Laravel Plugin Engine

A flexible and powerful plugin system for Laravel applications.

Features

• Plugin discovery and registration
• Enable/disable plugins
• Plugin dependencies
• Console commands for plugin management
• Event-driven architecture
• Easy to extend

Installation

1. Install the package via Composer:

composer require whilesmart/laravel-plugin-engine

2. Publish the configuration file (optional):

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="WhileSmart\LaravelPluginEngine\Providers\PluginServiceProvider" --tag=config

Configuration

Publish the configuration file:

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="WhileSmart\LaravelPluginEngine\Providers\PluginServiceProvider" --tag=config

Edit the config/plugins.php file to configure the plugin system:

return [
    'path' => base_path('plugins'),  // Path where plugins are stored
    'namespace' => 'Plugins',        // Root namespace for plugins

    'log_channel' => env('PLUGIN_ENGINE_LOG_CHANNEL'),       // Log channel, null = app default
    'log_level' => env('PLUGIN_ENGINE_LOG_LEVEL', 'warning'), // Minimum level the engine logs at
];

Logging

The engine logs through its own configurable channel and minimum level, independent of the application's logging:

• PLUGIN_ENGINE_LOG_CHANNEL: any channel from config/logging.php. Leave unset to use the application's default channel.
• PLUGIN_ENGINE_LOG_LEVEL: messages below this level are dropped. Defaults to warning, so routine discovery output stays out of production logs. Set to debug to trace plugin discovery and registration.

Usage

Available Commands

• plugin:list - List all available plugins
• plugin:info {id} - Show information about a plugin
• plugin:enable {id} - Enable a plugin
• plugin:disable {id} - Disable a plugin
• plugin:install {package} - Install a plugin
• plugin:discover - Discover and register all available plugins
• plugin:cache - Compile discovered plugins into a cache file
• plugin:clear - Remove the plugin cache file

Caching

By default, plugins are discovered by scanning the plugins directory and parsing each manifest on every boot. In production, compile the result to a cache file instead, alongside the framework's other caches:

php artisan plugin:cache

The compiled file is loaded on boot and the filesystem scan is skipped. Run this on every deploy, next to config:cache and route:cache. plugin:enable, plugin:disable, and plugin:discover refresh an existing cache automatically. To return to live discovery:

php artisan plugin:clear

Creating a Plugin

1. Create a new directory in the plugins directory (or your configured path)
2. Create a plugin.json file with the following structure:

{
    "id": "example-plugin",
    "name": "Example Plugin",
    "description": "A sample plugin",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "namespace": "Plugins\\Example",
    "provider": "Plugins\\Example\\ExampleServiceProvider",
    "enabled": true,
    "requires": {
        "php": ">=8.1",
        "laravel/framework": "^10.0"
    }
}

3. Create a service provider for your plugin:

<?php

namespace Plugins\Example;

use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;

class ExampleServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    public function register()
    {
        // Register bindings
    }

    public function boot()
    {
        // Boot logic
        $this->loadRoutesFrom(__DIR__.'/routes/web.php');
        $this->loadViewsFrom(__DIR__.'/resources/views', 'example');
        $this->loadMigrationsFrom(__DIR__.'/database/migrations');
    }
}

Plugin Structure

plugins/
  example-plugin/
    src/
      Http/
        Controllers/
      Models/
      Providers/
        ExampleServiceProvider.php
    resources/
      views/
    routes/
      web.php
    database/
      migrations/
    plugin.json
    README.md

Events

The plugin system dispatches several events that you can listen for:

• WhileSmart\PluginEngine\Events\PluginEnabling - Fired before a plugin is enabled
• WhileSmart\PluginEngine\Events\PluginEnabled - Fired after a plugin is enabled
• WhileSmart\PluginEngine\Events\PluginDisabling - Fired before a plugin is disabled
• WhileSmart\PluginEngine\Events\PluginDisabled - Fired after a plugin is disabled
• WhileSmart\PluginEngine\Events\PluginInstalled - Fired after a plugin is installed
• WhileSmart\PluginEngine\Events\PluginDiscovered - Fired when a plugin is discovered

Development

The repository ships a dockerized environment, so PHP and Composer are not required on the host:

make install   # build the container and install dependencies
make test      # run the test suite
make pint      # fix code style
make check     # run style check and tests
make shell     # open a shell in the container

License

This project is open-source and licensed under the MIT License.