logged in user (almost always the case), this first check is bypassed. So the container_permissions_check
hook will almost always be called once with $params['container']
being the correct container of the entity.
Creating or deleting a relationship triggers only one event¶
The “create” and “delete” relationship events are now only fired once, with "relationship"
as the object type.
E.g. Listening for the "create", "member"
or "delete", "member"
event(s) will no longer capture group membership additions/removals. Use the "create", "relationship"
or "delete", "relationship"
events.
Discussion feature has been pulled from groups into its own plugin¶
The object, groupforumtopic
subtype has been replaced with the
object, discussion
subtype. If your plugin is using or altering
the old discussion feature, you should upgrade it to use the new
subtype.
Nothing changes from the group owners’ point of view. The discussion feature is still available as a group tool and all old discussions are intact.
Dropped login-over-https feature¶
For the best security and performance, serve all pages over HTTPS by switching
the scheme in your site’s wwwroot to https
at http://yoursite.tld/admin/settings/advanced
Elgg has migrated from ext/mysql to PDO MySQL¶
Elgg now uses a PDO_MYSQL
connection and no longer uses any ext/mysql functions. If you use
mysql_*
functions, implicitly relying on an open connection, these will fail.
If your code uses one of the following functions, read below.
execute_delayed_write_query()
execute_delayed_read_query()
If you provide a callable $handler
to be called with the results, your handler will now receive a
\Doctrine\DBAL\Driver\Statement
object. Formerly this was an ext/mysql result
resource.
Event/Hook calling order may change¶
When registering for events/hooks, the all
keyword for wildcard matching no longer has any effect
on the order that handlers are called. To ensure your handler is called last, you must give it the
highest priority of all matching handlers, or to ensure your handler is called first, you must give
it the lowest priority of all matching handlers.
If handlers were registered with the same priority, these are called in the order they were registered.
To emulate prior behavior, Elgg core handlers registered with the all
keyword have been raised in
priority. Some of these handlers will most likely be called in a different order.
export/
URLs are no longer available¶
Elgg no longer provides this endpoint for exposing resource data.
Icons migrated to Font Awesome¶
Elgg’s sprites and most of the CSS classes beginning with elgg-icon-
have been removed.
Usage of elgg_view_icon()
is backward compatible, but static HTML using the elgg-icon
classes will have to be updated to the new markup.
input/autocomplete view¶
Plugins that override the input/autocomplete
view will need to include the source URL in the data-source
attribute of the input element, require the new elgg/autocomplete
AMD module, and call its init
method. The 1.x javascript library elgg.autocomplete
is no longer used.
Introduced third-party library for sending email¶
We are using the excellent Zend\Mail
library to send emails in Elgg 2.0.
There are likely edge cases that the library handles differently than Elgg 1.x.
Take care to test your email notifications carefully when upgrading to 2.0.
Label elements¶
The following views received label
elements around some of the input fields. If your plugin/theme overrides these views please check for the new content.
- views/default/core/river/filter.php
- views/default/forms/admin/plugins/filter.php
- views/default/forms/admin/plugins/sort.php
- views/default/forms/login.php
Plugin Aalborg Theme¶
The view page/elements/navbar
now uses a Font Awesome icon for the mobile menu selector instead of an image. The bars.png
image and supporting CSS for the 1.12 rendering has been removed, so update your theme accordingly.
Plugin Likes¶
Objects are no longer likable by default. To support liking, you can register a handler to permit the annotation,
or more simply register for the hook ["likes:is_likable", "<type>:<subtype>"]
and return true. E.g.
elgg_register_plugin_hook_handler('likes:is_likable', 'object:mysubtype', 'Elgg\Values::getTrue');
Just as before, the permissions_check:annotate
hook is still called and may be used to override default behavior.
Plugin Messages¶
If you’ve removed or replaced the handler function messages_notifier
to hide/alter the inbox icon, you’ll instead need to do the
same for the topbar menu handler messages_register_topbar
. messages_notifier
is no longer used to add the menu link.
Messages will no longer get the metadata ‘msg’ for newly created messages. This means you can not rely on that metadata to exist.
Plugin Blog¶
The blog pages showing ‘Mine’ or ‘Friends’ listings of blogs have been changed to list all the blogs owned by the users (including those created in groups).
Plugin Bookmarks¶
The bookmark pages showing ‘Mine’ or ‘Friends’ listings of bookmarks have been changed to list all the bookmarks owned by the users (including those created in groups).
Plugin File¶
The file pages showing ‘Mine’ or ‘Friends’ listings of files have been changed to list all the files owned by the users (including those created in groups).
