Plugins are extensions on the Valtimo platform, allowing connections to other services, whether external or internal. Some plugins are provided by the platform, but developers can create their own as well.
Plugins consist of several parts; the definition itself, dictating both the properties that can be configured and the actions the plugin can run. The concepts are all explained below.
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Plugin definition. A regular plugin is often referred to as a plugin definition to emphasize the difference between the definition of the plugin and the configuration of a plugin. For example, a Twitter plugin can also be referred to as a Twitter plugin definition.
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Plugin configuration. A single plugin can be configured multiple times. For example, a Twitter plugin might have one configuration to post tweets for one user and another configuration to post tweets for another user.
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Plugin property. A plugin configuration can have multiple configurable properties. For example, a Twitter plugin configuration can have the properties
usernameandpassword. -
Plugin action. A plugin can have several actions it can execute. For example, a Twitter plugin might have one action to post a tweet and another action to like a tweet.
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Plugin event. A plugin might have methods that need to be run when the Plugin is created, updated or deleted. For example, a plugin needs approval from an external service for its instantiation.
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Plugin action property. An action can have several properties that can be configured differently, depending on the process instance or process definition. For example, a Twitter plugin action which posts a tweet would include both the user and the message.
In order to use an existing plugin, a plugin configuration needs to be added. This can be found here.