Table of Contents

Friendica Addon development

Please see the sample addon ‘randplace’ for a working example of using some of these features. Addons work by intercepting event hooks - which must be registered. Modules work by intercepting specific page requests (by URL path).

Naming

Addon names are used in file paths and functions names, and as such: - Can’t contain spaces or punctuation. - Can’t start with a number.

Metadata

You can provide human-readable information about your addon in the first multi-line comment of your addon file.

Here’s the structure:

/**
 * Name: {Human-readable name}
 * Description: {Short description}
 * Version: 1.0
 * Author: {Author1 Name}
 * Author: {Author2 Name} <{Author profile link}>
 * Maintainer: {Maintainer1 Name}
 * Maintainer: {Maintainer2 Name} <{Maintainer profile link}>
 * Status: {Unsupported|Arbitrary status}
 */

You can also provide a longer documentation in a README or README.md file. The latter will be converted from Markdown to HTML in the addon detail page.

Install/Uninstall

If your addon uses hooks, they have to be registered in a <addon>_install() function. This function also allows to perform arbitrary actions your addon needs to function properly.

Uninstalling an addon automatically unregisters any hook it registered, but if you need to provide specific uninstallation steps, you can add them in a <addon>_uninstall() function.

The install and uninstall functions will be called (i.e. re-installed) if the addon changes after installation. Therefore your uninstall should not destroy data and install should consider that data may already exist. Future extensions may provide for “setup” amd “remove”.

PHP addon hooks

Register your addon hooks during installation.

\Friendica\Core\Hook::register($hookname, $file, $function);

$hookname is a string and corresponds to a known Friendica PHP hook.

$file is a pathname relative to the top-level Friendica directory. This should be ‘addon/addon_name/addon_name.php’ in most cases and can be shortened to __FILE__.

$function is a string and is the name of the function which will be executed when the hook is called.

Arguments

Your hook callback functions will be called with at least one and possibly two arguments

function <addon>_<hookname>(App $a, &$b) {

}

If you wish to make changes to the calling data, you must declare them as reference variables (with &) during function declaration.

$a

$a is the Friendica App class. It contains a wealth of information about the current state of Friendica:

It is recommeded you call this $a to match its usage elsewhere.

$b

$b can be called anything you like. This is information specific to the hook currently being processed, and generally contains information that is being immediately processed or acted on that you can use, display, or alter. Remember to declare it with & if you wish to alter it.

Admin settings

Your addon can provide user-specific settings via the addon_settings PHP hook, but it can also provide node-wide settings in the administration page of your addon.

Simply declare a <addon>_addon_admin(App $a) function to display the form and a <addon>_addon_admin_post(App $a) function to process the data from the form.

Global stylesheets

If your addon requires adding a stylesheet on all pages of Friendica, add the following hook:

function <addon>_install()
{
    \Friendica\Core\Hook::register('head', __FILE__, '<addon>_head');
    ...
}
 
 
function <addon>_head(App $a)
{
    \Friendica\DI::page()->registerStylesheet(__DIR__ . '/relative/path/to/addon/stylesheet.css');
}

__DIR__ is the folder path of your addon.

JavaScript

Global scripts

If your addon requires adding a script on all pages of Friendica, add the following hook:

function <addon>_install()
{
    \Friendica\Core\Hook::register('footer', __FILE__, '<addon>_footer');
    ...
}
 
function <addon>_footer(App $a)
{
    \Friendica\DI::page()->registerFooterScript(__DIR__ . '/relative/path/to/addon/script.js');
}

__DIR__ is the folder path of your addon.

JavaScript hooks

The main Friendica script provides hooks via events dispatched on the document property. In your Javascript file included as described above, add your event listener like this:

document.addEventListener(name, callback);

More info about Javascript event listeners: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/EventTarget/addEventListener

Current JavaScript hooks

postprocess_liveupdate

Called at the end of the live update process (XmlHttpRequest) and on a post preview. No additional data is provided.

Modules

Addons may also act as “modules” and intercept all page requests for a given URL path. In order for a addon to act as a module it needs to declare an empty function <addon>_module().

