Ektron CMS400.Net Reference
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Best Practice Beginning with Version 8.0, Ektron recommends using the CMS Extensions described in the previous chapter rather than the Plug-In Extension described here. Customizing CMS Behavior with Extensions. |
The Plug-in Extension exposes event hooks in Ektron CMS400.NET. As a developer, you can utilize these event hooks in Visual Studio C# or VB.NET to create customized events for your site. For instance, you could create a Plug-in Extension that:
sends an instant message when content is published
sends an email when content is published
filters out objectionable language from blog posts
appends HTML content when it’s published
The following example explains the way a plug-in works. This example uses the OnBeforePublish event to append HTML content with copyright information before it is published.
A content editor saves a piece of content in Ektron CMS400.NET. Before the content is published, the OnBeforePublish event is fired. The Extension Architecture checks a watch folder to see if there are any plug-ins that have the OnBeforePublish event. The Extension Architecture sees the OnBeforePublish event and executes the code. The content is then appended with the copyright information and published.
The Plug-in Extension is comprised of two parts. The first, the Plug-in Extension Architecture, is installed on your server during the Ektron CMS400.NET install. You can control whether the Plug-in Extension Architecture is active or not by changing the ek_extensionServiceEnabled key in the Web.config. Setting this element to True activates the extension service. The key is set to True by default.
The second part, the Plug-in Extension Wizard, is installed when you run the Developer SDK install on your development system.
See Also: Installing the Developer SDK and Ektron’s Developer SDK.
This wizard creates a Plug-in Extension. In that extension is the framework code for events. All you need to do is add your custom code to the event framework. Once the code is built into a DLL, you move the DLL to the Extensions watch folder.
Ektron, Inc. also provides a Plug-in Extension configuration manager to help manage and prioritize which Plug-in Extensions are executed. This configuration utility also allows you to disable or enable plug-ins, decide what should happen in the case of an unhandled error and choose which sites can use the plug-in. See Also:
The table below provides an overview of the steps involved when creating a plug-in.
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Plug-in Extension Overview Steps |
See Also |
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1. Decide what you would like the plug-in to accomplish. For example, you want to add copyright information to each piece of HTML content that is published. |
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2. Create the plug-in extension using the Plug-in Extension Wizard in Visual Studio C# or Visual Basic. |
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3. Add your code to the Plug-in Extension’s framework. The Plug-in Samples section of this chapter provides samples. |
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4. Move the newly created Plug-in Extension DLL to the watch folder on your Ektron CMS400.NET server located at: C:\Program Files\Ektron\Plugins\Extensions |
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5. Use the Ektron Extensibility Configuration Tool to further configure your Plug-in Extensions. |
The following sections are contained in this chapter.