Plugger

Plugger is a library to add plugin-compatibility to a library.

Legend

• Install
  • yarn
  • npm
• How to make a library pluggable
• How to use and make plugins
• Tips
• Examples
  • Explicit import
  • Using the importing library's variables
• Notes

Install

yarn

$ yarn add @nonamenpm/plugger

npm

$ npm i @nonamenpm/plugger

How to make a library pluggable

Lets say we have a library called my-library and we want to make it compatible for plugins:

//import the plugger
const plugger = require('@nonamenpm/plugger')

//make a public function to be accessed by applications importing the library
exports.use = function(plugins) {
    //first parameter are the plugins to be imported
    //second parameter should always be this
    //third parameter is override: set to true to make plugins override existing variables
    plugger(plugins, this, false)
}

That's it, you only need one function to make a library pluggable

How to use and make plugins

To use plugins in an application is really simple.

It's similiar to chai's plugin system:

//import the plugin compatible library
const myLib = require('my-lybrary')
const myPlugin = require('./my-plugin.js')

//you can even use plugins uploaded to npm!
myLib.use([myPlugin])

myLib.sayHello('Mark')

To make a plugin you have to simply export a variable (or function) and plugger will take care of the rest:

//my-plugin.js

exports.sayHello = function(name) {
    console.log('Oh hi ' + name + '!')
}

Tips

• You can use this in a plugin to access a variable set by the importing library.
• In an application you can directly specify to import plugins from a specific directory.
• To use a function of a plugin in an importing library you have to use the plugger function directly.

Examples

Explicit import

//my-plugin.js

exports.add = function(x, y) {
    return x + y;
}

// require the plugger library.
const plugger = require('@nonamenpm/plugger')
//import the plugin
const myPlugin = require('my-plugin')

//define the plugin entry point (we export it so when this library is imported users can specify which plugins to import)
exports.use = function(plugins) {
    plugger(plugins, this, false)
}

//call the use() function (we are directly importing the plugin)
exports.use([ myPlugin ])

//myPlugin's add function
console.log(exports.add(3, 7));

Using the importing library's variables

//my-plugin.js

exports.versionNumber = function() {
    console.log(this.version)
}

//my-lib.js

//require the plugger library
const plugger = require('@nonamenpm/plugger')

exports.use = function(plugins) {
    plugger(plugins, this, false)
}

exports.version = '1.0.5'

//index.js

const myLib = require('my-lib')
const myPlugin = require('./my-plugin.js')

myLib.use([ myPlugin ])

myLib.versionNumber()

Notes

• If there you want to override a variable, please put true in the third argument of plugger().
• If there are conflicting names in the plugin and the importing library