Stripping CVS keywords

[project/ctools.git] / ctools.api.php

<?php

/**
 * @file
 * Hooks provided by the Chaos Tool Suite.
 *
 * This file is divided into static hooks (hooks with string literal names) and
 * dynamic hooks (hooks with pattern-derived string names).
 */

/**
 * @addtogroup hooks
 * @{
 */

/**
 * This hook is used to inform the CTools plugin system about the location of a
 * directory that should be searched for files containing plugins of a
 * particular type. CTools invokes this same hook for all plugins, using the
 * two passed parameters to indicate the specific type of plugin for which it
 * is searching.
 *
 * The $plugin_type parameter is self-explanatory - it is the string name of the
 * plugin type (e.g., Panels' 'layouts' or 'styles'). The $owner parameter is
 * necessary because CTools internally namespaces plugins by the module that
 * owns them. This is an extension of Drupal best practices on avoiding global
 * namespace pollution by prepending your module name to all its functions.
 * Consequently, it is possible for two different modules to create a plugin
 * type with exactly the same name and have them operate in harmony. In fact,
 * this system renders it impossible for modules to encroach on other modules'
 * plugin namespaces.
 *
 * Given this namespacing, it is important that implementations of this hook
 * check BOTH the $owner and $plugin_type parameters before returning a path.
 * If your module does not implement plugins for the requested module/plugin
 * combination, it is safe to return nothing at all (or NULL). As a convenience,
 * it is also safe to return a path that does not exist for plugins your module
 * does not implement - see form 2 for a use case.
 *
 * Note that modules implementing a plugin also must implement this hook to
 * instruct CTools as to the location of the plugins. See form 3 for a use case.
 *
 * The conventional structure to return is "plugins/$plugin_type" - that is, a
 * 'plugins' subdirectory in your main module directory, with individual
 * directories contained therein named for the plugin type they contain.
 *
 * @param string $owner
 *   The system name of the module owning the plugin type for which a base
 *   directory location is being requested.
 * @param string $plugin_type
 *   The name of the plugin type for which a base directory is being requested.
 * @return string
 *   The path where CTools' plugin system should search for plugin files,
 *   relative to your module's root. Omit leading and trailing slashes.
 */
function hook_ctools_plugin_directory($owner, $plugin_type) {
  // Form 1 - for a module implementing only the 'content_types' plugin owned
  // by CTools, this would cause the plugin system to search the
  // <moduleroot>/plugins/content_types directory for .inc plugin files.
  if ($owner == 'ctools' && $plugin_type == 'content_types') {
    return 'plugins/content_types';
  }

  // Form 2 - if your module implements only Panels plugins, and has 'layouts'
  // and 'styles' plugins but no 'cache' or 'display_renderers', it is OK to be
  // lazy and return a directory for a plugin you don't actually implement (so
  // long as that directory doesn't exist). This lets you avoid ugly in_array()
  // logic in your conditional, and also makes it easy to add plugins of those
  // types later without having to change this hook implementation.
  if ($owner == 'panels') {
    return "plugins/$plugin_type";
  }

  // Form 3 - CTools makes no assumptions about where your plugins are located,
  // so you still have to implement this hook even for plugins created by your
  // own module.
  if ($owner == 'mymodule') {
    // Yes, this is exactly like Form 2 - just a different reasoning for it.
    return "plugins/$plugin_type";
  }
  // Finally, if nothing matches, it's safe to return nothing at all (or NULL).
}

/**
 * @} End of "addtogroup hooks".
 */