Universal Extensions

Several client extensions may add functionality to both the SiteArchitect and the ContentCreator. These plug-in types are explained in this chapter, and implementation differences necessary to target a plug-in at a specific client are pointed out.

Extension Overview and Examples

Each section describes several plug-in types and includes functional descriptions of plug-in features, implementation details and documented example code with references to the FirstSpirit API documentation.

Data Access Plug-Ins
This chapter introduces interfaces used to integrate custom data sources with FS_INDEX input components. These plug-ins may also be shown as reports, and the interfaces described here replace the legacy report interfaces described in Reports (Legacy).

Input Components
This section provides documentation on custom input component implementations for both SiteArchitect and ContentCreator. These input components may be added to form definitions of FirstSpirit templates to provide new data input structures.

Permanent Plug-Ins
This section documents a plug-in type that runs in the background throughout a client session's lifetime to provide centralized services.

Launching Applications (FirstSpirit Start Page)
This section introduces a plugin type that allows FirstSpirit extension developers to offer to FirstSpirit users buttons on the start page that are used to launch custom applications.

Reports (Legacy)
This section describes legacy interfaces in FirstSpirit APIs which were used to define reports that can display various types of data from custom sources. Report functionality is now defined via Data Access Plug-Ins.