path: root/README.md

Plugin Framework for Java (PF4J)
=====================
A plugin is a way for a third party to extend the functionality of an application. A plugin implements extension points
declared by application or other plugins. Also a plugin can define extension points.  

Current build status:  [![Build Status](https://buildhive.cloudbees.com/job/decebals/job/pf4j/badge/icon)](https://buildhive.cloudbees.com/job/decebals/job/pf4j/)

Features/Benefits
-------------------
With PF4J you can easily transform a monolithic java application in a modular application. 
PF4J is an open source (Apache license) lightweight (around 50KB) plugin framework for java, with minimal dependencies (only slf4j-api) and very extensible (see PluginDescriptorFinder and ExtensionFinder).

No XML, only Java.

You can mark any interface or abstract class as an extension point (with marker interface ExtensionPoint) and you specified that an class is an extension with @Extension annotation.

Also, PF4J can be used in web applications. For my web applications when I want modularity I use [Wicket Plugin](https://github.com/decebals/wicket-plugin).

Components
-------------------
- **Plugin** is the base class for all plugins types. Each plugin is loaded into a separate class loader to avoid conflicts.
- **PluginManager** is used for all aspects of plugins management (loading, starting, stopping).
- **ExtensionPoint** is a point in the application where custom code can be invoked. It's a java interface marker.   
Any java interface or abstract class can be marked as an extension point (implements _ExtensionPoint_ interface).
- **Extension** is an implementation of an extension point. It's a java annotation on a class.

Artifacts
-------------------
- PF4J `pf4j` (jar)
- PF4J Demo `pf4j-demo` (executable jar)

Using Maven
-------------------
In your pom.xml you must define the dependencies to PF4J artifacts with:

```xml
<dependency>
    <groupId>ro.fortsoft.pf4j</groupId>
    <artifactId>pf4j</artifactId>
    <version>${pf4j.version}</version>
</dependency>    
```

where ${pf4j.version} is the last pf4j version.

You may want to check for the latest released version using [Maven Search](http://search.maven.org/#search%7Cga%7C1%7Cpf4j)

How to use
-------------------
It's very simple to add pf4j in your application:

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ...
        
        PluginManager pluginManager = new DefaultPluginManager();
        pluginManager.loadPlugins();
        pluginManager.startPlugins();

        ...
    }

In above code, I created a **DefaultPluginManager** (it's the default implementation for
**PluginManager** interface) that loads and starts all active(resolved) plugins.  
Each available plugin is loaded using a different java class loader, **PluginClassLoader**.   
The **PluginClassLoader** contains only classes found in **PluginClasspath** (default _classes_ and _lib_ folders) of plugin and runtime classes and libraries of the required/dependent plugins. 
The plugins are stored in a folder. You can specify the plugins folder in the constructor of DefaultPluginManager. If the plugins folder is not specified 
than the location is returned by `System.getProperty("pf4j.pluginsDir", "plugins")`.

The structure of plugins folder is:
* plugin1.zip (or plugin1 folder)
* plugin2.zip (or plugin2 folder)

In plugins folder you can put a plugin as folder or archive file (zip).
A plugin folder has this structure by default:
* `classes` folder
* `lib` folder (optional - if the plugin used third party libraries)

The plugin manager searches plugins metadata using a **PluginDescriptorFinder**.   
**DefaultPluginDescriptorFinder** is a "link" to **ManifestPluginDescriptorFinder** that lookups plugins descriptors in MANIFEST.MF file.
In this case the `classes/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF` file looks like:

    Manifest-Version: 1.0
    Archiver-Version: Plexus Archiver
    Created-By: Apache Maven
    Built-By: decebal
    Build-Jdk: 1.6.0_17
    Plugin-Class: ro.fortsoft.pf4j.demo.welcome.WelcomePlugin
    Plugin-Dependencies: x, y, z
    Plugin-Id: welcome-plugin
    Plugin-Provider: Decebal Suiu
    Plugin-Version: 0.0.1

In above manifest I described a plugin with id `welcome-plugin`, with class `ro.fortsoft.pf4j.demo.welcome.WelcomePlugin`, with version `0.0.1` and with dependencies 
to plugins `x, y, z`.

You can define an extension point in your application using **ExtensionPoint** interface marker.

    public interface Greeting extends ExtensionPoint {

        public String getGreeting();

    }

Another important internal component is **ExtensionFinder** that describes how the plugin manager discovers extensions for the extensions points.   
**DefaultExtensionFinder** looks up extensions using **Extension** annotation.   
DefaultExtensionFinder looks up extensions in all extensions index files `META-INF/extensions.idx`. PF4J uses Java Annotation Processing to process at compile time all classes annotated with @Extension and to produce the extensions index file.

