ssb-plugins

ssb-plugins is a plugin that provides additional plugin related functionality to a secret-stack instance.

Without ssb-plugins, plugins can only be loaded explicitly by an ssb-server with the .use() method.

Generally speaking, this plugin provides the abilility for plugins to be loaded and run as a separate process, with communication over muxrpc.

There are 2 main ways that plugins can be enabled using ssb-plugins:
1. loaded explicitly as part of the creation of a secret-stack instance
2. loaded as a set of user configured plugins, defined in one's ssb config folder

Additionally, if enabling plugins from user-configuration, making use of .use(require('ssb-plugins')) explicitly will enable the CLI commands for users to install / uninstall / enable / disable plugins manually.

For explicit documentation of the CLI API, see here.

How to write plugins

See secret-stack/PLUGINS.md for how to create a plugin

Examples

``
var createSbot = require('secret-stack')()
.use(require('ssb-db'))

createSbot
.use(require('ssb-plugins/load-user-plugins')()) //load user plugins from configuration. This may be used without the above!
.use(require('ssb-plugins/load')(path, name)) //load an out of process plugin directly.
.use(require('ssb-plugins')) //provides install, uninstall, enable, disable. (optional)
`

In-line out of process plugins

Run a plugin as a separate process. The process is
started by the parent process, and they communicate
by running muxrpc over stdio. This means that plugins
may now be written in a language other than javascript.

out of process plugins can be loaded manually.
using require('ssb-plugins/load')(location, name)

`` js
var Load = require('ssb-plugins/load')
createSbot
.use(Load(path/to/plugin, 'plugin'))
`

Load user configured plugins

add all plugins defined in configuration.
` js
createSbot
.use(require('ssb-plugins/load-user-plugins'))
`

Plugins are configured as following:
Normally this is created by sbot plugins.install but it can also be installed manually.

`
"plugins": {
//load a javascript plugin, exposed as "plugin1"
"ssb-plugin1: true,
//load your own version of plugin2. note it is renamed to "plugin2"
//so it is exposed as "plugin2" not "plugin2-forked"
"ssb-plugin2-forked: "plugin2",
"ssb-plugin2": {
enabled: true,
name, process
}
}
`

$3

`
cd ~/.ssb
npm install


open ./config in your favorite editor

nano config

set the config

"plugins": {
"": true
}

or if it's an out of process plugin

"plugins": {
"": {
"process": true,
"name": ... //if it should be exposed with a different name...
}
}
``

License

MIT