Skip to main content

🧩 Plugin Development

1. Overview​

  • Goals and design philosophy of the plugin system
  • Why plugin architecture: flexible extension, modular decoupling, ecosystem building
  • Applicable scenarios for plugin development

2. Core Concepts of the Plugin System​

  • XpertPlugin: Entry definition of a plugin

  • Enhancement Points: Mounting points for plugins to extend system functionality

  • Plugin Lifecycle: register, onStart, onStop, onPluginBootstrap, onPluginDestroy

  • Configuration Schema: Plugin configuration definition based on zod

  • Strategy Pattern:

    • Integration Strategy (system integration strategy)
    • Document Source Strategy (document data source strategy)

3. Plugin Directory Structure​

  • Explanation of plugin package.json
  • Typical directory structure (plugin.ts, *.strategy.ts, *.controller.ts, *.service.ts)
  • Dependency relationship between plugin and host system

4. Plugin Development Steps​

  1. Initialize the plugin: Define plugin metadata (meta) and configuration (config)
  2. Register plugin modules: Use the @XpertServerPlugin decorator
  3. Implement Integration Strategy: Define external service integration
  4. Implement Document Source Strategy: Define data source integration
  5. Provide services and controllers: Expose REST API / service methods
  6. Write test cases

5. Plugin Example: Lark Docs Integration​

  • Introduction to the Lark Docs plugin
  • Configuration example
  • Code breakdown (meta, IntegrationStrategy, DocumentSourceStrategy, Controller)
  • Complete workflow for loading document data

6. Plugin Lifecycle and Events​

  • Plugin registration → startup → destruction
  • Logging and debugging methods
  • How to manage plugin state

7. Best Practices for Development​

  • Plugin decoupling and reuse
  • Plugin configuration and security (key, API Key management)
  • Error handling and exception isolation
  • Logging and observability

8. Publishing and Usage​

  • Plugin packaging and version management
  • Plugin installation and activation
  • Plugin update and uninstallation

9. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)​

  • How to manage dependencies between plugins and host services?
  • How to register database entities in plugins?
  • How to call external APIs in plugins?
  • Can plugins be loaded and unloaded dynamically?