MelisTemplatingPluginCreator

A backoffice GUI wizard that scaffolds a complete front-office templating plugin — config, controller, view, modal form, assets and translations — into a new or existing module. Composer package melisplatform/melis-templating-plugin-creator.

Purpose

MelisTemplatingPluginCreator is a code generator, not a runtime feature. It adds a step-by-step backoffice tool that asks for a plugin name, destination module, properties (fields), thumbnail and translations, then writes a ready-to-use templating plugin into the target module. The generated plugin extends MelisEngine\Controller\Plugin\MelisTemplatingPlugin, so once created it behaves like any hand-written templating plugin — read Plugins to understand and customise the output.

Enable it

It's a standard Laminas module. Add it to config/melis.module.load.php:

return [
    // …
    'MelisTemplatingPluginCreator',
];

Composer dependencies (composer.json): melis-core, melis-tool-creator, melis-cms (PHP ^8.1|^8.3). When the destination is a new module, the tool delegates to MelisToolCreatorService::createTool() to scaffold the module first. No database is required, but the module/ directory and a tpc/temp-thumbnail/ folder under the public document root must be writable (the GD extension is also needed for thumbnail validation).

Key services

Registered as a service_manager alias in config/module.config.php.

Alias	Role
MelisTemplatingPluginCreatorService	Generates (and rolls back) the templating plugin from the wizard data saved in the session.

MelisTemplatingPluginCreatorService (extends MelisCore\Service\MelisGeneralService) notably exposes:

Method	Role
generateTemplatingPlugin()	Entry point: reads the session steps and writes all plugin files; rolls back on any failure. Returns a boolean.
getSiteTemplatingPluginNames($siteModule)	Lists existing templating-plugin names of a site module (used to reject duplicate plugin names).
generateModuleNameCase($str) / convertToViewName($string)	Normalise a name to a valid module name / view directory name.
getTempThumbnail()	Resolves the temp path of the uploaded plugin thumbnail for the current session.

Internally generateTemplatingPlugin() runs performGeneration(), which writes the plugin config (config/plugins/<Module><Plugin>Plugin.config.php), updates the target module.config.php (template_map + controller_plugins), appends translations per language, generates assets (css/js + thumbnail), the controller (src/<Module>/Controller/Plugin/<Module><Plugin>Plugin.php), the front view and the modal form, and includes the new config from the module's Module.php.

Backoffice

The module adds one tool — the Templating Plugin Creator — under the backoffice tools tree (config/app.toolstree.php / config/app.interface.php):

• Tools-tree path: Tools & Designs → Tools → Templating Plugin Creator, mounted via the type reference /melistemplatingplugincreator/interface/melistemplatingplugincreator_tool.
• Tool melisKey melistemplatingplugincreator_tool, forwarding to controller MelisTemplatingPluginCreator\Controller\TemplatingPluginCreator (action render-tool), with header, content and steps sub-interfaces.

The tool is a 6-step wizard handled by TemplatingPluginCreatorController (renderTemplatingPluginCreatorStepsAction dispatches processStep1…processStep6):

1. Plugin name + destination (new module or existing site module).
2. Title/description per language + thumbnail upload (processUploadAction).
3. Properties: number of fields and, per field, name, display type, required flag, default options/value. Available display types include MelisText, Dropdown, DatePicker, DateTimePicker, PageInput, NumericInput, Switch, Textarea, MelisCoreTinyMCE.
4. Per-language labels/tooltips for each field.
5. Summary.
6. Finalisation: generates the plugin (and optionally activates it on a chosen site).

Two form elements feed the wizard selects: MelisTemplatingPluginCreatorModuleSelect and MelisTemplatingPluginCreatorSiteSelect (factories in src/Form/Factory/). To build a tool like this one yourself, see Create a tool.

Front office

This module adds no runtime front-office plugin or view helper of its own. Instead, it generates a templating plugin into the destination module: a controller-plugin class extending MelisEngine\Controller\Plugin\MelisTemplatingPlugin with loadDbXmlToPluginConfig() / savePluginConfigToXml() wired to the configured fields, a config/plugins/*.config.php (front + melis sections, one Properties tab), a front .phtml, a modal-form .phtml, and css/js assets. The generated plugin then appears in the CMS page editor's plugin menu and is dropped into a MelisDragDropZone like any other templating plugin — see Plugins and Build a site.

Database tables

None. This tool generates source files only and stores its in-progress wizard state in a Laminas session container (templatingplugincreator); no melis_* tables are installed.

Example

The generated plugin is consumed like any templating plugin. From the service side, the wizard's final step calls:

$tpcService = $serviceManager->get('MelisTemplatingPluginCreatorService');
$result = $tpcService->generateTemplatingPlugin(); // true on success, files written to the target module

Key files

Concern	Path
Module / config loading	vendor/melisplatform/melis-templating-plugin-creator/src/Module.php
Wiring (service, routes, form elements, views)	vendor/melisplatform/melis-templating-plugin-creator/config/module.config.php
Tools tree	vendor/melisplatform/melis-templating-plugin-creator/config/app.toolstree.php
Tool interface	vendor/melisplatform/melis-templating-plugin-creator/config/app.interface.php
Wizard forms + steps config	vendor/melisplatform/melis-templating-plugin-creator/config/app.tools.php
Wizard controller	vendor/melisplatform/melis-templating-plugin-creator/src/Controller/TemplatingPluginCreatorController.php
Generator service	vendor/melisplatform/melis-templating-plugin-creator/src/Service/MelisTemplatingPluginCreatorService.php
Form element factories	vendor/melisplatform/melis-templating-plugin-creator/src/Form/Factory/
Code templates (scaffolded output)	vendor/melisplatform/melis-templating-plugin-creator/template/

See also: Module reference · Plugins · Create a tool · Build a site.