If this function exists, you will now receive all page requests for https://my.web.site/<addon> - with any number of URL components as additional arguments. These are parsed into the App\Arguments object. So https://my.web.site/addon/arg1/arg2 would give this:

DI::args()->getArgc(); // = 3
DI::args()->get(0); // = 'addon'
DI::args()->get(1); // = 'arg1'
DI::args()->get(2); // = 'arg2'

To display a module page, you need to declare the function <addon>_content(App $a), which defines and returns the page body content. They may also contain <addon>_post(App $a) which is called before the <addon>_content function and typically handles the results of POST forms. You may also have <addon>_init(App $a) which is called before <addon>_content and should include common logic to your module.

Templates

If your addon needs some template, you can use the Friendica template system. Friendica uses smarty3 as a template engine.

Put your tpl files in the templates/ subfolder of your addon.

In your code, like in the function addon_name_content(), load the template file and execute it passing needed values:

use Friendica\Core\Renderer;
 
# load template file. first argument is the template name,
# second is the addon path relative to friendica top folder
$tpl = Renderer::getMarkupTemplate('mytemplate.tpl', __DIR__);
 
# apply template. first argument is the loaded template,
# second an array of 'name' => 'values' to pass to template
$output = Renderer::replaceMacros($tpl, array(
    'title' => 'My beautiful addon',
));

See also the wiki page Friendica Templating Documentation.

Current PHP hooks

authenticate

Called when a user attempts to login. $b is an array containing:

logged_in

Called after a user has successfully logged in. $b contains the $a->user array.

display_item

Called when formatting a post for display. $b is an array:

post_local

Called when a status post or comment is entered on the local system. $b is the item array of the information to be stored in the database. Please note: body contents are bbcode - not HTML.

post_local_end

Called when a local status post or comment has been stored on the local system. $b is the item array of the information which has just been stored in the database. Please note: body contents are bbcode - not HTML

post_remote

Called when receiving a post from another source. This may also be used to post local activity or system generated messages. $b is the item array of information to be stored in the database and the item body is bbcode.

addon_settings

Called when generating the HTML for the addon settings page. $data is an array containing:

Examples

$data = [
    'addon' => 'advancedcontentfilter',
    'title' => DI::l10n()->t('Advanced Content Filter'),
    'href'  => 'advancedcontentfilter',
];
With default submit button
$data = [
    'addon' => 'fromapp',
    'title' => DI::l10n()->t('FromApp Settings'),
    'html'  => $html,
];
With no HTML, just a submit button
$data = [
    'addon'  => 'opmlexport',
    'title'  => DI::l10n()->t('OPML Export'),
    'submit' => DI::l10n()->t('Export RSS/Atom contacts'),
];
With multiple submit buttons
$data = [
    'addon'  => 'catavar',
    'title'  => DI::l10n()->t('Cat Avatar Settings'),
    'html'   => $html,
    'submit' => [
        'catavatar-usecat'   => DI::l10n()->t('Use Cat as Avatar'),
        'catavatar-morecat'  => DI::l10n()->t('Another random Cat!'),
        'catavatar-emailcat' => DI::pConfig()->get(local_user(), 'catavatar', 'seed', false) ? DI::l10n()->t('Reset to email Cat') : null,
    ],
];

addon_settings_post

Called when the Addon Settings pages are submitted. $b is the $_POST array.

connector_settings

Called when generating the HTML for a connector addon settings page. $data is an array containing:

Examples

With default submit button
$data = [
    'connector' => 'diaspora',
    'title'     => DI::l10n()->t('Diaspora Export'),
    'image'     => 'images/diaspora-logo.png',
    'enabled'   => $enabled,
    'html'      => $html,
];
With custom submit button label and no logo dim
$data = [
    'connector' => 'ifttt',
    'title'     => DI::l10n()->t('IFTTT Mirror'),
    'image'     => 'addon/ifttt/ifttt.png',
    'html'      => $html,
    'submit'    => DI::l10n()->t('Generate new key'),
];
With conditional submit buttons
$submit = ['pumpio-submit' => DI::l10n()->t('Save Settings')];
if ($oauth_token && $oauth_token_secret) {
    $submit['pumpio-delete'] = DI::l10n()->t('Delete this preset');
}
 
