This page last changed on Jan 14, 2009 by ivan@atlassian.com.
Looking for existing plugins? See the existing plugins and extensions written by the community in the Confluence Extensions space.

Confluence's plugin system allows users and developers to customise and extend Confluence.

A plugin is a bundle of code, resources and a special configuration file that can be dropped into a Confluence server to add new functionality, or change the behaviour of existing features.

  • Administrators can drop plugins into their Confluence server to add new functionality to the system.
  • Developers can write plugins for their own Confluence server, or share plugins with other Confluence users.

Some parts of Confluence are implemented entirely as plugins — for example, all macros in Confluence 1.3 and later are written as plugins, even those included with the system.

Where are plugins stored

Category Storage
Manually installed database
Installed via repository database
Bundled plugins conf-home
System plugins WEB-INF/lib

For example, the System plugins LeftNav theme plugin or the Clickr plugin will store data in WEB-INF/lib. Similarly for advanced-formatting macros.

Where are plugins run-time data stored

There is no distinct requirement where actual plugin's run-time data is stored. It is depended on the particular implementation of each plugin. The most common storage location would be: database, BANDANA, conf-home or other.

Plugins and Plugin Modules

Every plugin is made up of one or more plugin modules. A single plugin may do many things, while a plugin module represents a single function of the plugin.

For example, a theme plugin will consist of a colour-scheme module to define the theme's colours, a number of layout modules to define the site's page layouts, and a theme module to combine those pieces together into a single theme.

Some plugins, such as the macro packs that come with Confluence, are just a collection of unrelated modules that just happen to be packaged together. Other plugins, such as theme plugins, have modules that work together to provide some orchestrated functionality.

Contents of the Confluence Plugin Guide

RELATED TOPICS

Internationalising Confluence Plugins

Document generated by Confluence on Nov 05, 2009 23:34