Table of Contents

Writing a plugin back-end

Minimal Structure

_admin.php

The plugin should contain an _admin.php file : 

if (!defined('DC_CONTEXT_ADMIN')) {return;}
 
# add the plugin in the plugins list of the administration menu
$_menu['Plugins']->addItem(
	# link name
	__('Example'),
	# base URL of the back-end
	'plugin.php?p=example',
	# URL of the image used as an icon
	'index.php?pf=example/icon.png',
	# URL regular expression
	preg_match('/plugin.php\?p=example(&.*)?$/',
		$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']),
	# permessions needed to display the link
	$core->auth->check('usage,contentadmin',$core->blog->id));

Important:

In the previous code, remplace example by the plugin directory's name. The icon should be 16×16 pixel wide, you can find some in the Silk Icons pack.

A link to the administration page is now visible in the sub-menu Extensions of the administration page:

Tip:

Besides the fact that the plugin defins general permissions in the _define.php file, it can sometimes be necessary to limit access to the back-end page to fewer users. For that purpose, you have to add after 
if (!defined('DC_CONTEXT_ADMIN')) {return;}

the following code: 

if (!$core->auth->isSuperAdmin()) {return;}

It is of course possible to adapt this code to specific permissions with the check() function from the dcAuth class.

index.php

Here is the base structure of the index.php file. Note that the <html> doesn't have any attributes : Dotclear adds them when the page is displayed. 

<?php
# insert PHP code here
?>
<html>
<head>
	<title><?php echo(__('Example')); ?></title>
</head>
<body>
 
	<h2><?php echo html::escapeHTML($core->blog->name).' &rsaquo; '.
		__('Example'); ?></h2>
 
	<?php echo(__('Hello World!')); ?>
 
</body>
</html>

Here is the result :

Download the example plugin

plugin-adminExample.zip

Customize the administration page