5. Extending OPT 5.1. Introduction to plugins: 5. Extending OPT
« Previous; 5.2. New functions
Next »

5.1. Introduction to plugins

Open Power Template provides a plugin architecture that allows you to install new extensions easily. To initialize the plugins, you need two extra directories pointed by the directives:

pluginDir - a single directory or a list of directories with plugins.
pluginDataDir - a directory, where OPT will save some data that speed up plugin loading. This can be the same directory, as compileDir, if you do not wish to multiply the directories with the write access.

For example:

$tpl->sourceDir = './templates/';
$tpl->compileDir = './templates_c/';
$tpl->pluginDataDir = './templates_c/';
$tpl->pluginDir = './plugins/';
$tpl->setup();

The setup() method will load the plugins automatically. Alternatively, you may load them manually earlier with Opt_Class::loadPlugins().

Writing plugins

The plugins are normal PHP files. They have an access to the contents of your Opt_Class object, so they can request registering various items in OPT. A single plugin can add several new items to your library. The only types of content that require a strict structure are instructions and data formats. Writing plugins for them is described later. Below, you can find a sample plugin file:

<?php
 
function myFunction()
{
    return 'Hi universe!';
} // end myFunction();
 
$this->register(Opt_Class::PHP_FUNCTION, 'myFunction', 'myFunction');

The file name does not matter in this case. Simple, isn't it? Now you can save the file in your plugin directory.

5.1. Introduction to plugins 5. Extending OPT: « Previous
5. Extending OPT; Next »
5.2. New functions

Open Power Template 2.0

Introduction to plugins

5.1. Introduction to plugins

Writing plugins