Plugins Explained
Amplication uses Plugins to extend the functionality of your generated service. These software additions allow developers to customize the default behavior of Amplication's code generation process, providing hooks into various stages of service creation.
Amplication offers a wide range of community-created plugins that are open-source and available on GitHub. You also have the flexibility to develop your own custom plugins so you can tailor your generated service to meet your exact requirements.
You can enable certain plugins when you first create your service. For example, if you choose MySQL as your database, the MySQL DB plugin will be enabled. If you choose to turn on authentication for your service, that will enable Authentication-related plugins.
Amplication's AI can help you find new plugins for your service, and even install them automatically, with a single request.
Ask Jovu: Which plugins do you recommend for adding caching capabilities to my Amplication service?
Node.js and .NET Plugins
Amplication supports both Node.js and .NET for code generation. Plugins are technology-specific.
When you switch between Node.js and .NET, you'll see a different set of available plugins, each optimized for the chosen stack.
Node.js plugins integrate seamlessly with the Node.js ecosystem and popular frameworks like NestJS. .NET plugins are designed to work with .NET Core and leverage the power of the .NET ecosystem.
How To Install a Plugin
To see all community-created plugins, first visit the Plugins tab in your Amplication dashboard.
To install an individual plugin:
- On the left sidebar in the Plugins page, you can browse by Plugin Categories categories like Database, Authentication, and more, or click on All Plugins to see the complete list.
- Click the Install button next to the desired plugin.
- The plugin's toggle will switch to its on state, indicating it's now active.
- You can view all your installed plugins in the Installed Plugins tab.
- To see a plugin's source code on GitHub, select View on GitHub next to the installed plugin.
Plugins can be manually enabled or disabled from both the All Plugins and Installed Plugins tabs.
Explore different plugin categories to discover plugins that can enhance specific parts of your service, such as database management, authentication, or API functionality.
How To Uninstall a Plugin
To uninstall, or deactivate, a plugin, click the toggle switch into its off state.
How To Modify Plugin Execution Order
The plugins are executed when Amplication generates code, according to their order on the Installed Plugins page.
If a plugin execution is a prerequisite for another plugin, it must be located earlier in the list.
- To change the order of the installed plugins, click the up or down arrow to the right of the plugin bar.
How To Change a Plugin's Version
Amplication plugin developers may release several versions of a plugin over time. Sometimes, you might need to generate a project with an earlier version of the plugin, to ensure compatibility.
By default, the latest version of the plugin will be available in the list of plugins.
To change the installed version of a plugin, in the All Plugins page, click the Settings icon.
The plugin's settings page opens.
Select the required plugin version from the Plugin version drop-down list and click Save.
In the next build, the code will be generated with the selected plugin version.
Each version of the Plugin has its own settings, so when you replace the version you also replace its settings.
How To View Open-Source Plugin Code
All Amplication plugins are open-source and available on GitHub.
You can find the plugin source code for each individual plugin in Amplication's plugins repository.
Besides the plugins created by the Amplication team and the community, you can develop your own custom plugins.
How To Develop a Custom Plugin
To add more functionality, you can develop your own plugins, or can use plugins developed by the community, as they become available.
See Plugin Development Overview for more information.