Plugin Architecture

Plugin Location

Plugins are stored in public/plugin/. Each plugin has its own directory:

public/plugin/
├── Bbb/                    # BigBlueButton integration
├── Zoom/                   # Zoom integration
├── Onlyoffice/             # OnlyOffice document editing
├── XApi/                   # xAPI/Tin Can
├── ...                     # bundled plugins ship under public/plugin/

Plugin Structure

A typical plugin directory contains:

public/plugin/MyPlugin/
├── plugin.php              # REQUIRED — assigns $plugin_info
├── install.php             # Installation script
├── uninstall.php           # Uninstallation script
├── index.php               # Region rendering entry point (if applicable)
├── admin.php               # Admin interface (optional)
├── lang/                   # Translation files (locale codes: en_US.php, fr_FR.php, …)
├── src/
│   ├── MyPluginPlugin.php        # Main plugin class (extends Plugin)
│   ├── Entity/                   # Doctrine entities (auto-discovered)
│   ├── Repository/               # Doctrine repositories
│   └── EventSubscriber/          # Symfony event subscribers (auto-registered)
├── templates/              # Twig templates
└── resources/              # CSS/JS assets

Plugin Class

Each plugin extends the Plugin base class (public/main/inc/lib/plugin.class.php) and follows the singleton pattern:

class MyPluginPlugin extends Plugin
{
    protected function __construct()
    {
        $settings = ['api_key' => 'text', 'enabled' => 'boolean'];
        parent::__construct('1.0', 'Author Name', $settings);
    }

    public static function create(): static
    {
        static $instance = null;
        return $instance ??= new static();
    }
}

Key Class Properties

Property	Type	Effect
$isCoursePlugin	bool	Registers the plugin as a course tool
$isAdminPlugin	bool	Adds an admin interface page
$isMailPlugin	bool	Integrates with the mail system
$addCourseTool	bool	Adds an icon to the course homepage
$course_settings	array	Defines per-course configuration fields

Plugin Lifecycle

1. Installation — The admin activates the plugin, which runs install.php

2. Configuration — Settings are defined and managed through the admin panel; stored in access_url_rel_plugin (supports multi-tenant)

3. Execution — The plugin injects content into display regions or reacts to platform events

4. Deactivation — The plugin is disabled but its data is preserved

5. Uninstallation — Runs uninstall.php to clean up data and tables

Display Regions

Plugins inject HTML into 18 predefined regions of the Vue frontend by overriding renderRegion():

public function renderRegion(string $region): string
{
    if ('footer_left' !== $region) {
        return '';
    }
    return '<p>My Plugin footer content</p>';
}

Available regions: content_bottom, content_top, course_tool_plugin, footer_center, footer_left, footer_right, header_center, header_left, header_main, header_right, login_bottom, login_top, main_bottom, main_top, menu_administrator, menu_bottom, menu_top, pre_footer.

Symfony Integration

Event Subscribers

Files ending in EventSubscriber.php placed inside src/EventSubscriber/ are auto-registered via PluginEventSubscriberPass. They implement EventSubscriberInterface and react to events defined in src/CoreBundle/Event/Events.php.

Because the plugin class (MyPluginPlugin) is not a Symfony service, it cannot be autowired into the subscriber constructor. Use the create() singleton instead:

class MyPluginEventSubscriber implements EventSubscriberInterface
{
    private MyPluginPlugin $plugin;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->plugin = MyPluginPlugin::create();
    }
}

Doctrine Entities

Doctrine entities placed in src/Entity/ are auto-discovered by PluginEntityPass. Use PHP 8 attributes for mapping. The namespace must follow Chamilo\PluginBundle\{PluginName}. Use unique table name prefixes (e.g., my_plugin_*) to avoid collisions.

PluginHelper Service

For accessing plugin state from core Symfony services, inject PluginHelper rather than instantiating the plugin class directly:

use Chamilo\CoreBundle\Helpers\PluginHelper;

class SomeService
{
    public function __construct(private readonly PluginHelper $pluginHelper) {}

    public function doSomething(): void
    {
        if ($this->pluginHelper->isPluginEnabled('MyPlugin')) {
            $value = $this->pluginHelper->getPluginSetting('MyPlugin', 'api_key');
        }
    }
}

Available methods:

Method	Purpose
isPluginEnabled(string $name): bool	Check if a plugin is installed and active for the current access URL
loadLegacyPlugin(string $name): ?object	Instantiate and return the plugin singleton
getPluginSetting(string $name, string $key): mixed	Read a single plugin setting value
getPluginOverrides(string $name): array	Get plugin.yaml overrides (defaults + access-URL-specific) for a plugin

Core File References

File	Purpose
public/main/inc/lib/plugin.class.php	Plugin base class
public/main/inc/lib/plugin.lib.php	Plugin manager
src/CoreBundle/Entity/Plugin.php	Plugin Doctrine entity
src/CoreBundle/Helpers/PluginHelper.php	PluginHelper service
src/CoreBundle/Event/Events.php	Event constants
public/plugin/HelloWorld/	Minimal example plugin
public/plugin/TopLinks/	Simple example plugin