Plugins

UIX provides a way to write app plugins in the form of DATEX Plugins and use them in app.dx files. App plugins are always called before the UIX app is started.

An example for an app plugin is the Git Deploy Plugin which is available per default in any UIX app.

Using plugins

Plugins can be used in an app.dx file with the plugin keyword. The content of the plugin body depends on the plugin.

Example (git_deploy plugin):

plugin git_deploy (
  prod: (
    on: 'push',
    branch: 'main'
  )
);

A plugin initialization may also not contain any content at all:

plugin my_plugin ();

Activating custom plugins

You can activate your own or third-party plugins by putting the plugin URL in a plugins.dx file in your project root next to the app.dx file.

Example plugins.dx file:

https://cdn.unyt.org/uix/plugins/git-deploy.ts,
https://example.com/my-plugin.ts,
../plugins/my-plugin.ts

Writing custom plugin modules

UIX provides an AppPlugin TypeScript interface that can be implemented to create a custom plugin.

The plugin class must be exported as a default export from the plugin module file. The plugin name must start with [A-Za-z_] and can only contain [A-Za-z0-9_].

Example:

// file: my-plugin.ts
import { AppPlugin } from "uix/app/app-plugin.ts";

export default class MyPlugin implements AppPlugin<{text: string}> {
    // the identifier used to refer to this plugin in a DATEX file 
    name = "my_plugin"

    // this method is called when the plugin is used in a DATEX file
    apply(data: {text: string}) {
      console.log("my plugin text: " + data.text);
    }
}

Usage:

• Activate in plugins.dx:

  ./my-plugin.ts 

• Use in app.dx:

  plugin my_plugin ({
    text: "Hello Plugin"
  });