PLUGINS.md

🔌 Plugin Architecture

1. Philosophy: Learned Skills

In the Human CMS analogy, the Core is the Brain (Logic) and CNS. Plugins are Learned Skills. Just as learning to play the piano doesn't change your DNA, a plugin shouldn't hack the Core files. It adds new capabilities on top of the existing system.

• Core: Handles routing, database connection, and basic page rendering.
• Plugins: Handle specialized tasks (Events, E-commerce, Forums).

2. Directory Structure

All plugins reside in the /plugins directory. Each plugin gets its own folder.

/plugins
└── /event-planner          # The Plugin Slug
    ├── init.php            # Entry point (Hooks & Logic)
    ├── install.php         # Database setup (Run on activation)
    ├── /admin              # Admin interface files
    │   ├── menu.php        # Defines sidebar links
    │   └── events.php      # Main admin view
    └── /templates          # Frontend views (optional)

3. The "Proxy" Pattern

To keep the Admin Panel (/admin) clean, we don't put plugin files directly in it. Instead, we use a "Proxy" approach:

1. Menu Registration: The plugin provides a menu.php that returns an array of links.
2. Dynamic Inclusion: The Core Admin sidebar loops through active plugins and includes their menu links.
3. Routing: When you click a plugin link (e.g., /admin/plugins/event-planner/events.php), the Core authenticates the user and then loads the file from the plugin directory.

4. Development Guidelines

A. Isolation

• Namespaces: Use PHP namespaces or unique prefixes (e.g., ep_get_events) to avoid collisions with Core functions.
• Database: Create separate tables (e.g., events, bookings) rather than adding columns to the posts table.

B. Hooks (Future Phase)

We will implement a simple Hook system (do_action, add_filter) in includes/functions.php.

• Action: "Do something here" (e.g., after_post_save).
• Filter: "Modify this data" (e.g., the_content).

C. Activation

1. Discovery: The system scans /plugins for folders.
2. Activation: Admin toggles "Active".
3. Installation: If install.php exists, it runs once to create DB tables.
4. Loading: index.php checks the active_plugins option and includes init.php for each active plugin.

5. Example: Event Planner

See docs/plugins/EVENT_PLANNER.md for the specific implementation of our first plugin.