Addons

Creating an Addon

You can generate an addon with a console command:

php please make:addon example/my-addon

This will scaffold out everything you need to get started as a private addon within your site’s addons directory.

Eventually, an addon may be available on Packagist and installable through Composer (and therefore live inside your vendor directory). During development however, you can keep it on your local filesystem as a path repository.

Hot Tip!

If you don’t plan on distributing your addon or sharing it between multiple projects, you can take a simpler approach and just add things to your Laravel application.

What’s in an addon?

An addon consists of at least a composer.json and a service provider. Your directory may be placed anywhere, but for the sake of this example, we’ll put it in addons/acme/example

addons/
  acme/
   example/
    src/
     ServiceProvider.php
    composer.json
app/
content/
config/
public/
  index.php
resources
composer.json

Composer.json

The composer.json is used by (you guessed it) Composer in order to install your package.

The extra.statamic section is used by Statamic to know that it’s an addon and not just a standard Composer package. The extra.laravel.providers section what Laravel uses to load your service provider.

{
    "name": "acme/example",
    "description": "Example Addon",
    "autoload": {
        "psr-4": {
            "Acme\\Example\\": "src"
        }
    },
    "authors": [
        {
            "name": "Jason Varga"
        }
    ],
    "support": {
        "email": "[email protected]"
    },
    "extra": {
        "statamic": {
            "name": "Example",
            "description": "Example addon"
        },
        "laravel": {
            "providers": [
                "Acme\\Example\\ServiceProvider"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Service Provider

The service provider is where all the various components of your addon get wired together.

You should make sure that your service provider extends Statamic’s Statamic\Providers\AddonServiceProvider, and not Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider. Statamic’s AddonServiceProvider includes some bootstrapping and autoloading that isn’t included with Laravel’s service provider.

<?php

namespace Acme\Example;

use Statamic\Providers\AddonServiceProvider;

class ServiceProvider extends AddonServiceProvider
{
    //
}

Hot Tip!

The bootAddon method should be used instead of boot. They are the same except that it makes sure to boot after Statamic has booted.

Installing your freshly created addon

If you ran the make:addon command, this would have been taken care of for you.

Otherwise, in your project root’s composer.json, add your package to the require and repositories sections, like so:

{
    "require": {
        "acme/example": "*"
    },
    "repositories": [
        {
            "type": "path",
            "url": "addons/example"
        }
    ]

Run composer update from your project root (not your addon directory).

composer update

If you’ve been following correctly, you should see these two lines amongst a bunch of others.

Discovered Package: acme/example
Discovered Addon: acme/example

Your addon is now installed. You should be able to go to /cp/addons and see it listed.

Installing an Addon

Public addons

A public addon is one available as a composer package on packagist.org. Simply require it with composer:

composer require vendor/package

Private addons

A private addon is one not on packagist.org. You will need to use a composer path repository.

Download the package to a directory of your choosing.

In your project root’s composer.json, add the package to the require and repositories sections, like so:

{
    ...

    "require": {
        ...,
        "acme/example": "*"
    },

    ...

    "repositories": [
        {
            "type": "path",
            "url": "addons/example"
        }
    ]

Run composer update from your project root:

composer update

After the composer package has been brought in, Statamic will automatically activate it and publish its assets.

Post-install commands

By default the vendor:publish command will be run for you after statamic:install, letting your assets be automatically published.

However, you can run other commands or custom code too using the afterInstalled method:

public function bootAddon()
{
    Statamic::afterInstalled(function ($command) {
        $command->call('some:command');
    });
}

Registering Components

Hot Tip!

Statamic v5.28.0 and v5.29.0 introduced the concept of “autoloading” for most addon components.

For example: as long as your tags live in src/Tags and your fieldtypes live in src/Fieldtypes, they will be automatically registered by Statamic, without you needing to register them manually.

If your addon supports Statamic v5.28.0 or lower, you should continue registering components manually, like shown below. Otherwise, you can let Statamic do its thing 😎.

You may register your various addon components by adding their class names to corresponding arrays:

protected $tags = [
    \Acme\Example\Tags\First::class,
    \Acme\Example\Tags\Second::class,
    // etc...
];

protected $modifiers = [
    //
];

protected $fieldtypes = [
    //
];

protected $widgets = [
    //
];

protected $commands = [
    //
];

Assets

CSS and Javascript

The method of adding assets will differ slightly depending on whether you are using Vite or another build process. We recommend Vite.

