Plugins: templating & dashboard

Melis has two kinds of plugins, and they're different things:

• Templating plugins — reusable content blocks dropped into a page's MelisDragDropZone on the front office (a slider, a product list, a contact form).
• Dashboard plugins — widgets shown on the back-office dashboard.

Both have a GUI scaffolder (melis-templating-plugin-creator, melis-dashboard-plugin-creator) — use it to generate the boilerplate, then read on to understand and customise it. In Melis v6 these scaffolders are native-React wizards in the /melis-react back-office (each still carries a New / Old toggle to the classic tool in an iframe). The framework, the module set and the generated PHP are unchanged — only the UI you drive them with is React now.

Templating plugins (front office)

A templating plugin extends MelisEngine\Controller\Plugin\MelisTemplatingPlugin and implements:

Method	Role
front() (required)	Returns the array of variables passed to the plugin's front .phtml.
back()	Renders the back-office preview + editor (a sensible default is provided).
createOptionsForms()	Builds the back-office form tabs from the plugin config.
loadDbXmlToPluginConfig() / savePluginConfigToXml($params)	Decode/encode the plugin's saved parameters (stored as XML inside the page content).

The constructor wires the plugin to its config:

use MelisEngine\Controller\Plugin\MelisTemplatingPlugin;

class MyBlockPlugin extends MelisTemplatingPlugin
{
    public function __construct($updatesPluginConfig = [])
    {
        $this->configPluginKey = 'mymodule';      // key in the plugin config file
        $this->pluginXmlDbKey  = 'myBlock';       // XML element name saved in the page
        parent::__construct($updatesPluginConfig);
    }

    public function front()
    {
        $id = $this->pluginFrontConfig['someParam'] ?? null;
        // … fetch data via a service …
        return ['pluginId' => $this->pluginFrontConfig['id'], 'items' => $items];
    }
}

The plugin config file

Each plugin ships a config/plugins/<Name>.config.php with a front section (rendering config: template_path, an id, custom params, css/js) and a melis section (back-office UI: name, thumbnail, and the modal_form tabs/fields). Reference: vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-slider/config/plugins/MelisCmsSliderShowSliderPlugin.config.php.

Register the plugin as a controller plugin in module.config.php:

'controller_plugins' => ['invokables' => [
    'MyBlockPlugin' => \MyModule\Controller\Plugin\MyBlockPlugin::class,
]],

How it reaches a page

An editor drags the plugin into a MelisDragDropZone (see Build a site). The configured parameters are serialised as XML into the page's content; on render, the front engine calls the plugin's front() and renders its .phtml. MelisCmsSlider and MelisCmsNews are the canonical examples.

Minimal structure

MyModule/
├── config/plugins/MyBlockPlugin.config.php
├── src/Controller/Plugin/MyBlockPlugin.php
└── view/my-module/my-block.phtml             # front template
    view/my-module/my-block/melis/form.phtml  # back-office form

Scaffolding it in /melis-react

Open Templating Plugin Creator from its left-menu entry — it opens as a top tab with a 6-step bar and the New / Old toggle top-right (next to Restart). The New view is a real React wizard; the whole thing is persistent, so you can leave the tab and come back without losing your step or your inputs. (All the real work stays server-side — validation reuses the legacy Laminas forms and generation calls MelisTemplatingPluginCreatorService, which writes the same PHP/view/ config/language files as before.)

The six steps:

1. Plugin — plugin name + destination (New module, or an Existing site module you pick from a dropdown). The server computes the enforced template_path from this.
2. Menu Texts & Display — per-language title/description shown in the page editor's plugin list, plus the required thumbnail (GIF/JPG/PNG, ~190×100, ≤500 kB).
3. Main Properties — the plugin's editable fields (1–25, template_path included). Field 1 is the locked template_path; fields 2..N each get a technical name, a display type (text, Dropdown, DatePicker, NumericInput, Switch, Textarea, rich text…), a required flag and a default value.
4. Properties' Translation — a label + tooltip per property, per language (plus a label per Dropdown option).
5. Summary — a read-only recap of everything above; nothing is written here.
6. Finalization — pick a Site to activate on (optional), leave Activate plugin after creation on, then Finish and create the plugin. Activation triggers a platform reload (the wizard counts down and reloads).

