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NAME

App::Netdisco::Manual::WritingPlugins - Documentation on Plugins for Developers

Introduction

App::Netdisco's plugin subsystem allows developers to write and test web user interface (UI) components without needing to patch the main Netdisco application. It also allows the end-user more control over the UI components displayed in their browser.

See App::Netdisco::Web::Plugin for more general information about plugins.

Developing Plugins

A plugin is simply a Perl module which is loaded. Therefore it can do anything you like, but most usefully for the App::Netdisco web application, the module will install a Dancer route handler subroutine, and link this to a web user interface (UI) component.

Explaining how to write Dancer route handlers is beyond the scope of this document, but by examining the source to the plugins in App::Netdisco you'll probably get enough of an idea to begin on your own.

App::Netdisco plugins should load the App::Netdisco::Web::Plugin module. This exports a set of helper subroutines to register the new UI components. Here's the boilerplate code for our example plugin module:

 package App::Netdisco::Web::Plugin::MyNewFeature
 
 use Dancer ':syntax';
 use Dancer::Plugin::Ajax;
 use Dancer::Plugin::DBIC;
 
 use App::Netdisco::Web::Plugin;
 
 # plugin registration code goes here, ** see below **
 
 # your Dancer route handler, for example:
 get '/mynewfeature' => sub {
   # ...lorem ipsum...
 };
 
 true;

Navigation Bar items

These components appear in the black navigation bar at the top of each page, as individual items (i.e. not in a menu). The canonical example of this is the Inventory link.

To register an item for display in the navigation bar, use the following code:

 register_navbar_item({
   tag   => 'newfeature',
   path  => '/mynewfeature',
   label => 'My New Feature',
 });

This causes an item to appear in the Navigation Bar with a visible text of "My New Feature" which when clicked sends the user to the /mynewfeature page. Note that this won't work for any target link - the path must be an App::Netdisco Dancer route handler. Please bug the App::Netdisco devs if you want arbitrary links supported.

Search and Device page Tabs

These components appear as tabs in the interface when the user reaches the Search page or Device details page. Note that Tab plugins usually live in the App::Netdisco::Web::Plugin::Device or App::Netdisco::Web::Plugin::Search namespace.

To register a handler for display as a Search page Tab, use the following code:

 register_search_tab({tag => 'newfeature', label => 'My New Feature'});

This causes a tab to appear with the label "My New Feature". So how does App::Netdisco know what the link should be? Well, as the App::Netdisco::Developing documentation says, tab content is retrieved by an AJAX call back to the web server. This uses a predictable URL path format:

 /ajax/content/<search or device>/<feature tag>

For example:

 /ajax/content/search/newfeature

Therefore your plugin module should look like the following:

 package App::Netdisco::Web::Plugin::Search::MyNewFeature
 
 use Dancer ':syntax';
 use Dancer::Plugin::Ajax;
 use Dancer::Plugin::DBIC;
 
 use App::Netdisco::Web::Plugin;
 
 register_search_tab({tag => 'newfeature', label => 'My New Feature'});
 
 ajax '/ajax/content/search/newfeature' => sub {
   # ...lorem ipsum...
 
   content_type('text/html');
   # return some HTML content here, probably using a template
 };
 
 true;

If this all sounds a bit daunting, take a look at the App::Netdisco::Web::Plugin::Search::Port module which is fairly straightforward.

To register a handler for display as a Device page Tab, the only difference is the name of the registration helper sub:

 register_device_tab({tag => 'newfeature', label => 'My New Feature'});

Reports

Report components contain pre-canned searches which the user community have found to be useful. The implementation is very similar to one of the Search and Device page Tabs, so please read that documentation above, first.

Report plugins usually live in the App::Netdisco::Web::Plugin::Report namespace. To register a handler for display as a Report, you need to pick the category of the report. Here are the pre-defined categories:

  • Device

  • Port

  • Node

  • VLAN

  • Network

  • Wireless

Once your category is selected, use the following registration code:

 register_report({
   category => 'Port', # pick one from the list
   tag => 'newreport',
   label => 'My New Report',
 });

You will note that like Device and Search page Tabs, there's no path specified in the registration. The reports engine will make an AJAX request to the following URL:

 /ajax/content/report/<report tag>

Therefore you should implement in your plugin an AJAX handler for this path. The handler must return the HTML content for the report. It can also process any query parameters which might customize the report search.

See the App::Netdisco::Web::Plugin::Report::DuplexMismatch module for a simple example of how to implement the handler.

Admin Tasks

These components appear in the black navigation bar under an Admin menu, but only if the logged in user has Administrator rights in Netdisco.

To register an item for display in the Admin menu, use the following code:

 register_admin_task({
   tag   => 'newfeature',
   label => 'My New Feature',
 });

This causes an item to appear in the Admin menu with a visible text of "My New Feature" which when clicked sends the user to the /admin/mynewfeature page. Note that this won't work for any target link - the path must be an App::Netdisco Dancer route handler. Please bug the App::Netdisco devs if you want arbitrary links supported.

Templates

All of Netdisco's web page templates are stashed away in its distribution, probably installed in your system's or user's Perl directory. It's not recommended that you mess about with those files.

So in order to replace a template with your own version, or to reference a template file of your own in your plugin, you need a new path:

 package App::Netdisco::Web::Plugin::Search::MyNewFeature
  
 use File::ShareDir 'dist_dir';
 register_template_path(
   dist_dir( 'App-Netdisco-Web-Plugin-Search-MyNewFeature' ));

The registered path will be searched before the built-in App::Netdisco path. We recommend use of the File::ShareDir module to package and ship templates along with your plugin, as shown.

Each path added using register_template_path is searched before any existing paths in the template config.

Template Variables

Some useful variables are made available in your templates automatically by App::Netdisco:

search_node

A base url which links to the Node tab of the Search page, together with the correct default search options set.

search_device

A base url which links to the Device tab of the Search page, together with the correct default search options set.

device_ports

A base url which links to the Ports tab of the Device page, together with the correct default column view options set.

uri_base

Used for linking to static content within App::Netdisco safely if the base of the app is relocated, for example:

 <link rel="stylesheet" href="[% uri_base %]/css/toastr.css"/>
uri_for

Simply the Dancer uri_for method. Allows you to do things like this in the template safely if the base of the app is relocated:

 <a href="[% uri_for('/search') %]" ...>
self_options

Available in the Device tabs, use this if you need to refer back to the current page with some additional parameters, for example:

 <a href="[% uri_for('/device', self_options) %]&foo=bar" ...>