You can control extension instance creation overriding `createExtensionFactory` method from DefaultExtensionFinder.

    public class WelcomePlugin extends Plugin {

        public WelcomePlugin(PluginWrapper wrapper) {
            super(wrapper);
        }

        @Extension
        public static class WelcomeGreeting implements Greeting {

            public String getGreeting() {
                return "Welcome";
            }

        }

    }

In above code I supply an extension for the `Greeting` extension point.

You can retrieve all extensions for an extension point with:

    List<Greeting> greetings = pluginManager.getExtensions(Greeting.class);
    for (Greeting greeting : greetings) {
        System.out.println(">>> " + greeting.getGreeting());
    }

The output is:

    >>> Welcome
    >>> Hello

**NOTE:** Starting with version 0.9 you can define an extension directly in a jar (in classpath). See [WhazzupGreeting](https://github.com/decebals/pf4j/blob/master/demo/app/src/main/java/ro/fortsoft/pf4j/demo/WhazzupGreeting.java) for a real example.  

You can inject your custom component (for example PluginDescriptorFinder, ExtensionFinder, PluginClasspath, ...) in DefaultPluginManager just override `create...` methods (factory method pattern).

Example:

    protected PluginDescriptorFinder createPluginDescriptorFinder() {
        return new PropertiesPluginDescriptorFinder();
    }
    
and in plugin respository you must have a plugin.properties file with the below content:

    plugin.class=ro.fortsoft.pf4j.demo.welcome.WelcomePlugin
    plugin.dependencies=x, y, z
    plugin.id=welcome-plugin
    plugin.provider=Decebal Suiu
    plugin.version=0.0.1
    

For more information please see the demo sources.

Plugin assembly
------------------------------

After you developed a plugin the next step is to deploy it in your application. For this task, one option is to create a zip file with a structure described in section [How to use](https://github.com/decebals/pf4j/blob/master/README.md#how-to-use) from the beginning of the document.  
If you use `apache maven` as build manger than your pom.xml file must looks like [this](https://github.com/decebals/pf4j/blob/master/demo/plugins/plugin1/pom.xml). This file it's very simple and it's self explanatory.  
If you use `apache ant` than your buil.xml file must looks like [this](https://github.com/gitblit/gitblit-powertools-plugin/blob/master/build.xml). In this case please look at the "build" target.  

Plugin lifecycle
--------------------------
Each plugin passes through a pre-defined set of states. [PluginState](https://github.com/decebals/pf4j/blob/master/pf4j/src/main/java/ro/fortsoft/pf4j/PluginState.java) defines all possible states.   
The primary plugin states are:
* CREATED
* DISABLED
* STARTED
* STOPPED

The DefaultPluginManager contains the following logic:
* all plugins are resolved & loaded
* *DISABLED* plugins are NOT automatically *STARTED* by pf4j in `startPlugins()` BUT you may manually start (and therefore enable) a *DISABLED* plugin by calling `startPlugin(pluginId)` instead of `enablePlugin(pluginId)` + `startPlugin(pluginId)`
* only *STARTED* plugins may contribute extensions. Any other state should not be considered ready to contribute an extension to the running system.

The differences between a DISABLED plugin and a STARTED plugin are:
* a STARTED plugin has executed Plugin.start(), a DISABLED plugin has not
* a STARTED plugin may contribute extension instances, a DISABLED plugin may not

DISABLED plugins still have valid class loaders and their classes can be manually
loaded and explored, but the resource loading - which is important for inspection - 
has been handicapped by the DISABLED check.

As integrators of pf4j evolve their extension APIs it will become
a requirement to specify a minimum system version for loading plugins.
Loading & starting a newer plugin on an older system could result in
runtime failures due to method signature changes or other class
differences.  
For this reason was added a manifest attribute (in PluginDescriptor) to specify a 'requires' version
which is a minimum system version. Also DefaultPluginManager contains a method to
specify the system version of the plugin manager and the logic to disable
plugins on load if the system version is too old (if you want total control, please override `isPluginValid()`). This works for both `loadPlugins()` and `loadPlugin()`.  

__PluginStateListener__ defines the interface for an object that listens to plugin state changes. You can use `addPluginStateListener()` and `removePluginStateListener()` from PluginManager if you want to add or remove a plugin state listener.  

