Redmine

{{>toc}}

h1. Plugin Tutorial

h2. Creating a new Plugin

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@ too 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 controller

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

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

  @@pools = [ {:id => 1, :title => 'First pool', :question => 'This is the first pool question', :yes => 0, :no => 0},

              {:id => 2, :title => 'Second pool', :question => 'This is the second pool question', :yes => 0, :no => 0} ]

  def index

    @pools = @@pools

  end

  def vote

    pool = @@pools.find {|p| p[:id].to_s == params[:id]}

    # saves the vote

    pool[params[:answer].to_sym] += 1

    flash[:notice] = 'Vote saved.'

    redirect_to :action => 'index'

  end

end

</code></pre>

For the sake of this example, we simulate a pool model in our @@@pools@ class variable.

We could of course use a ActiveRecord model just like we do it in a regular Rails app.

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 = @@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

TODO

h2. Creating a project module

TODO