Plugins

Plugins in Chamilo exist to allow third party to (relatively easily) integrate new components in Chamilo, and are viewed either as a « staging » platform to include new features in the core of Chamilo in future versions, or as a « buffer » where we can make some code reside that we don't really want to integrate to Chamilo (usually for ethical or licensing reasons) but that we know might benefit our community at large.

For integrators, it is a great way to insert new code into Chamilo without having to wait for the next major version in order to incorporate database changes, as the plugins can have their own installer/uninstaller.

Plugins can be split in 2 categories : visual plugins, and back-end plugins. Back-end plugins act in the background (you'd have guessed) and require much less work (usually) from the visual design side. Visual plugins need to be crafted carefully so they integrate seamlessly into the Chamilo layout.

Although this is the major division, we won't make any distinction in the following section between these. If you develop a back-end plugin, just ignore the display part.

We will, however, differentiate between the general plugins (all but one at this time) and the dashboard plugin, as this last one represents a specific case that appears as a top menu tabulation entry and is only allowed to administrators.