Removed Classes¶
ElggInspector
Notable
FilePluginFile
: replace withElggFile
(or load withget_entity()
)
Removed keys available via elgg_get_config()
¶
allowed_ajax_views
dataroot_in_settings
externals
externals_map
i18n_loaded_from_cache
language_paths
pagesetupdone
registered_tag_metadata_names
simplecache_enabled_in_settings
translations
viewpath
views
view_path
viewtype
wordblacklist
Also note that plugins should not be accessing the global $CONFIG
variable except for in settings.php
.
Removed Functions¶
blog_get_page_content_friends
blog_get_page_content_read
count_unread_messages()
delete_entities()
delete_object_entity()
delete_user_entity()
elgg_get_view_location()
elgg_validate_action_url()
execute_delayed_query()
extend_view()
get_db_error()
get_db_link()
get_entities()
get_entities_from_access_id()
get_entities_from_access_collection()
get_entities_from_annotations()
get_entities_from_metadata()
get_entities_from_metadata_multi()
get_entities_from_relationship()
get_filetype_cloud()
get_library_files()
get_views()
is_ip_in_array()
list_entities()
list_entities_from_annotations()
list_group_search()
list_registered_entities()
list_user_search()
load_plugins()
menu_item()
make_register_object()
mysql_*()
: Elgg no longer uses ext/mysqlremove_blacklist()
search_for_group()
search_for_object()
search_for_site()
search_for_user()
search_list_objects_by_name()
search_list_groups_by_name()
search_list_users_by_name()
set_template_handler()
test_ip()
Removed methods¶
ElggCache::set_variable()
ElggCache::get_variable()
ElggData::initialise_attributes()
ElggData::getObjectOwnerGUID()
ElggDiskFilestore::make_directory_root()
ElggDiskFilestore::make_file_matrix()
ElggDiskFilestore::user_file_matrix()
ElggDiskFilestore::mb_str_split()
ElggEntity::clearMetadata()
ElggEntity::clearRelationships()
ElggEntity::clearAnnotations()
ElggEntity::getOwner()
ElggEntity::setContainer()
ElggEntity::getContainer()
ElggEntity::getIcon()
ElggEntity::setIcon()
ElggExtender::getOwner()
ElggFileCache::create_file()
ElggObject::addToSite()
: parent function in ElggEntity still availableElggObject::getSites()
: parent function in ElggEntity still availableElggSite::getCollections()
ElggUser::addToSite()
: parent function in ElggEntity still availableElggUser::getCollections()
ElggUser::getOwner()
ElggUser::getSites()
: parent function in ElggEntity still availableElggUser::listFriends()
ElggUser::listGroups()
ElggUser::removeFromSite()
: parent function in ElggEntity still available
The following arguments have also been dropped:
ElggSite::getMembers()
- 2:$offset
elgg_view_entity_list()
- 3:$offset
- 4:$limit
- 5:$full_view
- 6:$list_type_toggle
- 7:$pagination
Removed Plugin Hooks¶
[display, view]
: See the new plugin hook.
Removed Actions¶
widgets/upgrade
Removed Views¶
forms/admin/plugins/change_state
Removed View Variables¶
During rendering, the view system no longer injects these into the scope:
$vars['url']
: replace withelgg_get_site_url()
$vars['user']
: replace withelgg_get_logged_in_user_entity()
$vars['config']
: useelgg_get_config()
andelgg_set_config()
$CONFIG
: useelgg_get_config()
andelgg_set_config()
Also several workarounds for very old views are no longer performed. Make these changes:
- Set
$vars['full_view']
instead of$vars['full']
.- Set
$vars['name']
instead of$vars['internalname']
.- Set
$vars['id']
instead of$vars['internalid']
.
Removed libraries¶
elgg:markdown
: Elgg no longer provides a markdown implementation. You must provide your own.
Specifying View via Properties¶
The metadata $entity->view
no longer specifies the view used to render in elgg_view_entity()
.
Similarly the property $annotation->view
no longer has an effect within elgg_view_annotation()
.
Viewtype is static after the initial elgg_get_viewtype()
call¶
elgg_set_viewtype()
must be used to set the viewtype at runtime. Although Elgg still checks the
view
input and $CONFIG->view
initially, this is only done once per request.
Deprecations¶
It’s deprecated to read or write to metadata keys starting with filestore::
on ElggFile
objects. In Elgg 3.0 this metadata will be deleted if it points to the current data root path, so few file objects will have it. Plugins should only use ElggFile::setFilestore
if files need to be stored in a custom location.
Note
This is not the only deprecation in Elgg 2.0. Plugin developers should watch their site error logs.
