Plugins

Plugins permit you to add or extend (through hooks) the CMS functionalities for all your needs without affecting the core of the CMS. These plugins are small rails apps that include routes, views, helpers, controllers, translations, models, gems, etc... and then you can create plugins like a normal ruby on rails project.

These plugins can be installed for multiples sites at the same time with separated configurations for each site, i.e. plugins can support custom fields and extra settings to manage easily the plugin information.

Camaleon CMS include a generator (gem format) for a basic plugin structure, so, you need only input the following command in your rails console:

rails generate camaleon_cms:gem_plugin my_plugin

Note: my_plugin is the name of your plugin

This command auto generate the plugin structure in the same directory (apps/plugins/my_plugin):

Basic description:

Configuration file "camaleon_plugin.json":

{
  "title": "My Plugin",  //Title of the plugin
  "descr": "", // description for the plugin
  "key": "my_plugin", //plugin key
  "helpers": [
    "Plugins::MyPlugin::MainHelper" // helpers used by this plugin
  ],
  "hooks": {
    "on_active": // array of functions called by this hook
       ["my_plugin_on_active"],  // i.e: this will be called after plugin is activated
    "on_inactive": [
      "my_plugin_on_inactive"
    ]
    //here you can add all your hooks (read documentation)
  }
}

Please check here to see all hooks:
https://camaleon.website/documentation/category/40756-uncategorized/hooks-1.html 

Route configuration "config/routes.rb":
This is the initial route configuration that support for multi site, multi language and custom relative url.

Rails.application.routes.draw do

    scope PluginRoutes.system_info["relative_url_root"] do
      scope '(:locale)', locale: /#{PluginRoutes.all_locales}/, :defaults => {  } do
        # frontend
        namespace :plugins do
          namespace 'my_plugin' do
            get 'index' => 'front#index' # sample ==> https://localhost:3000/plugins/my_plugin/index
            # here all your routes for frontend
          end
        end
      end

      #Admin Panel
      scope 'admin', as: 'admin' do
        namespace 'plugins' do
          namespace 'my_plugin' do
            get 'index' => 'admin#index'  # Sample ==> https://localhost:3000/admin/plugins/my_plugin/index
            # here all your routes for admin section 
          end
        end
      end

      # main routes, i.e: if you want routes without prefix url "plugins/my_plugin", then you can use this format.
      # scope 'my_plugin', module: 'plugins/my_plugin/', as: 'my_plugin' do
        resources "promotions", controller: "promotions", path: "promotions" do
        end
        # ==> Here my routes for main routes
      #end
    end
  end

More information about routes, here:
https://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html

Customize existent models
If you need to customize existent models, you need to create a file here: my_plugin/config/custom_models.rb

Rails.application.config.to_prepare do
  CamaleonCms::Site.class_eval do
    has_many :myplugin, class_name: "Plugins::MyPlugin::MyPlugin", dependent: :destroy
  end
end

and then, you can do this:

puts current_site.myplugin.all

More information about plugins (engines) here:
https://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html#creating-the-blog-application
https://guides.rubyonrails.org/engines.html

Samples:

How to add plugin settings?

• Add the hook "plugin_options" in your config.json like:
  

  "plugin_options":["front_cache_plugin_options"]

  
  
• Add a helper method in your main_helper.rb like:
  

  def front_cache_plugin_options(args)
    args[:links] << link_to('Setting 1', admin_plugins_front_cache_settings_path)
    args[:links] << link_to('Setting 2', admin_plugins_front_cache_clean_path)
  end

• Restart server and the result like this: