Redmine

h1. Plugin Tutorial

Note: To follow this tutorial, you need to run Redmine devel r1786 or higher.

{{>toc}}

h2. Creating a new Plugin

You may need to set the RAILS_ENV variable in order to use the command below:

<pre>

$ export RAILS_ENV="production"

</pre>

On windows:

<pre>

set rails_env=production

</pre>

Creating a new plugin can be done using the Redmine plugin generator.

Syntax for this generator is:

<pre>ruby script/generate redmine_plugin <plugin_name></pre>

So open up a command prompt and "cd" to your redmine directory, then execute the following command:

  % ruby script/generate redmine_plugin Polls

The plugin structure is created in @vendor/plugins/redmine_polls@:

<pre>

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/app/controllers

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/app/helpers

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/app/models

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/app/views

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/db/migrate

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/lib/tasks

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/assets/images

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/assets/javascripts

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/assets/stylesheets

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/lang

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/README

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/init.rb

      create  vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/lang/en.yml

</pre>

Edit @vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/init.rb@ to adjust plugin information (name, author, description and version):

<pre><code class="ruby">

require 'redmine'

Redmine::Plugin.register :redmine_polls do

  name 'Polls plugin'

  author 'John Smith'

  description 'A plugin for managing polls'

  version '0.0.1'

end

</code></pre>

Then restart the application and point your browser to http://localhost:3000/admin/plugins.

After logging in, you should see your new plugin in the plugins list:

!plugins_list1.png!

h2. Generating a model

For now plugin doesn't store anything. Let's create a simple Poll model for our plugin. Syntax is:

<pre>

   ruby script/generate redmine_plugin_model <plugin_name> <model_name> [<fields>]

</pre>

So, go to the command prompt and run:

<pre>

   ruby script/generate redmine_plugin_model polls poll question:string yes:integer no:integer

</pre>

This creates the Poll model and the corresponding migration file.

*Please note you may have to rename your migration.* Timestamped migrations are not supported by the actual Redmine plugin engine (Engines). If your migrations are named with a timestamp, rename it using "001", "002", etc. instead.

   <pre>mv vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/db/migrate/20091009211553_create_polls.rb vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/db/migrate/001_create_polls.rb</pre>

If you have already created a database table record in plugin_schema_info with the timestamp version number, you will have to change it to reflect your new version number, or the migration will hang.

Migrate the database using the following command:

  rake db:migrate_plugins

Note that each plugin has its own set of migrations.

Lets add some Polls in the console so we have something to work with.  The console is where you can interactively work and examine the Redmine environment and is very informative to play around in.  But for now we just need create two Poll objects

<pre>

script/console

>> Poll.create(:question => "Can you see this poll ?")

>> Poll.create(:question => "And can you see this other poll ?")

>> exit

</pre>

Edit @vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/app/models/poll.rb@ in your plugin directory to add a #vote method that will be invoked from our controller:

<pre><code class="ruby">

class Poll < ActiveRecord::Base

  def vote(answer)

    increment(answer == 'yes' ? :yes : :no)

  end

end

</code></pre>

h2. Generating a controller

*Warning*: starting from version#40, Redmine won't provide anymore the default wildcard route (@':controller/:action/:id'@). Plugins will have to declare the routes they need in their proper @config/routes.rb@ file.

For now, the plugin doesn't do anything. So let's create a controller for our plugin.

We can use the plugin controller generator for that. Syntax is:

<pre>ruby script/generate redmine_plugin_controller <plugin_name> <controller_name> [<actions>]</pre>

So go back to the command prompt and run:

<pre>

% ruby script/generate redmine_plugin_controller Polls polls index vote

      exists  app/controllers/

      exists  app/helpers/

      create  app/views/polls

      create  test/functional/

      create  app/controllers/polls_controller.rb

      create  test/functional/polls_controller_test.rb

      create  app/helpers/polls_helper.rb

      create  app/views/polls/index.html.erb

      create  app/views/polls/vote.html.erb

</pre>

A controller @PollsController@ with 2 actions (@#index@ and @#vote@) is created.

Edit @vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/app/controllers/polls_controller.rb@ in @redmine_polls@ directory to implement these 2 actions.

<pre><code class="ruby">

class PollsController < ApplicationController

  unloadable

  def index

    @polls = Poll.find(:all)

  end

  def vote

    poll = Poll.find(params[:id])

    poll.vote(params[:answer])

    if poll.save

      flash[:notice] = 'Vote saved.'

      redirect_to :action => 'index'

    end

  end

end

</code></pre>

Then edit @vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/app/views/polls/index.html.erb@ that will display existing polls:

<pre>

<h2>Polls</h2>

<% @polls.each do |poll| %>

  <p>

  <%= poll[:question] %>?