From 1.10 to 1.11¶
Comment highlighting¶
If your theme is using the file views/default/css/elements/components.php
, you must add the following style definitions in it to enable highlighting for comments and discussion replies:
.elgg-comments .elgg-state-highlight {
-webkit-animation: comment-highlight 5s;
animation: comment-highlight 5s;
}
@-webkit-keyframes comment-highlight {
from {background: #dff2ff;}
to {background: white;}
}
@keyframes comment-highlight {
from {background: #dff2ff;}
to {background: white;}
}
From 1.9 to 1.10¶
File uploads¶
If your plugin is using a snippet copied from the file/upload
action to fix detected mime types for Microsoft zipped formats, it can now be safely removed.
If your upload action performs other manipulations on detected mime and simple types, it is recommended to make use of available plugin hooks:
'mime_type','file'
for filtering detected mime types'simple_type','file'
for filtering parsed simple types
From 1.8 to 1.9¶
In the examples we are upgrading an imaginary “Photos” plugin.
Only the key changes are included. For example some of the deprecated functions are not mentioned here separately.
Each section will include information whether the change is backwards compatible with Elgg 1.8.
The manifest file¶
No changes are needed if your plugin is compatible with 1.8.
It’s however recommended to add the <id>
tag. It’s value should be the name of the directory where the plugin is located inside the mod/
directory.
If you make changes that break BC, you must update the plugin version and the required Elgg release.
Example of (shortened) old version:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<plugin_manifest xmlns="http://www.elgg.org/plugin_manifest/1.8">
<name>Photos</name>
<author>John Doe</author>
<version>1.0</version>
<description>Adds possibility to upload photos and arrange them into albums.</description>
<requires>
<type>elgg_release</type>
<version>1.8</version>
</requires>
</plugin_manifest>
Example of (shortened) new version:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<plugin_manifest xmlns="http://www.elgg.org/plugin_manifest/1.8">
<name>Photos</name>
<id>photos</id>
<author>John Doe</author>
<version>2.0</version>
<description>Adds possibility to upload photos and arrange them into albums.</description>
<requires>
<type>elgg_release</type>
<version>1.9</version>
</requires>
</plugin_manifest>
$CONFIG and $vars[‘config’]¶
Both the global $CONFIG
variable and the $vars['config']
parameter have been deprecated. They should be replaced with the elgg_get_config()
function.
Example of old code:
// Using the global $CONFIG variable:
global $CONFIG;
$plugins_path = $CONFIG->plugins_path
// Using the $vars view parameter:
$plugins_path = $vars['plugins_path'];
Example of new code:
$plugins_path = elgg_get_config('plugins_path');
Note
Compatible with 1.8
Note
See how the community_plugins plugin was updated: https://github.com/Elgg/community_plugins/commit/f233999bbd1478a200ee783679c2e2897c9a0483
Language files¶
In Elgg 1.8 the language files needed to use the add_translation()
function. In 1.9 it is enough to just return the array that was
previously passed to the function as a parameter. Elgg core will use the file name (e.g. en.php) to tell which language the file contains.
Example of the old way in languages/en.php
:
$english = array(
'photos:all' => 'All photos',
);
add_translation('en', $english);
Example of new way:
return array(
'photos:all' => 'All photos',
);
Warning
Not compatible with 1.8
Notifications¶
One of the biggest changes in Elgg 1.9 is the notifications system. The new system allows more flexible and scalable way of sending notifications.
Example of the old way:
function photos_init() {
// Tell core that we want to send notifications about new photos
register_notification_object('object', 'photo', elgg_echo('photo:new'));
// Register a handler that creates the notification message
elgg_register_plugin_hook_handler('notify:entity:message', 'object', 'photos_notify_message');
}
/**
* Set the notification message body
*
* @param string $hook Hook name
* @param string $type Hook type
* @param string $message The current message body
* @param array $params Parameters about the photo
* @return string
*/
function photos_notify_message($hook, $type, $message, $params) {
$entity = $params['entity'];
$to_entity = $params['to_entity'];
$method = $params['method'];
if (elgg_instanceof($entity, 'object', 'photo')) {
$descr = $entity->excerpt;
$title = $entity->title;
$owner = $entity->getOwnerEntity();
return elgg_echo('photos:notification', array(
$owner->name,
$title,
$descr,
$entity->getURL()
));
}
return null;
}
Example of the new way:
function photos_init() {
elgg_register_notification_event('object', 'photo', array('create'));
elgg_register_plugin_hook_handler('prepare', 'notification:publish:object:photo', 'photos_prepare_notification');
}
/**
* Prepare a notification message about a new photo
*
* @param string $hook Hook name
* @param string $type Hook type
* @param Elgg_Notifications_Notification $notification The notification to prepare
* @param array $params Hook parameters
* @return Elgg_Notifications_Notification
*/
function photos_prepare_notification($hook, $type, $notification, $params) {
$entity = $params['event']->getObject();
$owner = $params['event']->getActor();
$recipient = $params['recipient'];
$language = $params['language'];
$method = $params['method'];
// Title for the notification
$notification->subject = elgg_echo('photos:notify:subject', array($entity->title), $language);
// Message body for the notification
$notification->body = elgg_echo('photos:notify:body', array(
$owner->name,
$entity->title,
$entity->getExcerpt(),
$entity->getURL()
), $language);
// The summary text is used e.g. by the site_notifications plugin
$notification->summary = elgg_echo('photos:notify:summary', array($entity->title), $language);
return $notification;
}
Warning
Not compatible with 1.8
Note
See how the community_plugins plugin was updated to use the new system: https://github.com/Elgg/community_plugins/commit/bfa356cfe8fb99ebbca4109a1b8a1383b70ff123
Notifications can also be sent with the notify_user()
function.
