What plugins are good examples for PB coding

[₪» ⅀ ƪ Ƒ «₪]

My friend is a coder but she has no idea how to code on proboards specifically. I told her I would get a plugin with the build option so she could check around and see if it's something she's comfortable with. Which plugins that have build open do you guys suggest I give her that do a fair job as an example?

[Brian]

I think there are very few things specific to ProBoards that the application of general HTML, CSS, and Javascript knowledge doesn't already cover. Most ProBoards-specific things are listed in the Javascript API while all the keys you can pass into the nondescript pb.data method on the particular page you're viewing can be found by typing proboards.dataHash into the browser console.

Plugins based around Javascript are usually only doing any of these three things:

• Checking the plugin's settings for what values it's going to supply to its own functions:
  
  SPOILER: Click to show

  // From NPC Profiles v1.2.3 source code:
  // Check if a user is in a group eligible to use this particular NPC
  in_group: function(npc_groups_array) {
      const plugin = pbp['v_npc'];
      let my_group_ids = pb.data('user').group_ids;
  
      // If the user is the main admin and the plugin's admin override
      // feature is enabled return true immediately
      if(pb.data('user').id == 1 && !plugin.settings.npclist_admin.length)
          return true;
  
      // Otherwise, only return true if a group the user is a part of
      // is in the list supplied in this NPC's settings
      if(my_group_ids){
          my_group_ids = my_group_ids.map(num => num.toString());
          for(let i in npc_groups_array){
              if(my_group_ids.indexOf(npc_groups_array[i]) > -1)
                  return true;
          }
      }
      return false;
  }

• Checking the ID of each item on the current page for whether or not there's plugin key data tied to that ID:
  
  SPOILER: Click to show

  // From NPC Profiles v1.2.3 source code:
  // Change quote to NPC quote if it came from an NPC post
  $('.posts .item.post .quote').each(function(){
      if($(this).attr('source')){
          if($(this).attr('source').indexOf('/post/') == 0){
              let post_id = $(this).attr('source').split('/post/')[1].split('/thread')[0];
              if(plugin.key.get(post_id)){
                  // If this if statement is true that means there's plugin key data
                  // for this post and we should manipulate this quote

• Manipulating the page according to what it finds in the aforementioned places:
  
  SPOILER: Click to show

  // From NPC Profiles v1.2.3 source code:
  // PBN bar functionality
  pbn: {
      // Page load
      button: function(){
          const plugin = pbp['v_npc'];
  
          // Add PBN bar related elements if:
          // - They don't exist yet
          // - The user is not a guest
          // - The user has at least one NPC available for use
  
          if(!$('#v-npc-pbn').length && pb.data('user').is_logged_in && Object.keys(plugin.available).length){
              $('#pbn-bar').width('auto').append('<a id="v-npc-pbn"><img class="o-npc-icon-off" title="Post As NPC" alt="Post As NPC" src="'+plugin.images.sword+'"><img class="o-npc-icon-on" title="Post As NPC" alt="Post As NPC" src="'+plugin.images.sword_s+'"></a>');
              $('body').append(plugin.obj.micro_control);

Other than that they'll set the values of plugin keys, but in practice that can be condensed to a single line of code after all the preparation (getting the post/thread/etc. ID and value to be set).

[₪» ⅀ ƪ Ƒ «₪]

Thank you for your post! I sent it to her :)

Out of curiosity, does V6 plan to offer any additional coding languages? She is fluent in PHP and SQL but intermediate in JavaScript, so she said she isn't comfortable coding on ProBoards, so I said I'd ask if there's any plans in the future to allow PHP/SQL

[Brian]

PHP is server-side, so it's unlikely that it'll ever be available for use in plugins since the languages used to create them are all client-side.

SQL is for database manipulation. If there ever comes a time where a plugin can manipulate the forum's database beyond storing data in plugin keys there will likely be Javascript API methods for doing so.

[₪» ⅀ ƪ Ƒ «₪]

Ahh ohkay, thank you, I'll pass that along as well