Plugin Development

A complete guide to building Pubvana plugins. Plugins are PHP packages that integrate with the Pubvana admin panel and can provide public-facing routes, admin UI, database tables, and more.

What You Can Build

• Documentation systems (like PvDocs itself)
• E-commerce or digital product stores
• Membership and paywall systems
• Comment systems with moderation queues
• Analytics dashboards
• Social media integrations
• Import/export tools
• REST APIs for mobile apps

Prerequisites

• PHP 8.1+
• Familiarity with CodeIgniter 4 MVC conventions
• A running Pubvana 2.2.3+ installation with filesystem access to the plugins/ directory

What This Section Covers

• Getting Started — minimum viable plugin in 5 minutes
• Plugin Structure — full directory layout and conventions
• PluginInterface — the 7 methods every Plugin.php must implement
• plugin_info.json — manifest schema reference
• Installer — up()/down() hooks for activation and uninstall
• Routes — defining public, admin, and API routes
• Controllers — admin and public controller conventions
• Models & Migrations — database access patterns
• Services — business logic separation
• Views — admin PHP views and public .tpl templates
• Internationalization — 6 required locales
• CSRF Exemptions — webhook and API route handling
• API Controllers — REST endpoint conventions
• Plugin Lifecycle — discovery through deactivation