  <%= link_to 'Yes', { :action => 'vote', :id => poll[:id], :answer => 'yes' }, :method => :post %> (<%= poll[:yes] %>) /

  <%= link_to 'No', { :action => 'vote', :id => poll[:id], :answer => 'no' }, :method => :post %> (<%= poll[:no] %>)

  </p>

<% end %>

</pre>

You can remove @vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/app/views/polls/vote.html.erb@ since no rendering is done by the corresponding action.

Now, restart the application and point your browser to http://localhost:3000/polls.

You should see the 2 polls and you should be able to vote for them:

!pools1.png!

Note that poll results are reset on each request if you don't run the application in production mode, since our poll "model" is stored in a class variable in this example.

h2. Translations

The location of *.yml translation files is dependent on the version of Redmine that is being run:

|_. Version |_. Path|

| < 0.9 | @.../redmine_polls/lang@ |

| >= 0.9 | @.../redmine_polls/config/locales@ |

If you want your plugin to work in both versions, you will need to have the same translation file in both locations.

h2. Extending menus

Our controller works fine but users have to know the url to see the polls. Using the Redmine plugin API, you can extend standard menus.

So let's add a new item to the application menu.

h3. Extending the application menu

Edit @vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/init.rb@ at the root of your plugin directory to add the following line at the end of the plugin registration block:

<pre><code class="ruby">

Redmine::Plugin.register :redmine_polls do

  [...]

  menu :application_menu, :polls, { :controller => 'polls', :action => 'index' }, :caption => 'Polls'

end

</code></pre>

Syntax is:

  menu(menu_name, item_name, url, options={})

There are five menus that you can extend:

* @:top_menu@ - the top left menu

* @:account_menu@ - the top right menu with sign in/sign out links

* @:application_menu@ - the main menu displayed when the user is not inside a project

* @:project_menu@ - the main menu displayed when the user is inside a project

* @:admin_menu@ - the menu displayed on the Administration page (can only insert after Settings, before Plugins)

Available options are:

* @:param@ - the parameter key that is used for the project id (default is @:id@)

* @:if@ - a Proc that is called before rendering the item, the item is displayed only if it returns true

* @:caption@ - the menu caption that can be:

  * a localized string Symbol

  * a String

  * a Proc that can take the project as argument

* @:before@, @:after@ - specify where the menu item should be inserted (eg. @:after => :activity@)

* @:first@, @:last@ - if set to true, the item will stay at the beginning/end of the menu (eg. @:last => true@)

* @:html@ - a hash of html options that are passed to @link_to@ when rendering the menu item

In our example, we've added an item to the application menu which is emtpy by default.

Restart the application and go to http://localhost:3000:

!application_menu.png!

Now you can access the polls by clicking the Polls tab from the welcome screen.

h3. Extending the project menu

Now, let's consider that the polls are defined at project level (even if it's not the case in our example poll model). So we would like to add the Polls tab to the project menu instead.

Open @init.rb@ and replace the line that was added just before with these 2 lines:

<pre><code class="ruby">

Redmine::Plugin.register :redmine_polls do

  [...]

  permission :polls, { :polls => [:index, :vote] }, :public => true

  menu :project_menu, :polls, { :controller => 'polls', :action => 'index' }, :caption => 'Polls', :after => :activity, :param => :project_id

end

</code></pre>

The second line adds our Polls tab to the project menu, just after the activity tab.

The first line is required and declares that our 2 actions from @PollsController@ are public. We'll come back later to explain this with more details.

Restart the application again and go to one of your projects:

!http://www.redmine.org/attachments/3773/project_menu.png!

If you click the Polls tab, you should notice that the project menu is no longer displayed.

To make the project menu visible, you have to initialize the controller's instance variable @@project@.

Edit your PollsController to do so:

<pre><code class="ruby">

def index

  @project = Project.find(params[:project_id])

  @polls = Poll.find(:all) # @project.polls

end

</code></pre>

The project id is available in the @:project_id@ param because of the @:param => :project_id@ option in the menu item declaration above.

Now, you should see the project menu when viewing the polls:

!http://www.redmine.org/attachments/3774/project_menu_pools.png!

h2. Adding new permissions

For now, anyone can vote for polls. Let's make it more configurable by changing the permission declaration.

We're going to declare 2 project based permissions, one for viewing the polls and an other one for voting. These permissions are no longer public (@:public => true@ option is removed).

Edit @vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/init.rb@ to replace the previous permission declaration with these 2 lines:

<pre><code class="ruby">

  permission :view_polls, :polls => :index

  permission :vote_polls, :polls => :vote

</code></pre>

Restart the application and go to http://localhost:3000/roles/report:

!permissions1.png!

You're now able to give these permissions to your existing roles.

Of course, some code needs to be added to the PollsController so that actions are actually protected according to the permissions of the current user.

For this, we just need to append the @:authorize@ filter and make sure that the @project instance variable is properly set before calling this filter.