It has however been updated to support three new optional parameters passed inside an array as the fifth parameter.
The parameters give notification plugins more control over the notifications, so they should be included whenever possible. For example the bundled site_notifications plugin won’t work properly if the parameters are missing.
Parameters:
- object The object that we are notifying about (e.g. ElggEntity or ElggAnnotation). This is needed so that notification plugins can provide a link to the object.
- action String that describes the action that triggered the notification (e.g. “create”, “update”, etc).
- summary String that contains a summary of the notification. (It should be more informative than the notification subject but less informative than the notification body.)
Example of the old way:
// Notify $owner that $user has added a $rating to an $entity created by him
$subject = elgg_echo('rating:notify:subject');
$body = elgg_echo('rating:notify:body', array(
$owner->name,
$user->name,
$entity->title,
$entity->getURL(),
));
notify_user($owner->guid,
$user->guid,
$subject,
$body
);
Example of the new way:
// Notify $owner that $user has added a $rating to an $entity created by him
$subject = elgg_echo('rating:notify:subject');
$summary = elgg_echo('rating:notify:summary', array($entity->title));
$body = elgg_echo('rating:notify:body', array(
$owner->name,
$user->name,
$entity->title,
$entity->getURL(),
));
$params = array(
'object' => $rating,
'action' => 'create',
'summary' => $summary,
);
notify_user($owner->guid,
$user->guid,
$subject,
$body,
$params
);
Note
Compatible with 1.8
Adding items to the Activity listing¶
add_to_river('river/object/photo/create', 'create', $user_guid, $photo_guid);
elgg_create_river_item(array(
'view' => 'river/object/photo/create',
'action_type' => 'create',
'subject_guid' => $user_guid,
'object_guid' => $photo_guid,
));
You can also add the optional target_guid
parameter which tells the target of the create action.
If the photo would had been added for example into a photo album, we could add it by passing in also:
'target_guid' => $album_guid,
Warning
Not compatible with 1.8
Entity URL handlers¶
The elgg_register_entity_url_handler()
function has been deprecated. In 1.9 you should use the 'entity:url', 'object'
plugin hook instead.
Example of the old way:
/**
* Initialize the photo plugin
*/
my_plugin_init() {
elgg_register_entity_url_handler('object', 'photo', 'photo_url_handler');
}
/**
* Returns the URL from a photo entity
*
* @param ElggEntity $entity
* @return string
*/
function photo_url_handler($entity) {
return "photo/view/{$entity->guid}";
}
Example of the new way:
/**
* Initialize the photo plugin
*/
my_plugin_init() {
elgg_register_plugin_hook_handler('entity:url', 'object', 'photo_url_handler');
}
/**
* Returns the URL from a photo entity
*
* @param string $hook 'entity:url'
* @param string $type 'object'
* @param string $url The current URL
* @param array $params Hook parameters
* @return string
*/
function photo_url_handler($hook, $type, $url, $params) {
$entity = $params['entity'];
// Check that the entity is a photo object
if ($entity->getSubtype() !== 'photo') {
// This is not a photo object, so there's no need to go further
return;
}
return "photo/view/{$entity->guid}";
}
Warning
Not compatible with 1.8
Web services¶
In Elgg 1.8 the web services API was included in core and methods were exposed
using expose_function()
. To enable the same functionality for Elgg 1.9,
enable the “Web services 1.9” plugin and replace all calls to
expose_function()
with elgg_ws_expose_function()
.
