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talk/docs/plugins.md
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2017-06-22 17:33:16 -04:00

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---
title: Plugins Overview
keywords: plugins
sidebar: talk_sidebar
permalink: plugins.html
summary:
---
## Plugin Registration
In order for a plugin to be active in a Talk install, it must be _registered_. The parsing order for the plugin registration is as follows:
- `TALK_PLUGINS_JSON` environment variable
- `plugins.json` file
- `plugins.default.json` file
If you need to "disable all plugins", you can simply provide `{}` as the
contents of `process.env.TALK_PLUGINS_JSON` or the `plugins.json`.
The format for this is thus:
```json
{
"server": [
"people"
]
}
```
Where we have a `server` key with an array of plugins that match the folder
name in the `plugins/` folder. For example, the above config would
require a plugin from `plugins/people`, which must provide a `index.js` file
that returns an object that matches the Plugin Specification.
If the package is external (available on NPM) you can specify the string for
the version by using an object instead, for example:
```json
{
"server": [
{"people": "^1.2.0"}
]
}
```
External plugins can be resolved by running:
```bash
./bin/cli plugins reconcile
```
This achieves two things:
1. It will traverse into local plugin folders and install their dependencies.
_Note that if the plugin is already installed and available in the node_modules folder, it will not be
fetched again unless there is a version mismatch._ This will result in the
project `package.json` and `yarn.lock` files to be modified, this is normal as
this ensures that repeated deployments (with the same config) will have the
same config, these changes should not be committed to source control.
2. It will seek out dependencies that are listed in the object notation and try
to install them from npm.
## Plugin Dependencies
You may also include additional external dependencies in your local packages by
specifying a `package.json` at your plugin root which will result in a
`node_modules` folder being generated at the plugin root with your specific
dependencies.
## Deployment Solutions
Plugins can be deployed with a production instance of Talk.
### Source
Source deployments can just modify the `plugins.json` file and include any
local plugins into the `plugins/` directory. After including the config, you
need to reconcile the plugins and build the static assets:
```bash
# get plugin dependancies and remote plugins
./bin/cli plugins reconcile
# build staic assets (including enabled client side plugins)
yarn build
```
Then the application can be started as is.
### Docker
If you deploy using Docker, you can extend from the `*-onbuild` image, an
example `Dockerfile` for your project could be:
```Dockerfile
FROM coralproject/talk:latest-onbuild
```
Where the directory for your instance would contain a `plugins.json` file
describing the plugin requirements and a `plugins` directory containing any
other local plugins that should be included.
Onbuild triggers will execute when the image is building with your custom
configuration and will ensure that the image is ready to use by building all
assets inside the image as well.