New / Old toggle. New is the React wizard (default); Old renders the classic jQuery tool in an iframe. Switching to Old resets the shared session draft, so the wizard warns you first.

Dashboard plugins (back office)

A dashboard widget extends MelisCore\Controller\DashboardPlugins\MelisCoreDashboardTemplatingPlugin. It sets its module in the constructor and exposes an action method that returns a ViewModel with setTemplate():

use MelisCore\Controller\DashboardPlugins\MelisCoreDashboardTemplatingPlugin;
use Laminas\View\Model\ViewModel;

class MyWidgetPlugin extends MelisCoreDashboardTemplatingPlugin
{
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->pluginModule = 'mymodule';
        parent::__construct();
    }

    public function mywidget()   // the action referenced by the plugin config
    {
        $view = new ViewModel();
        $view->setTemplate('my-module/dashboard-plugin/my-widget');
        return $view;
    }
}

The widget is declared under the melis_dashboardplugin interface (name, icon, thumbnail, grid width/height, and a forward to module / plugin / function), and registered in module.config.php under controller_plugins. Reference: vendor/melisplatform/melis-core/src/Controller/DashboardPlugins/MelisCoreDashboardBubbleNewsMelisPlugin.php.

Minimal structure

MyModule/
├── config/module.config.php                 # declares the dashboard plugin + registers it
├── src/Controller/DashboardPlugins/MyWidgetPlugin.php
└── view/my-module/dashboard-plugin/my-widget.phtml

Scaffolding it in /melis-react

Open Dashboard Plugin Creator from its left-menu entry — a top tab with a 5-step bar and the same New / Old toggle. Like its templating sibling it is a persistent React wizard backed by MelisDashboardPluginCreatorService, so the generated PHP is identical to the classic tool's output.

The five steps:

1. Plugin — name, View type (Single card or Multi-tabs, 2–25 tabs), and destination (New module or an Existing module dropdown).
2. Menu Texts & Display — per-language menu title/description + the required thumbnail.
3. Dashboard Texts & Display — the per-language card title and the plugin icon (and, for multi-tab plugins, one icon per tab).
4. Summary — read-only recap.
5. Finalization — leave Activate plugin after creation on, then Finish and create the plugin; activation reloads the platform.

Templating vs dashboard — at a glance

	Templating plugin	Dashboard plugin
Base class	MelisTemplatingPlugin	MelisCoreDashboardTemplatingPlugin
Lives in	src/Controller/Plugin/	src/Controller/DashboardPlugins/
Core method	front() → variables array	an action → ViewModel
Shown on	front-office pages (drag-drop zones)	back-office dashboard
Saved config	XML in the page content	dashboard interface config
Scaffolder wizard	6 steps (melis-templating-plugin-creator)	5 steps (melis-dashboard-plugin-creator)

Key files

Concern	Path
Templating base class	vendor/melisplatform/melis-engine/src/Controller/Plugin/MelisTemplatingPlugin.php
Templating example	vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-slider/src/Controller/Plugin/MelisCmsSliderShowSliderPlugin.php
Dashboard base class	vendor/melisplatform/melis-core/src/Controller/DashboardPlugins/MelisCoreDashboardTemplatingPlugin.php
Dashboard example	vendor/melisplatform/melis-core/src/Controller/DashboardPlugins/MelisCoreDashboardBubbleNewsMelisPlugin.php
Scaffolders	vendor/melisplatform/melis-templating-plugin-creator/, vendor/melisplatform/melis-dashboard-plugin-creator/

For the module reference pages, see melis-templating-plugin-creator and melis-dashboard-plugin-creator.