Using Vite (recommended)

In your service provider, you may register your Vite config like this, adjusting the paths appropriately.

protected $vite = [
    'input' => [
        'resources/js/cp.js',
        'resources/css/cp.css'
    ],
    'publicDirectory' => 'resources/dist',
];

Get more in-depth about how to use Vite in your addon

Using Webpack/Mix

In your service provider, you may register any number of stylesheets or scripts by providing their full paths.

protected $scripts = [
    __DIR__.'/../resources/js/example.js'
];

protected $stylesheets = [
    __DIR__.'/../resources/css/example.css'
];

Statamic will load the respective files in the Control Panel. It will assume they exist in public/vendor/[vendor]/[package].js and css directories.

Publishables

You may also mark generic assets for publishing by providing a publishables array with the full path to the origin and the destination directory.

protected $publishables = [
    __DIR__.'/../resources/images' => 'images',
];

Publishing assets

When using the $vite, $scripts, $stylesheets, and $publishables properties, these files will be made available to the artisan vendor:publish command. They will all be tagged using your addon’s slug.

Whenever the statamic:install command is run (i.e. after running composer update, etc) the following command will be run:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=your-addon-slug --force

You can prevent these from being automatically published by adding a property to your provider:

protected $publishAfterInstall = false;

This may be useful if you need more control around groups of assets to be published, or if you’re using custom post-install commands.

Assets during development

During development, if you’re using Vite, the assets will be loaded through a Vite server and should “just work”.

If you’re using Webpack/Mix, rather than constantly running vendor:publish, consider symlinking your addon’s resource directory:

ln -s /path/to/addons/example/resources public/vendor/package

Routing

Registering Routes

You may register three types of routes in your service provider.

protected $routes = [
    'cp' => __DIR__.'/../routes/cp.php',
    'actions' => __DIR__.'/../routes/actions.php',
    'web' => __DIR__.'/../routes/web.php',
];

Hot Tip!

As of Statamic v5.29.0, addon routes following the convention shown above will be automatically registered by Statamic.

If your addon supports Statamic v5.29 or lower, you should continue registering your route files manually, like shown below. Otherwise, you can let Statamic do its thing 😎.

Control Panel Routes

Control Panel routes will be automatically prefixed by /cp (or whatever URL the control panel has been configured to use) and will have authorization applied.

We recommend prefixing routes with your addon’s name but we didn’t enforce this explicitly to give you a bit more flexibility.

Action Routes

Action routes will be prefixed by /!/addon-name and are generally intended as front-end “actions” your addon may expose without being a prominent section of the website. For example, somewhere to process a form submission.

Web Routes

Web routes have no prefix and no Statamic middleware attached. They will be added at the root level, as if you were adding them to a standard Laravel app’s routes/web.php file, giving you complete control. However, as a Laravel route, they will have the web middleware attached.

Writing Routes

When referencing a controller in a route, it will automatically be namespaced to your addon’s root namespace.

"autoload": {
    "psr-4": {
        "Acme\\Example\\": "src"
    }
},

Route::get('/', 'ExampleController@index'); // Acme\Example\ExampleController

If you’d prefer not to have separate route files, you can write routes in your service provider’s bootAddon method.

public function bootAddon()
{
    $this->registerCpRoutes(function () {
        Route::get(...);
    });

    $this->registerWebRoutes(function () {
        Route::get(...);
    });

    $this->registerActionRoutes(function () {
        Route::get(...);
    });
}

Other than that, you’re free to write routes as per any Laravel application.

Route Model Binding

Statamic uses route model binding to automatically convert some route parameters into usable objects.

Words aligning with core Statamic concepts will automatically be converted to their appropriate objects: collection, entry, taxonomy, term, asset_container, asset ,global, site, revision, form, and user

You’re free to use these words as your route parameters, but be aware they will automatically attempt to convert to the respective objects. For example:

public function example(Request $request, $entry)
{
    // Given a route of "/example/{entry}", when visiting "/example/123"
    // $entry will be an Entry object with an ID of 123.
    // There will be a 404 if an entry with an ID of 123 doesn't exist.
}

Middleware

You may push your own middleware onto respective middleware groups using the $middlewareGroups property. The keys are the names of the groups, and the values are arrays of middleware classes to be applied.

protected $middlewareGroups = [
    'statamic.cp.authenticated' => [
        YourCpMiddleware::class,
        AnotherCpMiddleware::class
    ],
    'web' => [
        YourWebMiddleware::class
    ],
];

Available middleware groups are:

Views

Any views located in your resources/views directory will automatically be available to use in your code using your package name as the namespace.

/
  src/
  resources/
   views/
    foo.blade.php

// assuming your package is named vendor/my-addon
return view('my-addon::foo');

If you want to customize the namespace, you can set the $viewNamespace property on your provider:

protected $viewNamespace = 'custom';

return view('custom::foo');

Events

Hot Tip!

Statamic v5.35.0 introduced the concept of “autoloading” for event listeners.

As long as your event listener lives in src/Listeners and the event is typehinted in the listener’s handle or __invoke method, they will be automatically registered by Statamic, without you needing to register them manually.

