Plugins

Plugins

A BxSites plugin is nothing more than another BoxLang module - its own box.json + ModuleConfig.bx, installed as a sibling of bx-sites in the same runtime (box install into the project, the same way bx-markdown/ bx-esapi already are). No plugin API to import, no separate registry - BoxLang's own module system is the plugin system.

Installing a module alone never activates it as a plugin, though - a project opts one in explicitly by BoxLang module name, via bxsites.yaml's plugins array:

plugins: [ myBxSitesPlugin ]

{ "plugins": ["myBxSitesPlugin"] }

Installing a published plugin

A plugin published to ForgeBox installs with nothing but the bxSites binary itself - no box/CommandBox needed. Browse what's already published under the bxsites-plugins category on ForgeBox:

bxSites install:plugin --name=bx-sites-plugin-analytics [--version=1.2.0]

This downloads the package's zip from ForgeBox and extracts it into boxlang_modules/bx-sites-plugin-analytics/ at the project root - BoxLang's own auto-loaded local-module convention (any module folder there is picked up the same way a project-local node_modules/ is for npm), so it's active in the running BoxLang module registry with no BOXLANG_HOME/global install step at all. install:plugin loads it into the runtime immediately and prints back its real registered module mapping name (which, per the note below, isn't always the same as the ForgeBox slug) - add that name to bxsites.yaml's plugins array to activate it, same as any other installed module. See install:plugin in the CLI reference.

Writing a plugin

A plugin module needs exactly one thing beyond the usual box.json/ ModuleConfig.bx a BoxLang module already has: a models/BxSitesPlugin.bx class. Every method on it is optional - implement only the hooks you need, BxSites checks for each one before calling it:

// models/BxSitesPlugin.bx
class {

	struct function onConfig( required struct config ) {
		// Mutate/return the site config, right after bxsites.yaml is loaded.
		return arguments.config
	}

	string function onPageMarkdown( required string markdown, required struct page, required struct config ) {
		// Mutate a page's raw markdown before conversion - the same
		// pre-processing seam BxSites' own content tabs/math/code
		// annotations use internally (TabsProcessor.bx et al.).
		return arguments.markdown
	}

	string function onPageHtml( required string html, required struct page, required struct config ) {
		// Mutate a page's rendered HTML after conversion.
		return arguments.html
	}

	array function onNav( required array nav, required struct config ) {
		// Mutate the nav tree (NavBuilder.build()'s own shape: an array of
		// { title, url, order, children } nodes).
		return arguments.nav
	}

	array function onSearchIndex( required array entries, required struct config ) {
		// Mutate the built search-index.json entries, right before it's
		// written - each entry is { title, url, headings, body, tags },
		// the same shape SearchIndexer.bx itself produces. Runs once per
		// search-index.json actually written (the main site-wide index,
		// and each version/locale tree's own local index when one is
		// enabled - see [Search](search.md)).
		return arguments.entries
	}

	array function onSitemap( required array pages, required struct config ) {
		// Mutate the site-wide accumulated page list right before BOTH
		// sitemap.xml and llms.txt are built from it - a contributed entry
		// flows into both. Only urlPath/title/hidden need be set; this
		// isn't DocsLoader's full page shape.
		return arguments.pages
	}

	void function onBuildComplete( required string siteDir, required struct config ) {
		// Fires once, after everything is written to siteDir - no return value.
	}

}

Hooks run in bxsites.yaml's own plugins array order, and (except onBuildComplete) each one's return value replaces the value the next hook (or BxSites itself) sees - a plugin only needs to return what it was given if it has nothing to change.

onPageMarkdown/onPageHtml run once per page, for every doc tree BX Docs builds (the main docs/ tree and every docs/versions/<name>/ tree). onConfig/onNav/onBuildComplete are also applied by the standalone search-index verb where relevant (onConfig, since it can change markdown/other settings the index build depends on).

onSearchIndex/onSitemap exist specifically for content that lives outside docs/ altogether - a dynamically-served page a CLI provider addon adds, for instance - and so would otherwise be invisible to search, the sitemap, and llms.txt.

When each hook fires

sequenceDiagram
    participant Build as build verb
    participant Plugin as your plugin
    Build->>Plugin: onConfig(config)
    Build->>Build: build the nav tree
    Build->>Plugin: onNav(nav, config)
    loop every page
        Build->>Plugin: onPageMarkdown(markdown, page, config)
        Build->>Build: Markdown() + built-in extensions
        Build->>Plugin: onPageHtml(html, page, config)
    end
    Build->>Build: write site/
    Build->>Plugin: onSearchIndex(entries, config)
    Build->>Build: write search-index.json
    Build->>Plugin: onSitemap(pages, config)
    Build->>Build: write sitemap.xml + llms.txt
    Build->>Plugin: onBuildComplete(siteDir, config)

A minimal example

examples/hello-plugin/ in this repo is a complete, working plugin module - box install-able as-is - that adds a <!-- rendered by hello-plugin --> comment to every page and appends a build-summary line to site/hello-plugin.txt once the build finishes. Use it as a starting skeleton, or read it for a worked example of the folder layout:

hello-plugin/
├── box.json              # boxlang.moduleName is what bxsites.yaml's [plugins] references
├── ModuleConfig.bx        # a normal, otherwise-empty BoxLang module descriptor
└── models/
    └── BxSitesPlugin.bx    # onPageHtml() + onBuildComplete()

Errors

• BxSites.PluginNotFound - a name in bxsites.yaml's plugins array isn't an installed/activated BoxLang module.
• BxSites.InvalidPlugin - the module exists, but has no models/BxSitesPlugin.bx class.

Registering your own bxSites commands

models/BxSitesPlugin.bx only covers the build lifecycle. A module can also register its own bxSites <verb> commands (e.g. a deploy or cloud publish a commercial addon might ship) via a sibling models/BxSitesCliProvider.bx contract - same plugins array activation, different file. See CLI Providers.