Installation & configuration

Please note: This page is under construction and has not been finished yet.

Introduction

Folder structure & files

The table below lists the files that can be used in a plugin. Only few of them are mandatory.

Note: Please replace the cursive plugin with the name of the plugin folder. (*menu.php, *_setup.php, *_shortcodes.php, *_sql.php).

TIP: the _blank plugin contains useful examples as reference material.

Filename / Foldername	Description	Mandatory?
languages (folder)	Contains the language files	English language files
templates (folder)
plugin.xml	Contains all the meta data needed for the plugin to be installed and configured on a basic level.	Yes
plugin_menu.php		No
plugin_setup.php	Allow to run code before or after (un)installing the plugin, or to set checks for newer plugin versions.	No
plugin_shortcodes.php	...	No
plugin_sql.php	Contains the database structure.	No
admin_config.php	Contains the Admin UI configuration.	No
e_*.php addons	See addons.	No

Filename / Foldername

Description

Mandatory?

languages (folder)

Contains the language files

English language files

templates (folder)

plugin.xml

Contains all the meta data needed for the plugin to be installed and configured on a basic level.

Yes

plugin_menu.php

plugin_setup.php

Allow to run code before or after (un)installing the plugin, or to set checks for newer plugin versions.

plugin_shortcodes.php

...

plugin_sql.php

Contains the database structure.

admin_config.php

Contains the Admin UI configuration.

e_*.php addons

See addons.

plugin.xml

Elements & attributes

Element Sub Attributes Text / Value Mandatory?

<e107Plugin>

Yes

name

Yes

version

Yes

date

Yes

lan

compatibility

Yes

installRequired

Yes

<author>

name

Yes

url

Yes

<description>

Textual description of the plugin

Yes

lan

LAN reference to the description

<category>

Plugin category. Choose from: - settings - users - content - tools - manage - misc - menu - about

Yes

<word>

Keyword

<link>

Yes

url

URL of the link

Yes

description

Description of the link

Yes

icons

icon path

Yes

<link>

Link name

Yes

url

URL of the link

Yes

<pref>

Value of the pref

Yes

name

Name of the pref

Yes

name

Yes

min_version

<PHP>

name

Yes (= core)

min_version

Yes

<MySQL>

name

Yes (= server)

min_version

Yes

name

Yes

min version

<class>

Yes

name

class_name (lowercase)

Yes

description

Description of the userclass

Yes

<field>

Yes

name

Name of the EUF

Yes

type

Type of the EUF. Choose from:

EUF_TEXT
EUF_RADIO
EUF_DROPDOWN
EUF_DB_FIELD
EUF_TEXTAREA
EUF_INTEGER
EUF_DATE
EUF_LANGUAGE
EUF_PREDEFINED
EUF_CHECKBOX
EUF_PREFIELD
EUF_ADDON
EUF_COUNTRY
EUF_RICHTEXTAREA

Yes

default

Yes

active

true/false

Yes

Examples

Simple

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<e107Plugin name="Newsfeeds" version="2.0" date="2012-08-01" compatibility="2.0" installRequired="true">
	<author name="e107 Inc." url="http://e107.org" email="@" />
	<description>This plugin's description.</description>
	<category>content</category>
	<adminLinks>
		<link url='admin_config.php' description='Configure Newsfeeds' icon='images/icon_32.png' iconSmall='images/icon_16.png' >LAN_CONFIGURE</link>	
	</adminLinks>
	<siteLinks>
		<link url="/e107_plugins/newsfeed/newsfeed.php" >Newsfeeds</link>
	</siteLinks>	
</e107Plugin>

