PyPluginManager

A python powerfully tool for managing application plugins in a meaning full way.

Installation

In order to install the PyPluginManager you can easily use the pip with these shell commands.

For Windows:

pip install pmlion

For Linux:

python3 -m pip install pmlion

Setting Up a Repository

Repository is the core part of the PyPluginManager, and in order to set up one we need to do it manually. Go the PyPluginManager package folder and open a folder called samplefiles, then copy the directory Sample-Repo to whatever path you would like.

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NOTE

In the repository directory go to folder Config and open config.json, and double check if the PyPluginVersion is the same with the one installed or not.

Interfaces

Once you established your repository you can start using it with interfaces. Interfaces are an abstraction of what actually is happening in the repository making it so much easier to manage your plugins.

Interface Types

Each interface you use have a special type, and each type will disable some features of the Core Interface. This feature will come in handy when you want to allow access to repository to someone else, but you want to make sure they will not accidentally for example remove a Plugin or even install one.

There are four types of Interfaces available described and shown here.

Type	Description
FullAccessRM	A complete access to whole the repository and operations can be done.
LockedRM	The four main operations including installation, uninstallation, getting db, and loading is disallowed.
NoDeleteRM	An operation that requires or may requires deletion is disallowed.
NoReadRM	Any operations involving loading including loading, and getting db is disallowed.

Establishing an Interface

In order establish an interface first choose an interface that fulfill your needs. then import it and initialize your repository with it.

from pypluginmanager import minterfaces

Repo_Inter = minterfaces.FullAccessRM("the repo path here")

The above examples demonstrates how to establish a full access interface. When the repository is accessed the information of the interface including its path, and its type will be written in a file in repository called config.json.

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NOTE

The little annotation RM at the end each interface type is a short name for repository manager.

Operations

When you have established your interface, and you already get the interface object, there are some useful methods that you can use in condition that those operations are not disallowed by the specific type of interface you are using.

Method	Description
install(path)	Installing the plugin in the specified path.
plugin_exist(name)	Return true if the specified plugin exist, false otherwise.
uninstall(name)	Uninstalling the plugin using the given name.
get_plugins()	Returning the name and version of all installed plugins.
load(name)	Retuning the full path to the plugin.
get_db()	Returning a read only file object of the file plugins.json which contains all the data of plugins.
get_version(name)	Returning the version of the given plugin.