Plugins
Plugins must provide a composer.json
file in the plugin root in order to be recognized by Elgg.
elgg-plugin.php
elgg-plugin.php
is a static plugin configuration file. It is read by Elgg to configure various services,
and must return an array if present. It should not be included by plugins and is not guaranteed to run at any particular time.
Besides magic constants like __DIR__
, its return value should not change. The currently supported sections are:
plugin
- defines plugin information and dependencies
bootstrap
- defines a class used to bootstrap the plugin
entities
- defines entity types and classes, and optionally registers them for search
actions
- eliminates the need for callingelgg_register_action()
routes
- eliminates the need for callingelgg_register_route()
settings
- eliminates the need for setting default values on each call toelgg_get_plugin_setting()
user_settings
- eliminates the need for setting default values on each call toelgg_get_plugin_user_setting()
views
- allows plugins to alias vendor assets to a path within the Elgg’s view system
widgets
- eliminates the need for callingelgg_register_widget_type()
events
- eliminates the need for callingelgg_register_event_handler()
cli_commands
- an array ofElgg/Cli/Command
classes to extend the feature ofelgg-cli
view_extensions
- eliminates the need for callingelgg_extend_view()
orelgg_unextend_view()
theme
- an array of theme variables
group_tools
- an array of available group tool options
view_options
- an array of views with extra options
notifications
- an array of notification events
web_services
- an array of exposed web service (used by the Web Services plugin)
return [
'plugin' => [
'name' => 'Plugin Name', // readable plugin name
'activate_on_install' => true, // only used on a fresh install
'version' => '1.3.1', // version of the plugin
'dependencies' => [
// optional list op plugin dependencies
'blog' => [],
'activity' => [
'position' => 'after',
'must_be_active' => false,
],
'file' => [
'position' => 'before',
'version' => '>2', // composer notation of required version constraint
],
],
],
// Bootstrap must implement \Elgg\PluginBootstrapInterface
'bootstrap' => MyPluginBootstrap::class,
'entities' => [
[
// Register a new object subtype and tell Elgg to use a specific class to instantiate it
'type' => 'object',
'subtype' => 'my_object_subtype',
'class' => MyObjectClass::class,
'capabilities' => [
// Register this subtype for search
'searchable' => true,
'likable' => true,
],
],
],
'actions' => [
// Registers an action
// By default, action is registered with 'logged_in' access
// By default, Elgg will look for file in plugin's actions/ directory: actions/my_plugin/action.php
'my_plugin/action/default' => [],
'my_plugin/action/custom_access' => [
'access' => 'public', // supports 'public', 'logged_in', 'logged_out', 'admin'
],
// you can use action controllers instead of action files by setting the controller parameters
// controller must be a callable that receives \Elgg\Request as the first and only argument
// in example below, MyActionController::__invoke(\Elgg\Request $request) will be called
'my_plugin/action/controller' => [
'controller' => MyActionController::class,
],
],
'routes' => [
// routes can be associated with resource views or controllers
'collection:object:my_object_subtype:all' => [
'path' => '/my_stuff/all',
'resource' => 'my_stuff/all', // view file is in resources/my_stuff/all
],
// similar to actions, routes can be associated with a callable controller that receives an instance of \Elgg\Request
'collection:object:my_object_subtype:json' => [
'path' => '/my_stuff/json',
'controller' => JsonDumpController::class,
],
// route definitions support other parameters, such as 'middleware', 'requirements', 'defaults'
// see elgg_register_route() for all options
],
'widgets' => [
// register a new widget
// corresponds to a view in widgets/my_stuff/content
'my_stuff' => [
'description' => elgg_echo('widgets:my_stuff'),
'context' => ['profile', 'dashboard'],
],
],
'settings' => [
'plugin_setting_name' => 'plugin_setting_value',
],
'user_settings' => [
'user_setting_name' => 'user_setting_value',
],
'views' => [
'default' => [
'cool_lib/' => __DIR__ . '/vendors/cool_lib/dist/',
],
],
'events' => [
'delete' => [
'object' => [
'file_handle_object_delete' => [
'priority' => 999,
],
],
],
'create' => [
'relationship' => [
'_elgg_send_friend_notification' => [],
],
],
'log' => [
'systemlog' => [
'Elgg\SystemLog\Logger::log' => ['unregister' => true],
],
],
'register' => [
'menu:owner_block' => [
'blog_owner_block_menu' => [
'priority' => 700,
],
],
],
'usersettings:save' => [
'user' => [
'_elgg_save_notification_user_settings' => ['unregister' => true],
],
],
],
'cli_commands' => [
\My\Plugin\CliCommand::class,
'\My\Plugin\OtherCliCommand',
],
'view_extensions' => [
'page/components/list' => [
'list/extension' => [
'priority' => 600,
],
],
'forms/usersettings/save' => [
'core/settings/account/password' => [
'unextend' => true,
],
],
],
'theme' => [
'body-background-color' => '#000',
],
'group_tools' => [