Advanced

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<e107Plugin name="FAQs" version="1.1"  lan="LAN_PLUGIN_XXX_NAME" date="2012-08-01" compatibility="2.0" installRequired="true">
	 <author name="e107 Inc" url="http://www.e107.org" email="@" />
	<summary>Add frequently asked questions to your e107 website.</summary>
	<description  lan="LAN_PLUGIN_XXX_DESCRIPTION">A simple plugin to add Frequently Asked Questions to your website.</description>
	 <copyright>Copyright e107 Inc e107.org, Licensed under GPL</copyright>
	<category>content</category>
	<keywords>
		<word>faq</word>
		<word>question</word>
		<word>answer</word>
	</keywords>
	<adminLinks>
		<link url='admin_config.php' description='Configure FAQs' icon='images/icon_32.png' iconSmall='images/icon_16.png' primary='true'>LAN_CONFIGURE</link>		
	</adminLinks>
	<siteLinks>
		<link url='/e107_plugins/faqs/faqs.php' description='FAQs' icon='images/icon_32.png' iconSmall='images/icon_16.png' function="faqCategories">LAN_PLUGIN_FAQS_NAME</link>		
	</siteLinks>
	<pluginPrefs>
		<pref name="add_faq">255</pref>
		<pref name="submit_question">255</pref>
		<pref name="classic_look">0</pref>
	</pluginPrefs>
	<dependencies>
		<plugin name='chatbox_menu' />
		<plugin name='calendar_menu' min_version='3.70' />
		<PHP name='core' min_version='5.2.5' />
		<MySQL name='server' min_version='4.9' />
		<extension name='curl' min_version='1.3' />
		<extension name='mb_string' />
	</dependencies>
	<userClasses>
		<class name="faq_moderator" description="FAQ moderator" />		
	</userClasses>
	<extendedFields>
		<field name="viewed" type='EUF_TEXTAREA' default='0' active="true" />
		<field name="posts" type='EUF_INTEGER' default='0' active="true" />
	</extendedFields>	
</e107Plugin>

Commercial plugins

Commercial plugins can make use of a few extra attributes to the <e107Plugin> element, so that this information will be displayed correctly in the admin area under 👉 "Find Plugins".

Attribute	Description
Price	Purchasing price of the plugin (in xx.xx format). Example: 25.00
Currency	Currency codes (ISO 4217) Example: EUR
URL	Direct path to the website page where the plugin can be purchased. When the user clicks to download your plugin, the URL will be displayed. Note: do not add the URL to the generic homepage of your website, but only the URL to the specific page for that specific plugin.

Attribute

Description

Price

Purchasing price of the plugin (in xx.xx format). Example: 25.00

Currency

Currency codes (ISO 4217) Example: EUR

URL

Direct path to the website page where the plugin can be purchased. When the user clicks to download your plugin, the URL will be displayed.

Note: do not add the URL to the generic homepage of your website, but only the URL to the specific page for that specific plugin.

Example

<e107Plugin name="FAQs" .... price="25.00" currency="EUR" url="http://direct-path-to-my-plugin-purchase-page.com" >

plugin_menu.php

....

plugin_setup.php

Do not forget to use your plugin name in the filename, e.g. "myplugin_setup.php"

TODO: Add this section, provide example.

plugin_shortcodes.php

Please refer to the Plugin shortcodes page

Plugin shortcodes

plugin_sql.php

Do not forget to use your plugin name in the filename, e.g. "myplugin_sql.php"

This file contains the SQL database structure of the plugin. It will be analyzed on plugin install and missing tables will be installed automatically.

Any differences between the defined structure here and the table structure on the server will be detected and the user will be informed in the Admin Area.

👍TIP: To check if the table structure is still valid, run 👉"Admin Area > Tools > Database > Check for Updates"

Supported operations

For the moment, the following operations are supported:

Create table
Change field type, field size, field null or not, field default value
Add index

Unsupported operations

Operations that are currently NOT supported are:

Rename table: by renaming the tablename, e.g. "blank" > "blank2"). The renamed table will be considered as new!
Drop a table: e.g. if you remove the "blank" table definition from this file, the table will NOT be deleted from the database!)
Rename or drop a field: a renamed field will be considered new, a missing field definition will NOT be recognized at all!
Change an index/key: the change is recognized, but leads to an error message and the change is not applied.
Rename or drop an index/key: rename is recognized as a new index and the missing index is not recognized at all!)
A field definition containing "NULL DEFAULT NULL". The "Check for updates" method will always detect a change.
but fails silently when trying to update. In that case remove the first "NULL" and run the the "Check for updates" again.

👍TIP: Check the blank_setup.php file or the forum_setup.php file for examples on renaming/dropping/modifying tables, fields and indexes.

Example

CREATE TABLE blank (
  `blank_id` int(10) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `blank_icon` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  `blank_type` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
  `blank_name` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
  `blank_folder` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
  `blank_version` varchar(5) NOT NULL,
  `blank_author` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
  `blank_authorURL` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  `blank_date` int(10) NOT NULL,
  `blank_compatibility` varchar(5) NOT NULL,
  `blank_url` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  `blank_media` json DEFAULT NULL,
  `blank_class` int(10) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`blank_id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM;

admin_config.php

Please refer to the Admin-UI (User Interface) page.

Admin-UI (User Interface)

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Last updated 1 year ago