Introduction to the Plugin Ecosystem

QCubed was built on a principle that the core distribution should be lightweight and extensible. A part of that vision is an easy-to-use plugin infrastructure. Our goal is to create a system where every viable part of the core framework can be extended with a community-driven plugin.

If you have experience with QCodo - the predecessor of QCubed - you may have experience with custom QControls. Those were pretty easy to install and distribute - just download the file and hand-edit your class includes. The problems came when the author wanted to also include an example with the QControls - hooking those up was yet another manual step. Doing any sort of compatibility checks (version of the plugin against the version of the framework) was pretty much impossible.

With QCubed, there's a firm "contract" between plugin writers and the core framework. That contract specifies how exactly a plugin is installed, and uninstalled - so that consuming those plugins is a breeze. And by breeze, I mean one-click setup - literally, copying all relevant files to the right locations, class configurations, example hookups, everything, is done for you.

Go ahead, try it out for yourself! QCubed includes a Plugin Manager component that lists out the plugins you have installed, and lets you install new ones. You can get the list of plugins that are currently available from the online repository. Just download a plugin .zip file, then navigate to the Plugin Manager and press Install a new Plugin. Then pick the file you just downloaded. Review the plugin details screen to confirm that this is the plugin that you want, and press Install! That's it, you're done - the plugin is now installed and configured for use. The Plugin Manager will show you links to the example that comes with your plugin so you can get started with it right away.

Uninstalling plugins is just as easy - navigate to the Plugin Manager, pick the plugin you want to remove, click on it, then click Uninstall. QCubed will then delete all folders that the plugin put on your box. Note that if you have placed these folders are under source control, you need to make sure that the folders are writeable before you ask QCubed to uninstall the plugin.