ZLibraryBuilder

A Node.js module that makes building BetterDiscord plugins based off rauenzi's ZLibrary easy!

abstract

BDPluginLibrary AKA ZLibrary AKA Zere's Plugin Library AKA 0PluginLibrary is an extremely common tool for creating plugins for BetterDiscord, making life so much easier. However, the process to "build" a plugin is annoying to say the least. This project breaks away just the build scripts and adapts them to work neatly as a CLI node module!

improvements over BDPluginLibrary's build.js

• the main purpose of the module: able to be called and configured externally
• able to build just one plugin without embedding in a plugin folder
• dynamically embed external node modules into your plugin

install

zlibrarybuilder is available on npm

npm i zlibrarybuilder --save-dev

or you can install it from the github repo

npm i https://github.com/HexCodeFFF/ZLibraryBuilder --save-dev

example usage

default build

zlibrarybuilder

builds the single plugin contained inside the plugins folder, outputs to the release folder

build one plugin

zlibrarybuilder --pluginFolder ./plugin -ci

builds the plugin contained inside the plugin folder, adds the install script (-i) and copies it to BetterDiscord (-c)

backwards compatibility/build multiple plugins

zlibrarybuilder --pluginFolder ./plugins -cimo

the -m argument makes it build all plugins inside the folder, like the default ZLibrary build.js script does.

the -o argument is for backwards compatability, as this library changes some compilation behavior.

JSON

package.json

{
  "name": "myplugin",
  "dependencies": {
    "zlibrarybuilder": "^1.0.0",
    // ... (other dependencies)
  },
  // ... (other package.json stuff)
  "buildConfig": {
    "pluginFolder": "./plugin",
    "copyToBD": true,
    "addInstallScript": true
  }
}

zlibrarybuilder

this example has the same end behavior as the "build one plugin" example above

config

how

there are several ways to specify config options to enable both ease of use and backwards compatibility. all options are the same, just specified differently. options are found in this order, first ones take priority:

• options specified via CLI
• buildConfig field in your package.json
• config.json file at the root of your project
• defaultConfig field in your package.json
• default options

options

options are listed via their CLI usage, use the long name as a key in either JSON file to specify it from there.

-p, --pluginFolder <folder>

default: ./plugins

Absolute or relative path to the folder containing the plugin(s) that build scripts can build automatically.

-r, --releaseFolder <folder>

default: ./release

Absolute or relative path to the folder where plugins that are built should be placed.

-c, --copyToBD

default: false

Boolean to determine if the built plugin should also be automatically copied over to your BD plugins directory. Very convenient for development.

-i, --addInstallScript

default: false

Boolean to determine if the plugin should include the Windows Host Script install script. This means that users on Windows that double click the plugin will be prompted to automatically install the plugin.

-p, --packLib

default: false

Boolean to include all lib functions into the plugin file.

-m, --multiPlugin

default: false

Boolean to re-enable the default behavior of ZLibrary, which is trying to build all plugins in the pluginFolder. If disabled, will assume pluginFolder is the path to one plugin.

-o, --oldHeader

default: false

Boolean to re-enable the normal ZLibrary plugin header generation. The existing generation was strange and limited, and this option only exists for backwards compatability. Leave disabled for the improved behavior, passing all plugin config.info keys as JSDoc entries. View the official BetterDiscord docs for more info about these.

keep in mind that the ZLibrary authors field overwrites the author and authorId properties. ZLibraryBuilder (when oldHeader is off) attempts to convert these into the correct ZLibrary config options if authors is unspecified, but it is better to just work with ZLibrary.

-h, --help

display help for command. won't do anything if specified via JSON.

dynamic node module embed

ZLibraryBuilder has the ability to automatically compile and embed external node.js modules into your plugin for you in 2 easy steps

1. make sure the module in question is installed in your node_modules
2. add a comment so ZLibraryBuilder knows to replace the require()

// this statement will remain unmodified
require('ts-leaky-bucket');
// zlibrarybuilder will replace this with the entire library code for you!
require('ts-leaky-bucket' /* zlibrarybuilder embed */);

the reason that not all require calls are replaced by default is that discord itself is a node app and it is highly recommended to properly require() from discord's modules when possible

note: ZLibraryBuilder naively replaces all (properly commented) require() calls with library embeds. if you require the module twice, it'll be in your plugin twice. please require it once to a variable and reuse the variable.