From 1.7 to 1.8¶
Elgg 1.8 is the biggest leap forward in the development of Elgg since version 1.0. As such, there is more work to update core and plugins than with previous upgrades. There were a small number of API changes and following our standard practice, the methods we deprecated have been updated to work with the new API. The biggest changes are in the standardization of plugins and in the views system.
Updating core¶
Delete the following core directories (same level as _graphics and engine):
- _css
- account
- admin
- dashboard
- entities
- friends
- search
- settings
- simplecache
- views
Warning
If you do not delete these directories before an upgrade, you will have problems!
Updating plugins¶
Use standardized routing with page handlers¶
- All: /page_handler/all
- User’s content: /page_handler/owner/:username
- User’s friends’ content: /page_handler/friends/:username
- Single entity: /page_handler/view/:guid/:title
- Added: /page_handler/add/:container_guid
- Editing: /page_handler/edit/:guid
- Group list: /page_handler/group/:guid/all
Include page handler scripts from the page handler¶
Almost every page handler should have a page handler script.
(Example: bookmarks/all => mod/bookmarks/pages/bookmarks/all.php
)
- Call
set_input()
for entity guids in the page handler and useget_input()
in the page handler scripts. - Call
gatekeeper()
andadmin_gatekeeper()
in the page handler function if required. - The group URL should use the
pages/:handler/owner.php
script. - Page handlers should not contain HTML.
- Update the URLs throughout the plugin. (Don’t forget to remove
/pg/
!)
Use standardized page handlers and scripts¶
Store page handler scripts in
mod/:plugin/pages/:page_handler/:page_name.php
Use the content page layout in page handler scripts:
$content = elgg_view_layout('content', $options);
Page handler scripts should not contain HTML.
Call
elgg_push_breadcrumb()
in the page handler scripts.No need to set page owner if the URLs are in the standardized format.
For group content, check the container_guid by using elgg_get_page_owner_entity().
The object/:subtype
view¶
- Make sure there are views for
$vars['full_view'] == true
and$vars['full_view'] == false
.$vars['full_view']
replaced$vars['full]
. - Check for the object in
$vars['entity']
. Useelgg_instance_of()
to make sure it’s the type of entity you want. - Return
true
to short circuit the view if the entity is missing or wrong. - Use
elgg_view(‘object/elements/summary’, array(‘entity’ => $entity));
andelgg_view_menu(‘entity’, array(‘entity’ => $entity));
to help format. You should use very little markup in these views.
Update action structure¶
- Namespace action files and action names (example:
mod/blog/actions/blog/save.php
=>action/blog/save
) - Use the following action URLs:
- Add:
action/:plugin/save
- Edit:
action/:plugin/save
- Delete:
action/:plugin/delete
- Add:
- Make the delete action accept
action/:handler/delete?guid=:guid
so the metadata entity menu has the correct URL by default.
Update deprecated functions¶
- Functions deprecated in 1.7 will produce visible errors in 1.8.
- You can also update functions deprecated in 1.8.
- Many registration functions simply added an
elgg_
prefix for consistency, and should be easy to update. - See
/engine/lib/deprecated-1.8.php
for the full list. - You can set the debug level to “warning” to get visual reminders of deprecated functions.
- Many registration functions simply added an
Update the widget views¶
See the blog or file widgets for examples.
Update the group profile module¶
Use the blog or file plugins for examples. This will help with making your plugin themeable by the new CSS framework.
Update forms¶
- Move form bodies to the
forms/:action
view to use Evan’s newelgg_view_form
. - Use input views in form bodies rather than html. This helps with theming and future-proofing.
- Add a function that prepares the form (see
mod/file/lib/file.php
for an example) - Make your forms sticky (see the file plugin’s upload action and form prepare function).
The forms API is discussed in more detail in Forms + Actions.
Clean up CSS/HTML¶
We have added many CSS patterns to the base CSS file (modules, image block, spacing primitives). We encourage you to use these patterns and classes wherever possible. Doing so should:
- Reduce maintenance costs, since you can delete most custom CSS.
- Make your plugin more compatible with community themes.
Look for patterns that can be moved into core if you need significant CSS.
We use hyphens rather than underscores in classes/ids and encourage you do the same for consistency.
If you do need your own CSS, you should use your own namespace, rather than elgg-
.
Update manifest.xml¶
- Use http://el.gg/manifest17to18 to automate this.
- Don’t use the “bundled” category with your plugins. That is only for plugins distributed with Elgg.
Update settings and user settings views¶
- The view for settings is now
plugins/:plugin/settings
(previouslysettings/:plugin/edit
). - The view for user settings is now
plugins/:plugin/usersettings
(previouslyusersettings/:plugin/edit
).