🔌 Plugins

Plugins extend apidcms functionality without modifying the core. Each plugin is an isolated folder in plugins/plugin_name/.

The core ships with two plugins: Account (user cabinet) and Cart (shopping cart).

Where to Find

In the admin panel: sidebar menu → Plugins (🧩 icon).

Plugin Management

Plugin List (/admin/plugins)

A table of all plugins: name, version, description, status. Buttons for Activate / Deactivate and Settings.

Plugin Page (/admin/plugins/name)

Three tabs:

• Info — name, version, status, dependencies, contents of plugin.json
• Templates — list of plugin .twig files, "Edit" button
• Settings — plugin parameter form (currency, limits, etc.)

Template Editor (/admin/plugins/name/templates/file.twig)

Full-featured code editor. Save with Ctrl+S or the button.

Installation and Removal

• Installation: copy the plugin folder to plugins/plugin_name/ on the hosting, then activate via the admin panel
• Removal: deactivate in the admin panel, then delete the plugins/plugin_name/ folder
• Enable/disable: via the admin panel using Activate/Deactivate buttons

⚠️ When deleting the plugin folder, the database tables remain. Same on deactivation.

🔐 Account Plugin — User Cabinet

Registration, login, and user profile.

Routes:

• /register — registration
• /login — login
• /profile — profile
• /logout — logout

Features:

• Remember-me (30-day cookie)
• Twig functions: is_logged_in(), current_user()

Tables: users, user_tokens

🛒 Cart Plugin — Shopping Cart

Add products to cart for catalog sites.

AJAX endpoints:

• POST /cart/add — add item
• POST /cart/update — change quantity
• POST /cart/remove — remove item

Pages:

• /cart — cart with +/- and delete

Twig functions: cart_count(), cart_total()

Table: cart_items

Plugin Settings

Each plugin can have configurable parameters (currency, limits, behavior). Settings are found in the "Settings" tab on the plugin page and are saved to plugin.json.

📊 Plugin Tables in the Admin Panel

Plugins can declare their tables via the tables field in plugin.json. This lets the admin panel show plugin tables on the dashboard in a separate "Plugins" group (alongside system and user tables).

Example plugin.json with tables:

{
  "name": "account",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "User cabinet",
  "tables": ["plugin_account_users", "plugin_account_tokens"]
}

After adding the tables field, plugin tables will appear in the "Plugins" section on the admin dashboard.

🏷️ Table Naming Convention

All plugin tables MUST use the plugin_{name}_ prefix. This prevents name conflicts with user-created tables (e.g. if a user creates a users table via admin panel, and the Account plugin tries to create its own).

Format: plugin_{plugin_name}_{purpose}

Examples:

• plugin_account_users — Account plugin users table
• plugin_cart_items — Cart plugin items table
• plugin_credits_transactions — Credits plugin transactions table

Rules:

• Plugin name — only [a-z][a-z0-9]* (no underscores)
• Table name — lowercase with underscores
• Full name: plugin_{name}_{purpose}

Migrations with Schema Verification

Every plugin migration must not only create tables (CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS), but also verify the schema of existing tables via PRAGMA table_info and ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN. This ensures that when a plugin is updated, new columns are added without data loss.

Migration example with PRAGMA verification:

$pm->addAction('db.migrate', function ($db) use ($pluginDir) {
    $migrationFile = $pluginDir . '/migrations/001_create.sql';
    if (!file_exists($migrationFile)) return;
    $sql = file_get_contents($migrationFile);
    $statements = array_filter(array_map('trim', explode(';', $sql)));
    foreach ($statements as $stmt) {
        if (!empty($stmt)) {
            try { $db->exec($stmt); }
            catch (\Exception $e) { error_log("Migration error: " . $e->getMessage()); }
        }
    }

    // Schema verification
    $expectedColumns = [
        'plugin_myplugin_items' => [
            'id' => 'INTEGER',
            'name' => 'TEXT',
            'created_at' => 'DATETIME'
        ]
    ];

    foreach ($expectedColumns as $table => $columns) {
        try {
            $existing = $db->query("PRAGMA table_info(\"{$table}\")")->fetchAll();
            $existingNames = array_column($existing, 'name');
            foreach ($columns as $colName => $colType) {
                if (!in_array($colName, $existingNames)) {
                    $db->exec("ALTER TABLE \"{$table}\" ADD COLUMN \"{$colName}\" {$colType} DEFAULT ''");
                    error_log("Added missing column {$table}.{$colName}");
                }
            }
        } catch (\Exception $e) {
            error_log("Schema verification error: " . $e->getMessage());
        }
    }
}, 10, 'myplugin');

Foreign Keys

If a table references another plugin's table (e.g. plugin_account_users), the plugin must:

• Declare the dependency in plugin.json: "dependencies": ["account"]
• Use the full table name in FOREIGN KEY