distribution.md

Extension Distribution

You can reuse and distribute your customizations and features as extensions – packages that can be installed with Composer.

Tip: If you're building customizations specific to your community, then you probably don't need to make an extension. Instead, you can put your customizations in your application-level service providers (app/Providers).

Creating an Extension

Scaffold out a new Waterhole extension by running the following command:

php artisan waterhole:make:extension acme/example

Your extension will be created inside the extensions directory. It will have a composer.json file and a service provider. Waterhole will automatically configure a Composer path repository for your new extension, and install it as a dependency.

Waterhole Metadata

Your extension's composer.json is pretty standard – it contains a PSR-4 autoloading rule, and tells Laravel about your service provider. But it also contains some Waterhole-specific metadata in the extra section which you'll want to fill out:

{
    "extra": {
        "waterhole": {
            "name": "Example"
        }
    }
}

Version Compatibility

You should specify which version(s) of Waterhole your extension is compatible with by including it in the require section of your extension's composer.json file:

{
    "require": {
        "waterhole/core": "^0.1"
    }
}

Refer to the Composer documentation to learn more about writing version constraints.

Publishing an Extension

Once your extension is ready for the world, you can publish it on Packagist. Other Waterhole developers will be able to install your extension by running:

composer require acme/example

An official Waterhole Marketplace is planned, where you'll be able to list and sell your extensions.