Plugins

Open Forms has a plugin system for the several modules. Each module has a specific goal and is invoked in different stages of the form process. Typically, a plugin uses some backend to communicate with an external system to perform some task.

Developing plugins

Plugins for each component are developed in roughly the same way but uses a different base class that belongs to that particular component.

Registering a plugin within a component makes it available for form editors to use in their forms.

Adding your plugin

Plugins are implemented as Django apps (which are essentially Python packages). Typically you can look at a demo plugin for each component in openforms.<component>.contrib.demo which acts as an example.

  1. Create the python package in openforms.<component>.contrib.<vendor>

  2. Ensure you have an AppConfig defined in this package, e.g.:

    # openforms.<component>.contrib.<vendor>.apps.py

 class MyPlugin(AppConfig):
     name = "openforms.<component>.contrib.<vendor>"
     verbose_name = "My <vendor> plugin"

     def ready(self):
         from . import plugin  # noqa

    It’s important to import the plugin as part of the ready hook of the AppConfig, as this ensures that the plugin is added to the registry.

  3. Add the application to settings.INSTALLED_APPS, this will cause the AppConfig to be loaded.