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

plugin.xml

Elements & attributes

Element	Sub	Attributes	Text / Value	Mandatory?
<e107Plugin>				Yes
		name		Yes
		version		Yes
		date		Yes
		lan		No
		compatibility		Yes
		installRequired		Yes
<author>		name		Yes
		url		Yes
		email		Yes
<description>			Textual description of the plugin	Yes
		lan	LAN reference to the description	No
<copyright>			Copyright text	?
<category>			Plugin category. Choose from: - settings - users - content - tools - manage - misc - menu - about	Yes
<keywords>				No
	<word>		Keyword	No
<adminLinks>				No
	<link>			Yes
		url	URL of the link	Yes
		description	Description of the link	Yes
		icons	icon path	Yes
<sitelinks>				No
	<link>		Link name	Yes
		url	URL of the link	Yes
<pluginPrefs>				No
	<pref>		Value of the pref	Yes
		name	Name of the pref	Yes
<dependencies>				No
	<plugin>			No
		name		Yes
		min_version		No
	<PHP>			No
		name		Yes (= core)
		min_version		Yes
	<MySQL>			No
		name		Yes (= server)
		min_version		Yes
	<extension>			No
		name		Yes
		min version		No
<userClasses>				No
	<class>			Yes
		name	class_name (lowercase)	Yes
		description	Description of the userclass	Yes
<extendedFields>				No
	<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.

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

pagePlugin 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.

pageAdmin-UI (User Interface)