Plugins and making your own

Lambert BeekhuisLead developer at DOP

Why plugins?

• Re-use common functionality– For yourself...in multiple projects– Or better...for the symfony community• Sharing/learning

– How should I build a Plugin?

Plugins as of today(ok, Thursday 11th of september)

symfony 1.0 symfony 1.1 symfony 1.2

All 231 123 60

Bound to Propel 75 39 19

Bound to Doctrine 6 2 1

Stats269 plugins688 releases134 developers4104 users

Popular pluginsPopular Plugins on 2007/08/14top-20-symfony-plugins

(symfony-project blog top-20-symfony-plugins)

• 1. sfSimpleCMSPlugin• 2. sfGuardPlugin• 3. sfDoctrinePlugin• 4. sfPropelActAsNestedSetBehaviorPlugin• 5. sfMediaLibraryPlugin• 6. sfSimpleBlogPlugin• 7. sfSimpleForumPlugin• 8. sfFeed2Plugin• 9. sfgWidgetsPlugin• 10. sfThumbnailPlugin• 11. sfUJSPlugin• 12. sfControlPanelPlugin• 13. sfFormValidationPlugin• 14. sfMogileFSPlugin• 15. sfLightboxPlugin• 16. sfCaptchaPlugin• 17. sfNiftyPlugin• 18. sfPrototypeWindowPlugin• 19. sfPropelLoadbalancerPlugin• 20. sfSavvyPlugin• 21. sfYzClientSideValidationPlugin

Today (2009/09/11)• sfGuardPlugin

– Authorisation• sfSimpleCMSPlugin

– Content Management• sfDoctrinePlugin

– Doctrine ORM• sfPropelActAsNestedSetBehaviorPlugin

– Propel-trees• sfLucenePlugin

– Searching• sfThumbnailPlugin

– Thumbnails/resizing• sfMediaLibraryPlugin

– Manage web-assets (images, PDF, flash objects)• sfExtjs2Plugin

– Possible to write external JavaScript

Top down development

‘it works’ is not enough! Good structure!

Developing cycles

Development - cycle• Idea or requirements• Design/principle/philosofie• Coding• Testing• Documentation• Maintenance

Comments.... Fun part Prior to coding or ...? Lot of focus (to much?) Do you test systematically? Essential! often ‘forgotten’! Not a fun part...but with the

community is much better!

Talking as a consultant....

Urgent Not urgent

Important

Not important

Used for development

Urgent Not urgent

Important ‘It works’Debugging

Software structureDocumentationRefactoring

Not important Features never used

Plugins

Make a plugin:• Independant of your

application• Upgradable• Customizable

PHPPHP

Symfony

Database

ORM

Your Application

plugin

plugin

customize

customize

plugin

customize

Plugin - basicsA plugin can contains all options grouped, (similar to in your application)• Config

– Config.php• Data

– Fixtures• Lib

– Helper/– Model/

schema.yml:propel: _attributes: { package plugins.lbSaasPlugin.lib.model }

– Others (e.g. Filters)• Modules

– Actions– Templates– Validate– Config

• Module.yml• View.yml

Enable a plugin in your application

• Settings.yml

• Application-config/app.yml

• New in symfony 1.1– Handle plugin dependencies at installation– Customizing the plugin-schema

all: lb_saas_plugin: enable_saas_filter: on # switch the extra Saas-filter on/off saas_profile_class: Client # PHP-object name for Saas-object saas_profile_field_name: saas_id

all: .settings: enabled_modules: [default, sfGuardAuth]

Installing a plugin - basics

symfony 1.0• Install a plugin

– > cd myproject > php symfony plugin-install channelName/pluginName > php symfony cc

• Enable modules in your application:– In: apps/myApplication/config/settings.yml– All:

.settings: enabled_modules:

[ yourPluginModule]

• Follow additional instructions from readme

• Clear cache– > php symfony cc

symfony 1.1• Install a plugin

– > cd myproject > php symfony plugin:install pluginName

Based on the ‘SaasPlugin’• ‘Software as a Service’ authentication

– User has access to one or more Saas-en– Extension on sfGuardPlugin

• Clean URLs e.g. www.application.com\saasOne\module\action(after yesterday: saasOne.application.com\module\action)

• Administration interfaces for – Application admin – ‘saasAdmin’

• Limit data-retrieval for the selected Saas (based on Propel right now)

Customizing a Plugin• Rule– never alter the code found in the plugins/ directory

• use settings – that can be changed in the application app.yml

• Replace functions in your application– create a module of the same name in your own

application.• Allow replacing– Create ‘empty’ actions/models in your plugin, e.g.

• Actions• Model

Replacing model functions

plugins/xxxPlugin/lib/model/om/BasexxxObject.php

plugins/xxxPlugin/lib/model/map/xxxObjectMapBuilder.php

plugins/xxxPlugin/lib/model/xxxObject.php

plugins/xxxPlugin/lib/model/om/BasexxxObject.php

plugins/xxxPlugin/lib/model/map/xxxObjectMapBuilder.php

plugins/xxxPlugin/lib/model/xxxObject.php

plugins/xxxPlugin/lib/model/plugin/PluginxxxObject.php

class pluginxxxObject extends BasexxxObject{ // your plugin functions}

class xxxObject extends pluginxxxObject{ // empty}

Generated by ORM (propel)(do not touch)

Your functions

Can be replaced in your application- module

Replacing plugin functions

• Add empty module in your application– Add a template in this module– Add security.yml in your application– Add actions (requires proper plugin setup)

• Add model-classes in your application– Requires proper plugin-setup

Other ways – routing/filters/...

• Routing ‘injection’, e.g. in ‘user’public static function add_default_saas_routes{ $r = sfRouting::getInstance(); $r->prependRoute('saas_default', /:clientslug/s/:module/:action/*');

• Use an additional filter for global functions(e.g. Filters the URL and checks against allowed Saas)

Your appliction/config/filters.yml

rendering: ~web_debug: ~

saas: class: saasFilter condition: %APP_LB_SAAS_PLUGIN_ENABLE_SAAS_FILTER% security: ~

# generally, you will want to insert your own filters here

cache: ~common: ~

flash: ~execution: ~

Deploying plugins

For own purpose• Use SVN:external for use in

multiple projects

Publish as symfony-project.org• Define the new Plugin at

www.symfony-project.org/plugin/new• Naming conventions

– Propel dependency• E.g sfPropelActAsNestedSetBehaviorPlugin

– First two letters/initials can be your initials (or just use sf)• E.g. dwPrototypeTooltipPlugin

• Define a proper readme!• Select a license• add a package.xml file at the root of the

plug-in directory • Upload your PEAR package

Plugins - conclusions

• Powerfull way to extend the framework functions

• Many plugins available– Usefullness and quality depends– As of today, not easy to find usefullness and

quality symfony-project.org

• Many options for customization– If Plugin is developed correctly!