$data = [
    'connector' => 'pumpio',
    'title'     => DI::l10n()->t('Pump.io Import/Export/Mirror'),
    'image'     => 'images/pumpio.png',
    'enabled'   => $enabled,
    'html'      => $html,
    'submit'    => $submit,
];

profile_post

Called when posting a profile page. $b is the $_POST array.

profile_edit

Called prior to output of profile edit page. $b is an array containing:

profile_advanced

Called when the HTML is generated for the Advanced profile, corresponding to the Profile tab within a person’s profile page. $b is the HTML string representation of the generated profile. The profile array details are in $a->profile.

directory_item

Called from the Directory page when formatting an item for display. $b is an array:

profile_sidebar_enter

Called prior to generating the sidebar “short” profile for a page. $b is the person’s profile array

profile_sidebar

Called when generating the sidebar “short” profile for a page. $b is an array:

contact_block_end

Called when formatting the block of contacts/friends on a profile sidebar has completed. $b is an array:

bbcode

Called after conversion of bbcode to HTML. $b is an HTML string converted text.

html2bbcode

Called after tag conversion of HTML to bbcode (e.g. remote message posting) $b is a string converted text

Called when building the <head> sections. Stylesheets should be registered using this hook. $b is an HTML string of the <head> tag.

Called after building the page navigation section. $b is a string HTML of nav region.

personal_xrd

Called prior to output of personal XRD file. $b is an array:

home_content

Called prior to output home page content, shown to unlogged users. $b is the HTML sring of section region.

contact_edit

Called when editing contact details on an individual from the Contacts page. $b is an array:

contact_edit_post

Called when posting the contact edit page. $b is the $_POST array

init_1

Called just after DB has been opened and before session start. No hook data.

page_end

Called after HTML content functions have completed. $b is (string) HTML of content div.

Called after HTML content functions have completed. Deferred Javascript files should be registered using this hook. $b is (string) HTML of footer div/element.

avatar_lookup

Called when looking up the avatar. $b is an array:

emailer_send_prepare

Called from Emailer::send() before building the mime message. $b is an array of params to Emailer::send().

emailer_send

Called before calling PHP’s mail(). $b is an array of params to mail().

load_config

Called during App initialization to allow addons to load their own configuration file(s) with App::loadConfigFile().

Called after the navigational menu is build in include/nav.php. $b is an array containing $nav from include/nav.php.

template_vars

Called before vars are passed to the template engine to render the page. The registered function can add,change or remove variables passed to template. $b is an array with:

acl_lookup_end

Called after the other queries have passed. The registered function can add, change or remove the acl_lookup() variables.

prepare_body_init

Called at the start of prepare_body Hook data:

prepare_body_content_filter

Called before the HTML conversion in prepare_body. If the item matches a content filter rule set by an addon, it should just add the reason to the filter_reasons element of the hook data. Hook data:

prepare_body

Called after the HTML conversion in prepare_body(). Hook data:

prepare_body_final

Called at the end of prepare_body(). Hook data:

put_item_in_cache

Called after prepare_text() in put_item_in_cache(). Hook data:

magic_auth_success

Called when a magic-auth was successful. Hook data:

visitor => array with the contact record of the visitor
url => the query string

jot_networks

Called when displaying the post permission screen. Hook data is a list of form fields that need to be displayed along the ACL. Form field array structure is:

For checkbox, field is: - [0] (String): Form field name; Mandatory. - [1]: (String): Form field label; Optional, default is none. - [2]: (Boolean): Whether the checkbox should be checked by default; Optional, default is false. - [3]: (String): Additional help text; Optional, default is none. - [4]: (String): Additional HTML attributes; Optional, default is none.