Subscribers will also be autoloaded, as long as they live in src/Subscribers.

If your addon supports below Statamic v5.33.0, you should continue registering events and subscribers manually, like shown below. Otherwise, you can let Statamic do its thing 😎.

You may register any number of event listeners or subscribers the same way you would in a traditional Laravel application’s EventServiceProvider – by using a $listen or $subscribes array:

protected $listen = [
    'Acme\Example\Events\OrderShipped' => [
        'Acme\Example\Listeners\SendShipmentNotification',
    ],
];

protected $subscribe = [
    'Acme\Example\Listeners\UserEventSubscriber',
];

Consult the Laravel event documentation to learn how to define events, listeners, and subscribers.

Scheduling

To define a schedule from your addon, you can add a schedule method just like you would typically see in a Laravel application’s App\Console\Kernel class.

protected function schedule($schedule)
{
    $schedule->command('something')->daily();
}

Consult the Laravel scheduling documentation to learn how to define your schedule.

Editions

An addon can have various editions which enable you to limit your features depending on which is selected.

For example, you could have a free edition with limited features, and an edition with extra features that requires a license.

Defining Editions

You can define your editions in your composer.json. They should match the edition handles that you set up on the Marketplace.

{
    "extra": {
        "statamic": {
            "editions": ["free", "pro"]
        }
    }
}

Best Practice

The first edition is the default when a user hasn’t explicitly selected one. Your editions should be listed from least to most expensive because that’s the nice thing to do.

Feature Toggles

You can check for the configured edition in order to toggle features.

$addon = Addon::get('vendor/package');

if ($addon->edition() === 'pro') {
    //
}

Hot Tip!

You don’t need to check whether a license is valid, Statamic does that automatically for you.

Update Scripts

You may register update scripts to help your users migrate data, etc. when new features are added or breaking changes are introduced.

For example, maybe you’ve added a new permission and want to automatically give all of your existing form admins that new permission. To do this, first register your update script in your addon’s service provider:

protected $updateScripts = [
    \Acme\Example\Updates\UpdatePermissions::class,
];

Then in your update script, you can extend UpdateScript and implement the necessary methods:

use Statamic\UpdateScripts\UpdateScript;

class UpdatePermissions extends UpdateScript
{
    public function shouldUpdate($newVersion, $oldVersion)
    {
        return $this->isUpdatingTo('1.2.0');
    }

    public function update()
    {
        Role::all()->each(function ($role) {
            if ($role->hasPermission('configure forms')) {
                $role->addPermission('configure goat-survey-pro')->save();
            }
        });

        $this->console()->info('Permissions added successfully!');
    }
}

The shouldUpdate() method helps Statamic determine when to run the update script. Feel free to use the isUpdatingTo() helper method, or the provided $newVersion and $oldVersion variables to help you write this logic.

The update() method is where your custom data migration logic happens. Feel free to use the console() helper to output to the user’s console as well. In the above example, we assign the new configure goat-survey-pro permission to all users who have the configure forms permission.

That’s it! Statamic should now automatically run your update script as your users update their addons.

Testing

Statamic automatically scaffolds a PHPUnit test suite when you generate an addon with php please make:addon.

To learn more about writing addon tests, please review our Testing in Addons guide.

Publishing to the Marketplace

Once your addon is ready to be shared, you can publish it on the Statamic Marketplace where it can be discovered by others.

Before you can publish your addon, you’ll need a couple of things:

• Publish your Composer package on packagist.org.
• Create a statamic.com seller account
• If you’re planning to charge for your addons, you’ll need to link connect your bank details to your seller account.

In your seller dashboard, you can create a product. There you’ll be able to link your Composer package that you created on Packagist, choose a price, write a description, and so on.

Products will be marked as drafts that you can preview and tweak until you’re ready to go.

Once published, you’ll be able to see your addon on the Marketplace and within the Addons area of the Statamic Control Panel.

Addons vs. Starter Kits

Both addons and starter kits can be used to extend the Statamic experience, but they have different strengths and use cases:

Addons

• Addons are installed via composer, like any PHP package
• Addons live within your app’s vendor folder after they are installed
• Addons can be updated over time
• Addon licenses are tied to your site

Hot Tip!

An example use case is a custom fieldtype maintained by a third party vendor. Even though the addon is installed into your app, you still rely on the vendor to maintain and update the addon over time.

Starters Kits

• Starter kits are installed via statamic new or php please starter-kit:install
• Starter kits install pre-configured files and settings into your site
• Starter kits do not live as updatable packages within your apps
• Starter kit licenses are not tied to a specific site, and expire after a successful install

Hot Tip!

An example use case is a frontend theme with sample content. This is the kind of thing you would install into your app once and modify to fit your own style. You would essentially own and maintain the installed files yourself.