Your application, as a PF4J consumer, has full control over each plugin (state). So, you can load, unload, enable, disable, start, stop and delete a certain plugin using PluginManager (programmatically).

Development mode
--------------------------
PF4J can run in two modes: **DEVELOPMENT** and **DEPLOYMENT**.  
The DEPLOYMENT(default) mode is the standard workflow for plugins creation: create a new maven module for each plugin, codding the plugin (declares new extension points and/or 
add new extensions), pack the plugin in a zip file, deploy the zip file to plugins folder. These operations are time consuming and from this reason I introduced the DEVELOPMENT runtime mode.  
The main advantage of DEVELOPMENT runtime mode for a plugin developer is that he/she is not enforced to pack and deploy the plugins. In DEVELOPMENT mode you can developing plugins in a simple and fast mode.   

Lets describe how DEVELOPMENT runtime mode works.

First, you can change the runtime mode using the "pf4j.mode" system property or overriding `DefaultPluginManager.getRuntimeMode()`.  
For example I run the pf4j demo in eclipse in DEVELOPMENT mode adding only `"-Dpf4j.mode=development"` to the pf4j demo launcher.  
You can retrieve the current runtime mode using `PluginManager.getRuntimeMode()` or in your Plugin implementation with `getWrapper().getRuntimeMode()`(see [WelcomePlugin](https://github.com/decebals/pf4j/blob/master/demo/plugins/plugin1/src/main/java/ro/fortsoft/pf4j/demo/welcome/WelcomePlugin.java)).   
The DefaultPluginManager determines automatically the correct runtime mode and for DEVELOPMENT mode overrides some components(pluginsDirectory is __"../plugins"__, __PropertiesPluginDescriptorFinder__ as PluginDescriptorFinder, __DevelopmentPluginClasspath__ as PluginClassPath).  
Another advantage of DEVELOPMENT runtime mode is that you can execute some code lines only in this mode (for example more debug messages). 

If you use maven as build manger, after each dependency modification in your plugin (maven module) you must run Maven>Update Project...   


For more details see the demo application. 

Enable/Disable plugins
-------------------
In theory, it's a relation **1:N** between an extension point and the extensions for this extension point.   
This works well, except for when you develop multiple plugins for this extension point as different options for your clients to decide on which one to use.  
In this situation you wish a possibility to disable all but one extension.   
For example I have an extension point for sending mail (EmailSender interface) with two extensions: one based on Sendgrid and another
based on Amazon Simple Email Service.   
The first extension is located in Plugin1 and the second extension is located in Plugin2.   
I want to go only with one extension ( **1:1** relation between extension point and extensions) and to achieve this I have two options:  
1) uninstall Plugin1 or Plugin2 (remove folder pluginX.zip and pluginX from plugins folder)  
2) disable Plugin1 or Plugin2  

For option two you must create a simple file **enabled.txt** or **disabled.txt** in your plugins folder.   
The content for **enabled.txt** is similar with:

    ########################################
    # - load only these plugins
    # - add one plugin id on each line
    # - put this file in plugins folder
    ########################################
    welcome-plugin

The content for **disabled.txt** is similar with:

    ########################################
    # - load all plugins except these
    # - add one plugin id on each line
    # - put this file in plugins folder
    ########################################
    welcome-plugin

All comment lines (line that start with # character) are ignored.   
If a file with enabled.txt exists than disabled.txt is ignored. See enabled.txt and disabled.txt from the demo folder. 

Demo
-------------------
I have a tiny demo application. The demo application is in demo folder.
In demo/api folder I declared an extension point ( _Greeting_).  
In demo/plugins I implemented two plugins: plugin1, plugin2 (each plugin adds an extension for _Greeting_).  

To run the demo application use:  
 
    ./run-demo.sh (for Linux/Unix)
    ./run-demo.bat (for Windows)

Mailing list
--------------

Much of the conversation between developers and users is managed through [mailing list] (http://groups.google.com/group/pf4j).

Versioning
------------
PF4J will be maintained under the Semantic Versioning guidelines as much as possible.

Releases will be numbered with the follow format:

`<major>.<minor>.<patch>`

And constructed with the following guidelines:

* Breaking backward compatibility bumps the major
* New additions without breaking backward compatibility bumps the minor
* Bug fixes and misc changes bump the patch

For more information on SemVer, please visit http://semver.org/.

License
--------------
Copyright 2012 Decebal Suiu
 
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this work except in compliance with
the License. You may obtain a copy of the License in the LICENSE file, or at:
 
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on
an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the
specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.