---
title: Plugin Slots API
permalink: /api/slots/
toc: true
class: configuration
---

Plugins make use of **"slots"** in order to change Talk's interface.

By default, Talk has various plugins provided by default. We can see this in `plugins.default.json`: 

```json
{
  "server": [
    "talk-plugin-auth",
    "talk-plugin-featured-comments",
    "talk-plugin-offtopic",
    "talk-plugin-respect"
  ],
  "client": [
    "talk-plugin-auth",
    "talk-plugin-author-menu",
    "talk-plugin-comment-content",
    "talk-plugin-featured-comments",
    "talk-plugin-flag-details",
    "talk-plugin-ignore-user",
    "talk-plugin-member-since",
    "talk-plugin-moderation-actions",
    "talk-plugin-offtopic",
    "talk-plugin-permalink",
    "talk-plugin-respect",
    "talk-plugin-sort-most-replied",
    "talk-plugin-sort-most-respected",
    "talk-plugin-sort-newest",
    "talk-plugin-sort-oldest",
    "talk-plugin-viewing-options"
  ]
}
```

Let's only focus on the plugins which are listed under `client` - these are the plugins that use *slots* to inject certain functionality into the Talk UI.

For example, if we look at the Respect plugin (`talk-plugin-respect`), we can see its `client/index.js` looks like this:


```js
import RespectButton from './RespectButton';
import translations from './translations.yml';

export default {
  translations,
  slots: {
    commentReactions: [RespectButton],
  },
};

```

Inside the `slots` property, we specify which **slots** the plugin will use. Above we are saying that the `RespectButton` component is being injected into the slot `commentReactions`.

Slots can receive an Array of components, so we can use one plugin or many for one slot.

### Anatomy of the Slot Component

In Talk core, we have 32 slots available for us to use. The component `Slot` has a `fill` property where we establish the name of the slot. It looks like this:


```js
<Slot 
  fill="commentReactions"
	{...props}
/>
```

You won't have to use this to build plugins, but it's helpful to find where to embed your plugin.

### Slot List

* `adminCommentDetailArea`
* `adminCommentMoreDetails`
* `adminCommentLabels`
* `adminModerationSettings`
* `adminOrganizationSettings`
* `adminStreamSettings`
* `adminTechSettings`
* `adminCommentInfoBar`
* `adminCommentContent`
* `adminSideActions`
* `adminModeration`
* `adminModerationIndicator`

* `commentInputDetailArea`
* `commentAvatar`
* `commentAuthorName`
* `commentAuthorTags`
* `commentTimestamp`
* `commentInfoBar`
* `commentContent`
* `commentReactions`
* `commentActions`
* `commentInputArea`
* `commentTombstone`

* `draftArea`
* `streamSettings`
* `historyCommentTimestamp`
* `profileSections`
* `embed`
* `stream`
* `streamFilter`
* `streamQuestionArea`
* `login`
* `userProfile`
* `userDetailCommentContent`

### Where should I insert my plugin?

The first thing we should consider is what components will be affected by our plugin's functionality. For example, if we want to add functionality to all the comments that are rendered in a total list of comments, we would use the component `Comment`.

The slots that are able to add functionality to comments start with `comment`, like `commentContent`, or `commentReactions`, as you can see above.

### Disabling plugins via `plugins_config`

Typically, you will manage plugins via your `plugins.json` file. If you want to remove a plugin, you would simply delete it there. However, we can also do this directly with the `plugins_config`.

Let's look at our example article, `views/article.ejs`. Here we see we have the Talk embed, and within the embed, we can also send a configuration object. To disable a plugin visually, we can pass `true` to the property `disable_components`. Like so:


```js 
plugins_config: {
  'talk-plugin-love': {
    disable_components: true,
   },
}
```

### Sending information to slots and plugins


Inside our `plugins_config`, we can also send properities and our plugins will receive them. For example, if we send this:

```js 
plugins_config: {
  test: 'data'
}
```

The plugin will receive a config object with the properties we've passed. If we do a `console.log` with `this.props`, we would see:

```js
config: {test: 'data'}
```

### Debugging slots and plugins


You can debug slots and plugins simply by passing the `debug` property with value `true`:


```js 
plugins_config: {
  debug: true
}
```

This will turn on a visual aid to show you all of Talk's available slots and their names. Just move your mouse around!

### Slot ClassNames

Slots autogenerate their classes with the prefix `talk-slot`, followed by the name of the slot in kebab case.

For example, the class autogenerated for the slot `commentContent` is `talk-slot-comment-content`.