For select, field is: - [0] (String): Form field name; Mandatory. - [1] (String): Form field label; Optional, default is none. - [2] (Boolean): Default value to be selected by default; Optional, default is none. - [3] (String): Additional help text; Optional, default is none. - [4] (Array): Associative array of options. Item key is option value, item value is option label; Mandatory.

route_collection

Called just before dispatching the router. Hook data is a \FastRoute\RouterCollector object that should be used to add addon routes pointing to classes.

Notice: The class whose name is provided in the route handler must be reachable via auto-loader.

probe_detect

Called before trying to detect the target network of a URL. If any registered hook function sets the result key of the hook data array, it will be returned immediately. Hook functions should also return immediately if the hook data contains an existing result.

Hook data:

Called when trying to probe an item from a given URI. If any registered hook function sets the item_id key of the hook data array, it will be returned immediately. Hook functions should also return immediately if the hook data contains an existing item_id.

Hook data: - uri (input): the item URI. - uid (input): the user to return the item data for (can be empty for public contacts). - item_id (output): Leave null if URI isn’t relevant to the connector, set to created item array if probe is successful, false otherwise.

support_follow

Called to assert whether a connector addon provides follow capabilities.

Hook data: - protocol (input): shorthand for the protocol. List of values is available in src/Core/Protocol.php. - result (output): should be true if the connector provides follow capabilities, left alone otherwise.

support_revoke_follow

Called to assert whether a connector addon provides follow revocation capabilities.

Hook data: - protocol (input): shorthand for the protocol. List of values is available in src/Core/Protocol.php. - result (output): should be true if the connector provides follow revocation capabilities, left alone otherwise.

follow

Called before adding a new contact for a user to handle non-native network remote contact (like Twitter).

Hook data:

unfollow

Called when unfollowing a remote contact on a non-native network (like Twitter)

Hook data: - contact (input): the target public contact (uid = 0) array. - uid (input): the id of the source local user. - result (output): wether the unfollowing is successful or not.

revoke_follow

Called when making a remote contact on a non-native network (like Twitter) unfollow you.

Hook data: - contact (input): the target public contact (uid = 0) array. - uid (input): the id of the source local user. - result (output): a boolean value indicating wether the operation was successful or not.

block

Called when blocking a remote contact on a non-native network (like Twitter).

Hook data: - contact (input): the remote contact (uid = 0) array. - uid (input): the user id to issue the block for. - result (output): a boolean value indicating wether the operation was successful or not.

unblock

Called when unblocking a remote contact on a non-native network (like Twitter).

Hook data: - contact (input): the remote contact (uid = 0) array. - uid (input): the user id to revoke the block for. - result (output): a boolean value indicating wether the operation was successful or not.

storage_instance

Called when a custom storage is used (e.g. webdav_storage)

Hook data: - name (input): the name of the used storage backend - data[‘storage’] (output): the storage instance to use (must implement \Friendica\Core\Storage\IWritableStorage)

storage_config

Called when the admin of the node wants to configure a custom storage (e.g. webdav_storage)

Hook data: - name (input): the name of the used storage backend - data[‘storage_config’] (output): the storage configuration instance to use (must implement \Friendica\Core\Storage\Capability\IConfigureStorage)

Complete list of hook callbacks

Here is a complete list of all hook callbacks with file locations (as of 24-Sep-2018). Please see the source for details of any hooks not documented above.

index.php

Hook::callAll('init_1');
Hook::callAll('app_menu', $arr);
Hook::callAll('page_content_top', DI::page()['content']);
Hook::callAll($a->module.'_mod_init', $placeholder);
Hook::callAll($a->module.'_mod_init', $placeholder);
Hook::callAll($a->module.'_mod_post', $_POST);
Hook::callAll($a->module.'_mod_content', $arr);
Hook::callAll($a->module.'_mod_aftercontent', $arr);
Hook::callAll('page_end', DI::page()['content']);

include/api.php

Hook::callAll('logged_in', $a->user);
Hook::callAll('authenticate', $addon_auth);
Hook::callAll('logged_in', $a->user);

include/enotify.php

Hook::callAll('enotify', $h);
Hook::callAll('enotify_store', $datarray);
Hook::callAll('enotify_mail', $datarray);
Hook::callAll('check_item_notification', $notification_data);

