GroIMP is designed around plugins which can be added, modified or removed without modifying the GroIMP installation.


====== GroIMP Plugin ======

Any repository with a ''plugin.xml'' and ''plugin.properties'' files is considered as a plugin by GroIMP.
To be properly loadable though, the ''plugin.xml'' needs to include:

<code xml>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<plugin id="your.plugin.id" 
version="x.x" 
xmlns="http://grogra.de/registry" >
</code>

where ''plugin id'' and ''version'' need to be filled with the plugin information.

See more: 

  * [[:dev-guide:creating-own-plugin#plugin_structure|Plugin structure]]
  * [[:dev-guide:creating-own-plugin#Plugin_configuration_(For_Groimp_integration)|Create a GroIMP plugin]]
  * [[:dev-guide:creating-own-plugin#embedded_documentation|Add documentation to help panels]]
     * [[:dev-guide:linking-help-button | configure help buttons]]
  * [[https://gitlab.com/grogra/groimp-plugins|Git repo of GroIMP plugins]]
  * [[https://gitlab.com/grogra/groimp-template/|Plugin templates]]

====== Managing plugins ======

GroIMP plugins are located in to directories by default:
  - ''/path/where/groimpisinstalled/plugins/''
  - ''~/.grogra.de-platform/plugins/''

Additionally it is possible to add a directory with the argument ''-p /path/to/directory/''. (e.g. ''java -jar core.jar -p /dir/'').

When GroIMP starts it will automatically load every plugin in the given paths. 

**Note:** It is possible to //ignore// a plugin path by adding it to the //blacklisted// file in ''~/.grogra.de-platform/blacklisted''.


===== Manually ====

It is possible to manually add or remove a plugin by simply copying/deleting them from the loaded paths.

The added plugin needs to be compiled and follow the plugin structure. See [[:dev-guide:creating-own-plugin|this guide]] on the plugin structure.  

**Note:** if you do not have the permission right to delete a repository from the GroIMP installation folder, you can prevent the plugin from being loaded by adding it to the //blacklisted// file.

===== Plugin Manager =====

The plugins can easily be updated, installed, or removed from the GUI with the  
[[user-guide:pluginmanager|Plugin Manager]].

The plugin manager uses the [[:dev-guide:plugins-repository|plugin repositories]] to find plugin data. These repositories can be local or remote but needs to follow the given structure.