Redmine

h1. Plugin Tutorial

{{toc}}

h2. Creating a new Plugin

Creating a new plugin can be done using the Redmine plugin generator.

Syntax for this generator is:

  ruby script/generate redmine_plugin <plugin_name>

So open up a command prompt and "cd" to your redmine directory, then execute the following command:

  % ruby script/generate redmine_plugin Pools

The plugin structure is created in @vendor/plugins/redmine_pools@:

<pre>

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_pools/app/controllers

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_pools/app/helpers

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_pools/app/models

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_pools/app/views

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_pools/db/migrate

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_pools/lib/tasks

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_pools/assets/images

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_pools/assets/javascripts

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_pools/assets/stylesheets

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_pools/lang

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_pools/README

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_pools/init.rb

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_pools/lang/en.yml

</pre>

Edit @vendor/plugins/redmine_pools/init.rb@ to adjust plugin information (name, author, description and version):

<pre><code class="ruby">

require 'redmine'

Redmine::Plugin.register :redmine_pools do

  name 'Pools plugin'

  author 'John Smith'

  description 'A plugin for managing pools'

  version '0.0.1'

end

</code></pre>

Then restart the application and point your browser to http://localhost:3000/admin/info.

After logging in, you should see your new plugin in the plugins list:

p=. !plugins_list1.png!

h2. Generating a model

Let's create a simple Pool model for our plugin:

  ruby script/generate redmine_plugin_model pools pool question:string yes:integer no:integer

This creates the Pool model and the corresponding migration file.

Migrate the database using the following command:

  rake db:migrate_plugins

Note that each plugin has its own set of migrations.

Edit @app/models/pool.rb@ in your plugin directory to add a #vote method that will be invoked from our controller:

<pre><code class="ruby">

class Pool < ActiveRecord::Base

  def vote(answer)

    increment(answer == 'yes' ? :yes : :no)

  end

end

</code></pre>

h2. Generating a controller

For now, the plugin doesn't do anything. So let's create a controller for our plugin.

We can use the plugin controller generator for that. Syntax is:

  ruby script/generate redmine_plugin_controller <plugin_name> <controller_name> [<actions>]

So go back to the command prompt and run:

<pre>

% ruby script/generate redmine_plugin_controller Pools pools index vote

      exists  app/controllers/

      exists  app/helpers/

      create  app/views/pools

      create  test/functional/

      create  app/controllers/pools_controller.rb

      create  test/functional/pools_controller_test.rb

      create  app/helpers/pools_helper.rb

      create  app/views/pools/index.html.erb

      create  app/views/pools/vote.html.erb

</pre>

A controller @PoolsController@ with 2 actions (@#index@ and @#vote@) is created.

Edit @app/controllers/pools_controller.rb@ in @redmine_pools@ directory to implement these 2 actions.

<pre><code class="ruby">

class PoolsController < ApplicationController

  unloadable

  def index

    @pools = Pool.find(:all)

  end

  def vote

    pool = Pool.find(params[:id])

    pool.vote(params[:anwser])

    flash[:notice] = 'Vote saved.'

    redirect_to :action => 'index'

  end

end

</code></pre>

Then edit @app/views/pools/index.html.erb@ that will display existing pools:

<pre>

<h2>Pools</h2>

<% @pools.each do |pool| %>

  <p>

  <%= pool[:question] %>?

  <%= link_to 'Yes', {:action => 'vote', :id => pool[:id], :answer => 'yes'}, :method => :post %> (<%= pool[:yes] %>) /

  <%= link_to 'No', {:action => 'vote', :id => pool[:id], :answer => 'no'}, :method => :post %> (<%= pool[:no] %>)

  </p>

<% end %>

</pre>

You can remove @vote.html.erb@ since no rendering is done by the corresponding action.

Now, restart the application and point your browser to http://localhost:3000/pools.

You should see the 2 pools and you should be able to vote for them:

p=. !pools1.png!

Note that pool results are reset on each request if you don't run the application in production mode, since our pool "model" is stored in a class variable in this example.

h2. Extending menus

Our controller works fine but users have to know the url to see the pools. Using the Redmine plugin API, you can extend standard menus.

So let's add a new item to the application menu.

h3. Extending the application menu

Edit @init.rb@ at the root of your plugin directory to add the following line at the end of the plugin registration block:

<pre><code class="ruby">

Redmine::Plugin.register :redmine_pools do

  [...]

  menu :application_menu, :pools, { :controller => 'pools', :action => 'index' }, :caption => 'Pools'

end

</code></pre>

Syntax is:

  menu(menu_name, item_name, url, options={})

There are 4 menus that you can extend:

* @:top_menu@ - the top left menu

* @:account_menu@ - the top right menu with sign in/sign out links

* @:application_menu@ - the main menu displayed when the user is not inside a project

* @:project_menu@ - the main menu displayed when the user is inside a project

Available options are:

* @:param@ - the parameter key that is used for the project id (default is @:id@)

* @:if@ - a Proc that is called before rendering the item, the item is displayed only if it returns true

* @:caption@ - the menu caption that can be:

  * a localized string Symbol

  * a String

  * a Proc that can take the project as argument

* @:before@, @:after@ - specify where the menu item should be inserted (eg. @:after => :activity@)

* @:last@ - if set to true, the item will stay at the end of the menu (eg. @:last => true@)

* @:html_options@ - a hash of html options that are passed to @link_to@ when rendering the menu item

In our example, we've added an item to the application menu which is emtpy by default.

