ability to add plugins like wordpress

[sarmenb]

it would be great if there was a way to add plugins into a laravel application like how wordpress plugins are installed without having to modify composer.

[dennisprudlo]

Well you don't need to modify composer. The thing is that you need to get the "plugin" from somewhere. Composer helps to download it into your app in a standardized way. But you could also just put your plugin files in a separate folder in your app and use them. But here's the thing:

To load "plugins" like in wp is more a feature for an application not for a framework. You could use Laravel to build your own CMS and implement a feature that users can install plugins.

Is there a particular reason why you wouldn't want to modify the composer file?

[ITwrx]

To load "plugins" like in wp is more a feature for an application not for a framework. You could use Laravel to build your own CMS and implement a feature that users can install plugins.

This is the key. Laravel is a framework, not a CMS. Wordpress is both, but you are describing a feature of the CMS part.

Here's a couple Laravel-based CMSes that appear to have modules/plugins:

https://www.pyrocms.com/
https://octobercms.com/

[dennisprudlo]

Might add https://statamic.com/ to that list 😉

[ITwrx]

cool, thanks.
yeah, i don't know about all the Laravel CMSes. They are soooo NIH! lol. i had just done a quick search and saw those two. :)

[sarmenb]

how would i implement this feature myself in my own app? anyone know of a tutorial? or i have to dig through these cmses and figure it out.

Is it kind of like installing a composer package and exporting assets to their locations on the fly? so if i setup in my gui to run a artisan command that executes composer install app_name then php artisan vendor:publish #3 or something.

[dennisprudlo]

This highly depends on what a plugin is for you. Is it like you have different functionality and users can "install"/activate those features. Should the user have the ability to create its own plugins? Then what should be able to do with those plugins? Is you app a SaaS oder something the users hosts on his own server. If SaaS, do we really want to allow users to install code on our server?

Is it kind of like installing a composer package and exporting assets to their locations on the fly? so if i setup in my gui to run a artisan command that executes composer install app_name then php artisan vendor:publish #3 or something.
I wouldn't recommend this. Well if the user is also the owner of the server and we assume he knows what he does then its fine. I would install plugins somewhere in the storage directory so its not actually part of my application.

Do you have a sample use case for a user who needs to install a specific plugin in your app? This would help to understand whats the actual goal here.