Module-based Plugins (Deprecated)

Module-based plugins are a deprecated type of plugin. They are being phased out in favor of class-based plugins. New module-based plugins should not be created, but existing module-based plugins will continue to be supported for the forseeable future.

Module-based plugins are Python modules that must contain a docstring, three top-level variables (interface, family, and name), and a call() function. They may contain anything else as well, but these are the require components. The interface, family, and name variables are used to register the plugin in the plugin registry and the call() function is what is called when the plugin is used.

The basic structure of a module-based plugin looks like this:

    """
    Docstring describing the plugin.
    """

    interface = "interface_name"
    family = "family_name"
    name = "plugin_name"

    def call(*args, **kwargs):
        # Plugin functionality goes here
        pass

Module-based plugins behave exactly the same as class-based plugins and are, in fact, converted into class-based plugins under-the-hood. However, they are less flexiable and not easily able to take advantage of the object-oriented features of class-based plugins.

The available module-based plugin kinds are also identical to the class-based plugin kinds. For more information on the available plugin kinds, see here.