'activity' => [], // just use default behaviour
'blog' => [
'default_on' => false,
],
'forum' => [
'unregister' => true, // unregisters the group tool option
],
],
'view_options' => [
'likes/popup' => [
'ajax' => true, // registers the view available via ajax
],
'likes/popup' => [
'ajax' => false, // unregisters the view available via ajax
],
'manifest.json' => [
'simplecache' => true, // register view as usable in the simplecache
],
],
'notifications' => [
'object' => [
'blog' => [
'publish' => true, // registers the event to be notified
],
'thewire' => [
'create' => false, // unregisters the event to be notified
],
'page' => [
'create' => MyPluginPageCreateEventHandler::class, // a custom event handler, needs to be an extension of a NotificationEventHandler
],
],
],
'web_services' => [
'test.echo' => [
'GET' => [ // the HTTP call method (GET|POST)
'callback' => 'my_echo', // required
'description' => 'A testing method which echos back a string', // optional, the description of the API method, a magic translation key is tried if not provided 'web_services:api_methods:<method>:<http call method>:description'
'params' => [ // optional, input parameters for the API method
'string' => [
'type' => 'string', // type of the parameter (int|integer|bool|string|float|array)
'default' => 'some value', // default value if not provided in the request
'required' => true|false, // required in the request
],
],
'require_api_auth' => false, // optional, requires API authentication (default: false)
'require_user_auth' => false, // optional, requires User authentication (default: false)
'associative' => false, // optional, provide the input params as an array to the callback function (default: false)
],
],
],
];
Bootstrap class
As of Elgg 3.0 the recommended way to bootstrap you plugin is to use a bootstrap class. This class must implement
the \Elgg\PluginBootstrapInterface
interface. You can register you bootstrap class in the elgg-plugin.php
.
The bootstrap interface defines several function to be implemented which are called during different events in the system booting process.
See also
For more information about the different functions defined in the \Elgg\PluginBootstrapInterface
please read Plugin bootstrap
elgg-services.php
Plugins can attach their services to Elgg’s public DI container by providing PHP-DI definitions in elgg-services.php
in the root of the plugin directory.
This file must return an array of PHP-DI definitions. Services will by available via elgg()
.
return [
PluginService::class => \DI\object()->constructor(\DI\get(DependencyService::class)),
];
Plugins can then use PHP-DI API to autowire and call the service:
$service = elgg()->get(PluginService::class);
See PHP-DI documentation for a comprehensive list of definition and invocation possibilities.
composer.json
Since Elgg supports being installed as a Composer dependency, having your plugins also support Composer makes for easier installation by
site administrators. In order to make your plugin compatible with Composer you need to at least have a composer.json
file in the root of your
plugin.
Here is an example of a composer.json
file:
{
"name": "company/example_plugin",
"description": "Some description of the plugin",
"type": "elgg-plugin",
"keywords": ["elgg", "plugin"],
"license": "GPL-2.0-only",
"support": {
"source": "URL to your code repository",
"issues": "URL to your issue tracker"
},
"conflict": {
"elgg/elgg": "<3.0"
}
}
Read more about the composer.json
format on the Composer website.
Important parts in the composer.json
file are:
name
: the name of your plugin, keep this inline with the name of your plugin folder to ensure correct installationtype
: this will tell Composer where to install your plugin, ALWAYS keep this aselgg-plugin
As a suggestion, include a conflict
rule with any Elgg version below your minimal required version, this will help
prevent the accidental installation of your plugin on an incompatible Elgg version.
After adding a composer.json
file to your plugin project, you need to register your project on Packagist in
order for other people to be able to install your plugin.
Tests
It’s encouraged to create PHPUnit test for your plugin. All tests should be located in tests/phpunit/unit
for unit tests and
tests/phpunit/integration
for integration tests.
Unit tests should extend the Elgg\UnitTestCase
class. Integration tests should extend the Elgg\Plugins\IntegrationTestCase
.
There are a set of global plugin integration tests that run on all active plugins. These tests are:
Elgg\Plugins\ActionRegistrationIntegrationTest
will test all registered actions of the plugin without supplying dataElgg\Plugins\ComposerIntegrationTest
will test if thecomposer.json
is considered validElgg\Plugins\StaticConfigIntegrationTest
will test the sections of theelgg-plugin.php
and check for the correct formatElgg\Plugins\TranslationsIntegrationTest
will test all language files for the correct format and encodingElgg\Plugins\ViewStackIntegrationTest
will test all views of the plugin if there are any PHP parsing errors
See also