Restart the application and go to http://localhost:3000:

p=. !application_menu.png!

Now you can access the pools by clicking the Pools tab from the welcome screen.

h3. Extending the project menu

Now, let's consider that the pools are defined at project level (even if it's not the case in our example pool model). So we would like to add the Pools tab to the project menu instead.

Open @init.rb@ and replace the line that was added just before with these 2 lines:

<pre><code class="ruby">

Redmine::Plugin.register :redmine_pools do

  [...]

  permission :pools, {:pools => [:index, :vote]}, :public => true

  menu :project_menu, :pools, { :controller => 'pools', :action => 'index' }, :caption => 'Pools', :after => :activity, :param => :project_id

end

</code></pre>

The second line adds our Pools tab to the project menu, just after the activity tab.

The first line is required and declares that our 2 actions from @PoolsController@ are public. We'll come back later to explain this with more details.

Restart the application again and go to one of your projects:

p=. !project_menu.png!

If you click the Pools tab, you should notice that the project menu is no longer displayed.

To make the project menu visible, you have to initialize the controller's instance variable @@project@.

Edit your PoolsController to do so:

<pre><code class="ruby">

def index

  @project = Project.find(params[:project_id])

  @pools = Pool.find(:all) # @project.pools

end

</code></pre>

The project id is available in the @:project_id@ param because of the @:param => :project_id@ option in the menu item declaration above.

Now, you should see the project menu when viewing the pools:

p=. !project_menu_pools.png!

h2. Adding new permissions

For now, anyone can vote for pools. Let's make it more configurable by changing the permission declaration.

We're going to declare 2 project based permissions, one for viewing the pools and an other one for voting. These permissions are no longer public (@:public => true@ option is removed).

Edit @init.rb@ to replace the previous permission declaration with these 2 lines:

<pre><code class="ruby">

  permission :view_pools, :pools => :index

  permission :vote_pools, :pools => :vote

</code></pre>

Restart the application and go to http://localhost:3000/roles/report:

p=. !permissions1.png!

You're now able to give these permissions to your existing roles.

Of course, some code needs to be added to the PoolsController so that actions are actually protected according to the permissions of the current user.

For this, we just need to append the @:authorize@ filter and make sure that the @project instance variable is properly set before calling this filter.

Here is how it would look like for the @#index@ action:

<pre><code class="ruby">

class PoolsController < ApplicationController

  unloadable

  before_filter :find_project, :authorize, :only => :index

  [...]

  def index

    @pools = Pool.find(:all) # @project.pools

  end

  [...]

  private

  def find_project

    # @project variable must be set before calling the authorize filter

    @project = Project.find(params[:project_id])

  end

end

</code></pre>

Retrieving the current project before the @#vote@ action could be done using a similiar way.

After this, viewing and voting pools will be only available to admin users or users that have the appropriate role on the project.

h2. Creating a project module

For now, the pool functionality is added to all your projects. But you way want to enable pools for some projects only.

So, let's create a 'Pools' project module. This is done by wraping the permissions declaration inside a call to @#project_module@.

Edit @init.rb@ and change the permissions declaration:

<pre><code class="ruby">

  project_module :pools do

    permission :view_pools, :pools => :index

    permission :vote_pools, :pools => :vote

  end

</code></pre>

Restart the application and go to one of your project settings.

Click on the Modules tab. You should see the Pools module at the end of the modules list (disabled by default):

p=. !modules.png!

You can now enable/disable pools at project level.

h2. Improving the plugin views

h3. Adding stylesheets

Let's start by adding a stylesheet to our plugin views.

Create a file named @voting.css@ in the @assets/stylesheets@ directory of your plugin:

<pre>

a.vote { font-size: 120%; }

a.vote.yes { color: green; }

a.vote.no  { color: red; }

</pre>

When starting the application, plugin assets are automatically copied to @public/plugin_assets/redmine_pools/@ by Rails Engines to make them available through your web server. So any change to your plugin stylesheets or javascripts needs an application restart.

Then, append the following lines at the end of @app/views/pools/index.html.erb@ so that your stylesheet get included in the page header by Redmine:

<pre>

<% content_for :header_tags do %>

    <%= stylesheet_link_tag 'voting', :plugin => 'redmine_pools' %>

<% end %>

</pre>

Note that the @:plugin => 'redmine_pools'@ option is required when calling the @stylesheet_link_tag@ helper.

Javascripts can be included in plugin views using the @javascript_include_tag@ helper in the same way.

h3. Setting page title

You can set the HTML title from inside your views by using the @html_title@ helper.

Example:

  <% html_title "Pools" -%>