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 backoffice 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.

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 backoffice preview + editor (a sensible default is provided).
createOptionsForms()	Builds the backoffice 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 (backoffice 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  # backoffice form

Dashboard plugins (backoffice)

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

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)	backoffice dashboard
Saved config	XML in the page content	dashboard interface config

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/