Please report any issues with plugins or API in this forum.
In the svn topic, you will see the repo for the current sp plugins. We highly suggest you check out that svn repo and take a look at those plugins for ideas and general flow. We have not generated any documentation for the plugin api yet, so examples and questions posted here will be best bet.
You can look at the plugins api code in simple-press/sp-api/sp-api-plugins.php to get a basic understanding. but, frankly, not much in there you will actually need to use except for admin panel creation. Your plugin's basic interaction with SP will be through hooks – actions and filters – much like plugins do with WP. A good primer:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API
Unfortunately, we havent yet created a list of actions and filters available in 5.0 largely because they are still work in progress. So if you cant find one you are looking for, ask.
Plugins for SP only have a couple of hard requirements. They all must be located within one parent folder. You can define the location of this directory on forum – wp integration – storage locations. Each plugin within this folder, must be located within its own directory. You can create as many subdirectories within this specific plugin folder as you like to organized your plugin. You will see we have centered up on a structure for our plugins, but that is not required.
Additionally, you must put the following header information at the top of your main plugin file:
/*
Simple:Press Plugin Title: Who's Online
Version: 1.0
Plugin URI: https://simple-press.com
Description: A Simple:Press plugin for showing who is online around your forum
Author: Andy Staines & Steve Klasen
Author URI: https://simple-press.com
Simple:Press Versions: 5.0 and above
*/
Of course, change the actual information to the right of the : with your own information. This info must be in the main plugin file. One thing to keep in mind is that, just like WP plugins, all sp plugin main files (and any files they include) are ALWAYS included on every WP page. So you will want to minimize the amount of code that actually resides in the main plugin file. Additionally, to keep sites running mean and lean, you will want to be careful to only include code, js and css when needed and not globally.
With your plugin, if needed, you can create your own admin panel for options or add your options to an existing sp admin panel. again, existing plugins or the plugin api file can be the guide there.
If your plugin is going to have its own page view – think all forum content between the forum header and footer, ie Private Messaging or Report Post, you will want to provide a theme template file that tells how to display that page. You, of course, cant predict what every theme will do with that template file, so the plugin should check for the needed template file (you decide the name) in the theme template file directory and use it if found. If not found, use the one you supply with the plugin.
It may also be beneficial to put actions and filters in your plugin code so other plugins can tie into your plugin and affect it if needed.
Sorry, if this seems like a lot of info! Just trying to cover the basics and you will get used to it in no time.
Bottom line – dont hesitate to ask for help. We dont want to write the plugin for you as that wont help us test the API, but we do want you to be successful. If needed, we will happily add more actions and filters in the SP code to support plugin creation with a good use case.
Good luck and thanks for helping!