src/Content/Conversation.php

Hook::callAll('conversation_start', $cb);
Hook::callAll('render_location', $locate);
Hook::callAll('display_item', $arr);
Hook::callAll('display_item', $arr);
Hook::callAll('item_photo_menu', $args);
Hook::callAll('jot_tool', $jotplugins);

mod/directory.php

Hook::callAll('directory_item', $arr);

mod/xrd.php

Hook::callAll('personal_xrd', $arr);

mod/parse_url.php

Hook::callAll("parse_link", $arr);

src/Module/Delegation.php

Hook::callAll('home_init', $ret);

mod/acl.php

Hook::callAll('acl_lookup_end', $results);

mod/network.php

Hook::callAll('network_content_init', $arr);
Hook::callAll('network_tabs', $arr);

mod/friendica.php

Hook::callAll('about_hook', $o);

mod/profiles.php

Hook::callAll('profile_post', $_POST);
Hook::callAll('profile_edit', $arr);

mod/settings.php

Hook::callAll('addon_settings_post', $_POST);
Hook::callAll('connector_settings_post', $_POST);
Hook::callAll('display_settings_post', $_POST);
Hook::callAll('addon_settings', $settings_addons);
Hook::callAll('connector_settings', $settings_connectors);
Hook::callAll('display_settings', $o);

mod/photos.php

Hook::callAll('photo_post_init', $_POST);
Hook::callAll('photo_post_file', $ret);
Hook::callAll('photo_post_end', $foo);
Hook::callAll('photo_post_end', $foo);
Hook::callAll('photo_post_end', $foo);
Hook::callAll('photo_post_end', $foo);
Hook::callAll('photo_post_end', intval($item_id));
Hook::callAll('photo_upload_form', $ret);

mod/profile.php

Hook::callAll('profile_advanced', $o);

mod/home.php

Hook::callAll('home_init', $ret);
Hook::callAll("home_content", $content);

mod/poke.php

Hook::callAll('post_local_end', $arr);

mod/contacts.php

Hook::callAll('contact_edit_post', $_POST);
Hook::callAll('contact_edit', $arr);

mod/tagger.php

Hook::callAll('post_local_end', $arr);

mod/uexport.php

Hook::callAll('uexport_options', $options);

mod/register.php

Hook::callAll('register_post', $arr);
Hook::callAll('register_form', $arr);

mod/item.php

Hook::callAll('post_local_start', $_REQUEST);
Hook::callAll('post_local', $datarray);
Hook::callAll('post_local_end', $datarray);

mod/editpost.php

Hook::callAll('jot_tool', $jotplugins);

src/Render/FriendicaSmartyEngine.php

Hook::callAll("template_vars", $arr);

src/App.php

Hook::callAll('load_config');
Hook::callAll('head');
Hook::callAll('footer');
Hook::callAll('route_collection');

src/Model/Item.php

Hook::callAll('post_local', $item);
Hook::callAll('post_remote', $item);
Hook::callAll('post_local_end', $posted_item);
Hook::callAll('post_remote_end', $posted_item);
Hook::callAll('tagged', $arr);
Hook::callAll('post_local_end', $new_item);
Hook::callAll('put_item_in_cache', $hook_data);
Hook::callAll('prepare_body_init', $item);
Hook::callAll('prepare_body_content_filter', $hook_data);
Hook::callAll('prepare_body', $hook_data);
Hook::callAll('prepare_body_final', $hook_data);

src/Model/Contact.php

Hook::callAll('contact_photo_menu', $args);
Hook::callAll('follow', $arr);

src/Model/Profile.php

Hook::callAll('profile_sidebar_enter', $profile);
Hook::callAll('profile_sidebar', $arr);
Hook::callAll('profile_tabs', $arr);
Hook::callAll('zrl_init', $arr);
Hook::callAll('magic_auth_success', $arr);

src/Model/Event.php

Hook::callAll('event_updated', $event['id']);
Hook::callAll("event_created", $event['id']);

src/Model/Register.php

Hook::callAll('authenticate', $addon_auth);

