[Xerte-dev] Re: Plugins code added to trunk

[Smith, John]

I agree - it gives people who are not that familiar with PHP to add functionality. Someone (might have even been me) at the developer day mentioned the possibility of a 'code snippet' library that allow you to tweak things - this could go  5 steps further by giving packaged plugins... we could even move CORE functionality into plugins...

I think we need to treat it as a proof of concept just now though as we need to develop the list of hooks available and decide where we actually do the actions and filters

For example, I apply a filter to the 'Pod 1' text in index.php but it could be that this is better in display_library.php - logged_in_page_format_middle function - OR we decide to move the whole {{pod_one}} replace into a CORE plugin - then it could be removed, added to or detached by a higher priority plugin...

I think it needs discussing... maybe as part of your structure discussions at CETIS - it's a pity I can't make it...

Regards,

John Smith
Learning Technologist
School of Health & Life Sciences
Glasgow Caledonian University

From: xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Julian Tenney
Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2013 9:59 AM
To: For Xerte technical developers
Subject: [Xerte-dev] Re: Plugins code added to trunk

Nice one, this sounds interesting,

From: xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> [mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Smith, John
Sent: 04 March 2013 16:02
To: xerte-dev at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:xerte-dev at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
Subject: [Xerte-dev] Plugins code added to trunk

Hi all,

I've just committed the plugins code that I was working on - feel free to give it a try and let me know of any bugs/improvements/concerns and I'll address them...

This is definitely a developer tool so won't be used by the majority but will allow functionality to be change without checking in code... we could almost have a repository of plugins to allow people to do things that means they don't need any PHP experience but can customise their setup... Here is the rather lengthy text I added to the SVN


PLUGINS, ACTIONS & FILTERS: This code allows you to add a 'plugin' in the
/plugins folder which will augment functionality provided by XOT. It allows you
to create single file or folder style plugins (similar to Wordpress) which add
functionality to various 'hook' points within the page. These hooks are by no
means definitive and hopefully we can add lots more, however for filters to work
in a better way some code will need re-written in order to pass 'content'
through the filter before being used or echo-ed..

The current files should do nothing to an install. The example plugins are
commented out - remove the 'REMOVE_THIS' text from the filenames in order to
activate. The 'GCU Plugin' demonstrates some potentially useful functionality:


*         It adds a banner at the top of the page (login and editor)

*         It changes the <title> text

*         It changes the "My Projects" text to "John's Projects"

*         It adds text to Pod 1

*         It adds a title slide to data.xml on save

The plugin_one plugin simply inserts HTML comments at action hook points
throughout the page. Enable this by taking out REMOVE_THIS and then refresh the
page and view the source to reveal it's result...

Regards,

John Smith
Learning Technologist
School of Health & Life Sciences
Glasgow Caledonian University


Glasgow Caledonian University is a registered Scottish charity, number SC021474

Winner: Times Higher Education's Widening Participation Initiative of the Year 2009 and Herald Society's Education Initiative of the Year 2009.
http://www.gcu.ac.uk/newsevents/news/bycategory/theuniversity/1/name,6219,en.html

Winner: Times Higher Education's Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers of the Year 2010, GCU as a lead with Universities Scotland partners.
http://www.gcu.ac.uk/newsevents/news/bycategory/theuniversity/1/name,15691,en.html



Glasgow Caledonian University is a registered Scottish charity, number SC021474

Winner: Times Higher Education's Widening Participation Initiative of the Year 2009 and Herald Society's Education Initiative of the Year 2009.
http://www.gcu.ac.uk/newsevents/news/bycategory/theuniversity/1/name,6219,en.html

Winner: Times Higher Education's Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers of the Year 2010, GCU as a lead with Universities Scotland partners.
http://www.gcu.ac.uk/newsevents/news/bycategory/theuniversity/1/name,15691,en.html
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