'Best Practices for Elgg Plugin Developers' Cash Costello #ECSF
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The document outlines 15 best practices for developing Elgg plugins including: (1) Namespacing functions, classes, actions and views, (2) Making plugin dependencies explicit, and (3) Creating a site customization plugin for small modifications. It emphasizes using Elgg's data model, functions, classes and relationships, avoiding large views, and testing plugins from different user perspectives.
'Best Practices for Elgg Plugin Developers' Cash Costello #ECSF
- 1. Best Practices for Elgg Plugin Developers Cash Costello ElggCamp San Francisco
- 2. Best Practices for Elgg Plugin Developers Cash Costello ElggCamp San Francisco
- 3. About Me Elgg core developer Author of Elgg Social Networking 1.8 Employed by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) R&D in machine learning Driving force behind JHU/APL's collaborative platform built on Elgg
- 4. 1. Namespace your functions, classes, actions, views, CSS, JavaScript
- 5. 2. Make dependencies between plugins explicit Plugin manifest, function_exists(), elgg_is_active_plugin()
- 6. 3. Create a site customization plugin as a catch all for small modifications Maintain a readme with list of customizations!
- 7. 4. Keep your plugin's start.php trim elgg_register_library(), elgg_load_library(), class with static methods
- 8. 5. Use inheritance with Elgg's data model Remember to unregister your class when your plugin is disabled using the deactivate.php script with update_subtype()
- 9. 6. Document what metadata is used with your entities @property in documentation of class or use getter/setter methods
- 10. 7. Avoid using many metadata key-value pairs with elgg_get_entities*()
- 11. 8. Use Elgg's functions and classes when interacting with the data model
- 12. 9. Be aware that setting metadata on an entity clears Elgg's database cache
- 13. 10. Use relationships to connect entities Not metadata!
- 14. 11. Do not create large views
- 15. 12. Create views that correspond to visual elements Also look for common elements that can be reused
- 16. 13. Use the core views and CSS classes whenever possible
- 17. 14. Learn the principles behind Elgg's new HTML/ CSS Example: CSS selectors should not cross element boundaries
- 18. 15. Test with non-admin user and while logged out