Here is how it would look like for the @#index@ action:

<pre><code class="ruby">

class PollsController < ApplicationController

  unloadable

  before_filter :find_project, :authorize, :only => :index

  [...]

  def index

    @polls = Poll.find(:all) # @project.polls

  end

  [...]

  private

  def find_project

    # @project variable must be set before calling the authorize filter

    @project = Project.find(params[:project_id])

  end

end

</code></pre>

Retrieving the current project before the @#vote@ action could be done using a similar way.

After this, viewing and voting polls will be only available to admin users or users that have the appropriate role on the project.

If you want to display the symbols of your permissions in a multilangual way, you need to add the necessary text labels in a language file.

Simply create an *.yml file in the correct translation directory for your Redmine version and fill it with labels like this:

<pre><code class="ruby">

  permission_view_polls: View Polls

  permission_vote_polls: Vote Polls

</code></pre>

In this example the created file is known as en.yml, but all other supported language files are also possible too.

As you can see on the example above, the labels consists of the permission symbols @:view_polls@ and @:vote_polls@ with an additional @permission_@ added at the front. 

Restart your application and point the permission section.

h2. Creating a project module

For now, the poll functionality is added to all your projects. But you may want to enable polls for some projects only.

So, let's create a 'Polls' project module. This is done by wrapping the permissions declaration inside a call to @#project_module@.

Edit @init.rb@ and change the permissions declaration:

<pre><code class="ruby">

  project_module :polls do

    permission :view_polls, :polls => :index

    permission :vote_polls, :polls => :vote

  end

</code></pre>

Restart the application and go to one of your project settings.

Click on the Modules tab. You should see the Polls module at the end of the modules list (disabled by default):

!modules.png!

You can now enable/disable polls at project level.

h2. Improving the plugin views

h3. Adding stylesheets

Let's start by adding a stylesheet to our plugin views.

Create a file named @voting.css@ in the @vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/assets/stylesheets@ directory:

<pre>

a.vote { font-size: 120%; }

a.vote.yes { color: green; }

a.vote.no  { color: red; }

</pre>

When starting the application, plugin assets are automatically copied to @public/plugin_assets/redmine_polls/@ by Rails Engines to make them available through your web server. So any change to your plugin stylesheets or javascripts needs an application restart.

Then, append the following lines at the end of @vendor/plugins/redmine_polls/app/views/polls/index.html.erb@ so that your stylesheet get included in the page header by Redmine:

<pre>

<% content_for :header_tags do %>

    <%= stylesheet_link_tag 'voting', :plugin => 'redmine_polls' %>

<% end %>

</pre>

Note that the @:plugin => 'redmine_polls'@ option is required when calling the @stylesheet_link_tag@ helper.

Javascripts can be included in plugin views using the @javascript_include_tag@ helper in the same way.

h3. Setting page title

You can set the HTML title from inside your views by using the @html_title@ helper.

Example:

  <% html_title "Polls" %>

h2. Testing your plugin

h3. test/test_helper.rb:

Here are the contents of my test helper file:

<pre>

require File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../../../../test/test_helper')

</pre>

h3. Sample test:

Contents of requirements_controller_test.rb:

<pre><code class="ruby">

require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../test_helper'

require 'requirements_controller'

class RequirementsControllerTest < ActionController::TestCase

  fixtures :projects, :versions, :users, :roles, :members, :member_roles, :issues, :journals, :journal_details,

           :trackers, :projects_trackers, :issue_statuses, :enabled_modules, :enumerations, :boards, :messages,

           :attachments, :custom_fields, :custom_values, :time_entries

  def setup

    @skill = Skill.new(:skill_name => 'Java')

    @project = Project.find(1)

    @request    = ActionController::TestRequest.new

    @response   = ActionController::TestResponse.new

    User.current = nil

  end

  def test_routing

    assert_routing(

      {:method => :get, :path => '/requirements'},

      :controller => 'requirements', :action => 'index'

    )

  end

end

</code></pre>

h3. Initialize Test DB:

I found it easiest to initialize the test db directly with the following rake call:

<pre>

rake db:drop db:create db:migrate db:migrate_plugins redmine:load_default_data RAILS_ENV=test

</pre>

h3. Run test:

To execute the requirements_controller_test.rb I used the following command:

<pre>

rake test:engines:all PLUGIN=redmine_requirements

</pre>

h3. Testing with permissions

If your plugin requires membership to a project, add the following to the beginning of your functional tests:

<pre>

def test_index

  @request.session[:user_id] = 2

  ...

end

</pre>

If your plugin requires a specific permission, you can add that to a user role like so (lookup which role is appropriate for the user in the fixtures):

<pre>

def test_index

  Role.find(1).add_permission! :my_permission

  ...

end

</pre>

You may enable/disable a specific module like so:

<pre>

def test_index

  Project.find(1).enabled_module_names = [:mymodule]

  ...

end

</pre>