develop_plugin_create.md

< Develop

Create An OpsTool Plugin

We package our applications into smaller npm modules that can be installed into a Sails installation. In order to make this process easier, we created an appdev command to help create your initial npm package:

$ cd node_modules/
$ appdev plugin [pluginName]
   # [pluginName] is whatever you want to name your new plugin
   # there will be a series of questions about your npm package:
   #    client side unit tests:  for testing out UI
   #    author / description / version : yeah, you can figure those out
   #    git repository:  by default appdevdesigns/[pluginName] <-- you'll wanna change that to yours.

Naming Conventions

In order to keep your new plugin from interfeering with other plugins, we suggest you name your plugin in the format: [application]-[tool] (or opstool-[application]-[tool] )

So if you are developing a financial reimbursement tool then: finance-reimbursement ( opstool-finance-reimbursement ) Or if you are developing an MPD report tool : mpd-13MonthReport ( opstool-mpd-13MonthReport )

Test it out

Once the command completes you'll have an empty AppDev Plugin directory at [sails]/node_modules/[pluginName].

Now check to see the unit tests have been properly setup:

$ cd [pluginName]
$ npm test

You should see something like:

> [pluginName]@0.0.0 test /path/to/your/sails/node_modules/[pluginName]
> make test


  0 passing (1ms)

Which is good, since we haven't actually written any unit tests yet.

Note: 'npm test' attempts to run a makefile. Windows users should make sure they are able to run 'make' commands. If not, you'll need to add that ability before you can run any of the tests.

##Configure the OpsPortal Just physically being in the directory doesn't tell the OpsPortal to include you. We need to add it to the config/opsportal.js file.

$ cd ../..  
   # should be back to the [sails] root directory now
$ vi config/opsportal.js

We are going to add a new "Area" to the OpsPortal, and install this new Tool under that Area. Add this to the config file:

      {
          // New Area for [pluginName]
          icon:'fa-cogs',
          key:'[pluginName]',
          label:'[pluginName]',
          tools:[{
              // New Tool entry for: [pluginName]
              controller:'FCFActivities',
              label:'Dashboard',
              isDefault: true,
              permissions:[
                  'fcf.activities'
                  , 'adcore.developer'
              ]
          }]
      },

Run the setup routine

At this point, we have an NPM module in your sails' /node_modules directory. But sails doesn't know about the resources provided by your plugin. So we have a setup routine that will make sure your plugin's resources are available to the enclosing sails application:

# from your [plugin] directory
$ node setup/setup.js

You should see a list of activity similar to this:

    setting up module: [pluginName]
    
    Making Directories:
    
    Copying Files:
    
    Creating Symbolic Links:
    exists:   /api/controllers/[pluginName]
    exists:   /views/[pluginName]
    
    Linking Individual Files:
    exists:   /assets/opstools
    exists:   /assets/opstools/ProcessApproval (ours) 
    
    Patching Sails files:
    SKIP:     already patched: /config/routes.js
    SKIP:     already patched: /config/policies.js
    SKIP:     already patched: /config/connections.js
    SKIP:     already patched: /config/bootstrap.js
    
    Patching config/local.js:
    
    Patching .gitignore:
    
    Patching assets/stealconfig.js
    exists: shim: { "site/labels/opstools-ProcessApproval.js":[object Object] }  same
    
    setup finished

It is important to note that everytime you add a new Model, or Controller to your plugin, you will need to rerun this command. If you don't Sails will not be able to see it.

What you have

After running this command, you have an NPM package that defines a plugin to your Sails application.

The NPM package file structure is modeled after the Sails application's file structure.

We provide a few additional directories:

• /setup : scripts to help with the install of a plugin
• /setup/labels : multilingual label and content definition for your plugin
• /setup/permissions : plugin permission definitions
• /tests : unit tests for your server side resources

< Develop create a client side OpsPortal Tool >