Plugin Starter Template

This plugin serves as a starting point for writing a Mattermost plugin. Feel free to base your own plugin off this repository.

To learn more about plugins, see our plugin documentation.

This template requires node v16 and npm v8. You can download and install nvm to manage your node versions by following the instructions here. Once you've setup the project simply run nvm i within the root folder to use the suggested version of node.

Getting Started

Use GitHub's template feature to make a copy of this repository by clicking the "Use this template" button.

Alternatively shallow clone the repository matching your plugin name:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mattermost/mattermost-plugin-starter-template com.example.my-plugin

Note that this project uses Go modules. Be sure to locate the project outside of $GOPATH.

Edit the following files:

1. plugin.json with your id, name, and description:

{
    "id": "com.example.my-plugin",
    "name": "My Plugin",
    "description": "A plugin to enhance Mattermost."
}

2. go.mod with your Go module path, following the <hosting-site>/<repository>/<module> convention:

module github.com/example/my-plugin

3. .golangci.yml with your Go module path:

linters-settings:
  # [...]
  goimports:
    local-prefixes: github.com/example/my-plugin

Build your plugin:

make

This will produce a single plugin file (with support for multiple architectures) for upload to your Mattermost server:

dist/com.example.my-plugin.tar.gz

Development

To avoid having to manually install your plugin, build and deploy your plugin using one of the following options. In order for the below options to work, you must first enable plugin uploads via your config.json or API and restart Mattermost.

    "PluginSettings" : {
        ...
        "EnableUploads" : true
    }

Development guidance

1. Fewer packages is better: default to the main package unless there's good reason for a new package.

2. Coupling implies same package: don't jump through hoops to break apart code that's naturally coupled.

3. New package for a new interface: a classic example is the sqlstore with layers for monitoring performance, caching and mocking.

4. New package for upstream integration: a discrete client package for interfacing with a 3rd party is often a great place to break out into a new package

Modifying the server boilerplate

The server code comes with some boilerplate for creating an api, using slash commands, accessing the kvstore and using the cluster package for jobs.

Api

api.go implements the ServeHTTP hook which allows the plugin to implement the http.Handler interface. Requests destined for the /plugins/{id} path will be routed to the plugin. This file also contains a sample HelloWorld endpoint that is tested in plugin_test.go.

Command package

This package contains the boilerplate for adding a slash command and an instance of it is created in the OnActivate hook in plugin.go. If you don't need it you can delete the package and remove any reference to commandClient in plugin.go. The package also contains an example of how to create a mock for testing.

KVStore package

This is a central place for you to access the KVStore methods that are available in the pluginapi.Client. The package contains an interface for you to define your methods that will wrap the KVStore methods. An instance of the KVStore is created in the OnActivate hook.

Deploying with Local Mode

If your Mattermost server is running locally, you can enable local mode to streamline deploying your plugin. Edit your server configuration as follows:

{
    "ServiceSettings": {
        ...
        "EnableLocalMode": true,
        "LocalModeSocketLocation": "/var/tmp/mattermost_local.socket"
    },
}

and then deploy your plugin:

make deploy

You may also customize the Unix socket path:

export MM_LOCALSOCKETPATH=/var/tmp/alternate_local.socket
make deploy

If developing a plugin with a webapp, watch for changes and deploy those automatically:

export MM_SERVICESETTINGS_SITEURL=http://localhost:8065
export MM_ADMIN_TOKEN=j44acwd8obn78cdcx7koid4jkr
make watch

Deploying with credentials

Alternatively, you can authenticate with the server's API with credentials:

export MM_SERVICESETTINGS_SITEURL=http://localhost:8065
export MM_ADMIN_USERNAME=admin
export MM_ADMIN_PASSWORD=password
make deploy

or with a personal access token:

export MM_SERVICESETTINGS_SITEURL=http://localhost:8065
export MM_ADMIN_TOKEN=j44acwd8obn78cdcx7koid4jkr
make deploy

Releasing new versions

The version of a plugin is determined at compile time, automatically populating a version field in the plugin manifest:

• If the current commit matches a tag, the version will match after stripping any leading v, e.g. 1.3.1.
• Otherwise, the version will combine the nearest tag with git rev-parse --short HEAD, e.g. 1.3.1+d06e53e1.
• If there is no version tag, an empty version will be combined with the short hash, e.g. 0.0.0+76081421.

To disable this behaviour, manually populate and maintain the version field.

How to Release

To trigger a release, follow these steps:

1. For Patch Release: Run the following command:

   make patch
   

   This will release a patch change.

2. For Minor Release: Run the following command:

   make minor
   

   This will release a minor change.

3. For Major Release: Run the following command:

   make major
   

   This will release a major change.

4. For Patch Release Candidate (RC): Run the following command:

   make patch-rc
   

   This will release a patch release candidate.

5. For Minor Release Candidate (RC): Run the following command:

   make minor-rc
   

   This will release a minor release candidate.

6. For Major Release Candidate (RC): Run the following command:

   make major-rc
   

   This will release a major release candidate.

Q&A

How do I make a server-only or web app-only plugin?

Simply delete the server or webapp folders and remove the corresponding sections from plugin.json. The build scripts will skip the missing portions automatically.

How do I include assets in the plugin bundle?

Place them into the assets directory. To use an asset at runtime, build the path to your asset and open as a regular file:

bundlePath, err := p.API.GetBundlePath()
if err != nil {
    return errors.Wrap(err, "failed to get bundle path")
}

profileImage, err := ioutil.ReadFile(filepath.Join(bundlePath, "assets", "profile_image.png"))
if err != nil {
    return errors.Wrap(err, "failed to read profile image")
}

if appErr := p.API.SetProfileImage(userID, profileImage); appErr != nil {
    return errors.Wrap(err, "failed to set profile image")
}

How do I build the plugin with unminified JavaScript?

Setting the MM_DEBUG environment variable will invoke the debug builds. The simplist way to do this is to simply include this variable in your calls to make (e.g. make dist MM_DEBUG=1).