Presentation from cf.Objective(ANZ) on creating plugins for Mura CMS.

1. Extending Mura CMS with
Custom Plugins
cf.Objective(ANZ) 2011

2. About the presenter
 Java developer for early part of career
 Joined RISE in 2005
 Developing in ColdFusion since…
 …and loving it!
Twitter: @am2605 Email: andrew@abm.id.au

3. About the audience?
 Who is using a CMS?
 Who is using Mura?
 Who is using Mura plugins?

4. About the presentation
 Overview of Mura
(brief)
 Mura Plugins
 when & why?
 how?
 walk through some simple
plugin code

5. About the presentation (cont.)
 What you will take away:
 Understanding of plugins & what they are
 Starting point for building your own plugins
(published on github)
 Development tips, techniques and pitfalls
to avoid

6. Mura
 Open Source Content
Management System
(CMS)
 GPL, with exceptions for
plugins, themes and
bundles*
* See https://github.com/blueriver/MuraCMS/blob/develop/index.cfm

7. Mura
 Commercial licensing
and support available,
should you prefer

8. Mura (cont…)
 Features
 Easy for front end users
to learn and use
 Novice users / no
knowledge of HTML
 Templates and content
styling

9. Mura (cont…)
 Features
 Easily extensible
Mura Marketplace
Plugins Templates
Create you own!
Plugins Templates

10. What are Mura Plugins?
 Extend Mura with new
functionality
 Examples from the Mura
Marketplace include:
 eCommerce, Google
Maps integration, Survey
module

11. What are Mura Plugins?
 Extend Mura with new functionality
 Installable, distributable package
 Contains all the necessary elements
to build powerful custom applications
within Mura CMS

12. How Mura Plugins work
 Provide Display
Objects
 These are in turn
embedded in Mura
pages
 Can be used across
multiple sites

13. When use Mura Plugins?
 Plugins are only one of
numerous ways to
extend Mura
 So when use them?
 If planning to distribute
 Providing large or
complex functionality

14. Why use Mura Plugins?
 Update safe
 Packaged and organised
 Easily distributable
 Licensing exception
 Framework-friendly
 FW/1, Model-Glue, etc.
Credit: “Anatomy of a Mura Plugin” presentation – Sean Schroeder, Blue River Software

15. So how is it done?
 Follow a standard file / directory
structure
 Package as a zip file
 Upload via the Mura Admin interface

16. A simple plugin
 The simplest example contains 3 files

17. config.xml.cfm

18. dspHelloWorld.cfm

19. Build and install
 Deployed as a zip file
 I prefer to use ant from within Eclipse
to package the plugin
 But you can create it any way you wish
 My ant build.xml is available on github
 Link will be at end of slides

20. Demo 2 - More advanced
 The previous example was interesting,
but not very useful
 Let’s hook up our plugin to Mura…
 …via events

21. Introducing the Mura Scope
 Provides a standard, concise syntax for
interfacing with Mura objects (and their
properties and events).
 Accessed as the “$” variable
 We’ll see an example of this shortly

22. Introducing the Mura Scope
 Provides a standard, concise syntax for
interfacing with Mura objects (and their
properties and events).
 In admin area
 Must include plugins/config.cfm to obtain
access to this
 When included in Mura page
 Automagically available

23. More about PluginConfig

24. The <settings> element
 Contains settings that the plugin
requires to function
 Specified by the user during plugin
install
 Accessed programatically via
pluginConfig.getSetting(‘settingName’)

25. The <settings> element

26. EventHandlers
 Map to Mura events, or events
announced in your plugins
 Mura has an extensive event model –
more info in links at end of slides
 Set up in config.xml.cfm:

27. EventHandlers (cont)

28. Plugin.cfc
 Allows you to run code that is needed
to properly install, update or delete a
plugin
 Plugin.cfc must extend
mura.plugin.plugincfc

29. An example
 See demo3/plugin/plugin.cfc

30. Resources
Mura – http://getmura.com
Mura Marketplace -
http://www.getmura.com/marketplace/
Grant Shepert
http://www.grantshepert.com/

31. Resources (cont.)
Source code for demos –
https://github.com/am2605/cfoanz-2011-mura-
plugins
Twitter: @am2605 Email: andrew@abm.id.au

32. Questions?

33. Thank you!