src/Model/User.php

Hook::callAll('authenticate', $addon_auth);
Hook::callAll('register_account', $uid);
Hook::callAll('remove_user', $user);

src/Module/Notifications/Ping.php

Hook::callAll('network_ping', $arr);

src/Module/PermissionTooltip.php

Hook::callAll('lockview_content', $item);

src/Module/Settings/Delegation.php

Hook::callAll('authenticate', $addon_auth);

src/Module/Settings/TwoFactor/Index.php

Hook::callAll('authenticate', $addon_auth);

src/Security/Authenticate.php

Hook::callAll('authenticate', $addon_auth);

src/Security/ExAuth.php

Hook::callAll('authenticate', $addon_auth);

src/Content/ContactBlock.php

Hook::callAll('contact_block_end', $arr);

src/Content/Text/BBCode.php

Hook::callAll('bbcode', $text);
Hook::callAll('bb2diaspora', $text);

src/Content/Text/HTML.php

Hook::callAll('html2bbcode', $message);

src/Content/Smilies.php

Hook::callAll('smilie', $params);

src/Content/Feature.php

Hook::callAll('isEnabled', $arr);
Hook::callAll('get', $arr);

src/Content/ContactSelector.php

Hook::callAll('network_to_name', $nets);

src/Content/OEmbed.php

Hook::callAll('oembed_fetch_url', $embedurl, $j);

src/Content/Nav.php

Hook::callAll('page_header', DI::page()['nav']);
Hook::callAll('nav_info', $nav);

src/Core/Authentication.php

Hook::callAll('logged_in', $a->user);

src/Core/Protocol.php

Hook::callAll('support_follow', $hook_data);
Hook::callAll('support_revoke_follow', $hook_data);
Hook::callAll('unfollow', $hook_data);
Hook::callAll('revoke_follow', $hook_data);
Hook::callAll('block', $hook_data);
Hook::callAll('unblock', $hook_data);

src/Core/StorageManager

Hook::callAll('storage_instance', $data);
Hook::callAll('storage_config', $data);

src/Worker/Directory.php

Hook::callAll('globaldir_update', $arr);

src/Worker/Notifier.php

Hook::callAll('notifier_end', $target_item);

src/Module/Login.php

Hook::callAll('login_hook', $o);

src/Module/Logout.php

Hook::callAll("logging_out");

src/Object/Post.php

Hook::callAll('render_location', $locate);
Hook::callAll('display_item', $arr);

src/Core/ACL.php

Hook::callAll('contact_select_options', $x);
Hook::callAll($a->module.'_pre_'.$selname, $arr);
Hook::callAll($a->module.'_post_'.$selname, $o);
Hook::callAll($a->module.'_pre_'.$selname, $arr);
Hook::callAll($a->module.'_post_'.$selname, $o);
Hook::callAll('jot_networks', $jotnets);

src/Core/Authentication.php

Hook::callAll('logged_in', $a->user);
Hook::callAll('authenticate', $addon_auth);

src/Core/Hook.php

self::callSingle(self::getApp(), 'hook_fork', $fork_hook, $hookdata);

src/Core/L10n/L10n.php

Hook::callAll('poke_verbs', $arr);

src/Core/Worker.php

Hook::callAll("proc_run", $arr);

src/Util/Emailer.php

Hook::callAll('emailer_send_prepare', $params);
Hook::callAll("emailer_send", $hookdata);

src/Util/Map.php

Hook::callAll('generate_map', $arr);
Hook::callAll('generate_named_map', $arr);
Hook::callAll('Map::getCoordinates', $arr);

src/Util/Network.php

Hook::callAll('avatar_lookup', $avatar);

src/Util/ParseUrl.php

Hook::callAll("getsiteinfo", $siteinfo);

src/Protocol/DFRN.php

Hook::callAll('atom_feed_end', $atom);
Hook::callAll('atom_feed_end', $atom);

src/Protocol/Email.php

Hook::callAll('email_getmessage', $message);
Hook::callAll('email_getmessage_end', $ret);

view/js/main.js

document.dispatchEvent(new Event('postprocess_liveupdate'));