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Plugins follow the same MVC design pattern that Blesta adheres to. The plugin system is provided as a feature of the minPHP framework, Blesta simply defines the naming convention. For the purpose of this manual, the plugin name we'll refer to is my_pluginplgn. Your plugin name will, of course, differ.

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Plugins are fully contained within their named plugin directory and placed in the /plugins/ directory. Below is the minimum required file structure for a plugin:

/plugins/
- my_pluginplgn/
  - controllers/
  - models/
  - views/
  - language/
  - my_pluginplgn_controller.php
  - my_pluginplgn_model.php
  - my_pluginplgn_plugin.php
  - config.json (for version 3.1+)

my_pluginplgn_controller.php is the plugin's parent controller. This controller can be used to add supporting methods for the other controllers to inherit. Similarly, my_pluginplgn_model.php is the plugin's parent model and can be used to add supporting methods for the other models to inherit.

Because plugins inherit from the application stack their views default to the view directory defined for application. For this reason, you should always declare the view directory for the views within your plugin. The example below requires that you place all views (.pdt files) into /plugins/my_pluginplgn/views/default/.

Code Block

language	php
firstline	1
title	/plugins/my_pluginplgn/my_pluginplgn_controller.php	firstline	1
linenumbers	true

<?php
class MyPluginControllerMyPlgnController extends AppController {
    public function preAction() {
        parent::preAction();
 
        // Override default view directory
        $this->view->view = "default";
        $this->structure->view = "default";
    }
}
?>

Finally, my_pluginplgn_plugin.php is a special class that must extend the Plugin class of /components/plugins/lib/plugin.php. This class is used for installing, upgrading, uninstalling, and branding the plugin in conjunction with the config.json file.

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Code Block

language	php
title	/plugins/my_pluginplgn/my_pluginplgn_plugin.php
linenumbers	true

<?php
class MyPluginPluginMyPlgnPlugin extends Plugin {

    ...

    public function install($plugin_id) {
        #
        # TODO: Place installation logic here
        #
    }
}
?>

...

Code Block

language	php
title	/plugins/my_pluginplgn/my_pluginplgn_plugin.php
linenumbers	true

<?php 
class MyPluginPluginMyPlgnPlugin extends Plugin { 

    ... 

    public function uninstall($plugin_id, $last_instance) {
        #
        # TODO: Place uninstallation logic here 
        #
    } 
} 
?>

...

Code Block

language	php
title	/plugins/my_pluginplgn/my_pluginplgn_plugin.php
linenumbers	true

<?php
class MyPluginPluginMyPlgnPlugin extends Plugin {

    ...

    public function upgrade($current_version, $plugin_id) {
        #
        # TODO: Place upgrade logic here
        #
    }

}
?>

...

Code Block

language	php
title	/plugins/my_pluginplgn/my_pluginplgn_plugin.php
linenumbers	true

<?php
class MyPluginPluginMyPlgnPlugin extends Plugin {

    public function __construct() {
        Loader::loadComponents($this, array("Input"));
    }

    ...

    public function upgrade($current_version, $plugin_id) {
        // Ensure new version is greater than installed version
        if (version_compare($this->version, $current_version) < 0) {
            $this->Input->setErrors(array([
                'version' => array([
                    'invalid' => "Downgrades are not allowed."
                )]
            ]);
            return;
        }
    }
}
?>

Branding The Plugin

For version 3.1+ simply create a config.json file and include it in the constructor of your plugin.

javascript

Code Block

language

title	/plugins/my_pluginplgn/config.json

{
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "name": "My Plugin Name",
    "description": "A plugin like no other!",
    "authors": [
        {
            "name": "Phillips Data, Inc.",
            "url": "http://www.blesta.com"
        }
    ]
}

...

Code Block

language	php
title	/plugins/my_pluginplgn/my_pluginplgn_plugin.php
linenumbers	true

<?php
class MyPluginPluginMyPlgnPlugin extends Plugin {
    public function __construct() {
        $this->loadConfig(dirname(__FILE__) . DS . "config.json");
    }
}
?>

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For version 3.0, you must define all of the branding details through methods.

Expand

title	Show plugin branding in 3.0

All that any plugin truly requires is branding. These options come from three methods: getName(), getVersion(), getAuthors().

Code Block

language	php
title	/plugins/my_pluginplgn/my_pluginplgn_plugin.php
linenumbers	true

<?php
class MyPluginPluginMyPlgnPlugin extends Plugin {

    ...

    public function getName() {
		return "MyPlugin";
    }

	public function getVersion() {
		return "1.0.0";
	}

	public function getAuthors() {
		return array([
			array([
				'name' => "MyCompany",
				'url' => "http://www.mycompanyplugindevelopment.com"
			)]
		)];
	}
}
?>

The getAuthors() method requires a multi-dimensional array, so you can specify multiple authors if needed.

Lastly, each plugin needs a logo. By default these are loaded from /plugins/my_pluginplgn/views/default/images/logo.png. You can override the location of the logo file by implementing the getLogo() method in your plugin.

Code Block

language	php
title	/plugins/my_pluginplgn/my_pluginplgn_plugin.php
linenumbers	true

<?php
class MyPluginPluginMyPlgnPlugin extends Plugin {
    ...
    public function getLogo() {
        return "views" . DS . "default" . DS . "images" . DS . "some_other_logo.png";
    }
}
?>

...

Code Block

language	php
title	/plugins/my_pluginplgn/controllers/admin_manage_plugin.php
linenumbers	true

<?php
class AdminManagePlugin extends AppController {

    /**
     * Performs necessary initialization
     */
    private function init()
    {
        // Set the view to render for all actions under this controller
        $this->view->setView(null, 'MyPlgn.default');
    }

    public function index() {
        $this->init();

		$var1 = "hello";
		$var2 = "world";
		return $this->partial("admin_manage_plugin", compact("var1", "var2"));
    }

	public function foo() {
        $this->init();

		return $this->partial("admin_manage_plugin_foo");
	}
}
?>

...

Code Block

language	php
title	/plugins/my_pluginplgn/views/default/admin_manage_plugin.pdt

<a href="<?php echo $this->Html->safe($this->base_uri . "settings/company/plugins/manage/" . $this->Html->_($plugin_id, true) . "/?controller=admin_manage_plugin&action=foo");?>">Link to other action</a>

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Plugins that need to perform certain tasks automatically at either set intervals are certain times of the day can register cron tasks. See Plugin Cron Tasks for how to register cron tasks.

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Key

Branding The Plugin