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development.rst

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  1. Developer Overview
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  2. ##################
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  3. 

  4. This is a quick developer introduction to Elgg. It covers the basic approach to working with
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  5. Elgg as a framework, and mentions some of the terms and technologies used.
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  6. 

  7. See the :doc:`/guides/index` for tutorials or the :doc:`/design/index` for in-depth discussion on design.
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  9. Database and Persistence
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  10. ========================
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  11. 

  12. Elgg uses MySQL 5.5 or higher for data persistence, and maps database values into Entities (a
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  13. representation of an atomic unit of information) and Extenders (additional information and
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  14. descriptions about Entities). Elgg supports additional information such as relationships between
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  15. Entities, activity streams, and various types of settings.
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  16. 

  17. Plugins
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  18. =======
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  19. 

  20. Plugins change the behavior or appearance of Elgg by overriding views, or by handling events and plugin hooks.
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  21. All changes to an Elgg site should be implemented through plugins to ensure upgrading core is easy.
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  22. 

  23. Actions
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  24. =======
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  25. 

  26. Actions are the primary way users interact with an Elgg site. Actions are registered by plugins.
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  27. 

  28. Events and Plugin Hooks
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  29. =======================
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  30. 

  31. Events and Plugin Hooks are used in Elgg Plugins to interact with the Elgg engine under certain
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  32. circumstances. Events and hooks are triggered at strategic times throughout Elgg's boot and execution
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  33. process, and allows plugins to modify or cancel the default behavior.
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  34. 

  35. Views
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  36. =====
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  37. 

  38. Views are the primary presentation layer for Elgg. Views can be overridden or extended by Plugins.
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  39. Views are categories into a Viewtype, which hints at what sort of output should be expected by the
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  40. view.
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  42. JavaScript
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  43. ==========
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  44. 

  45. Elgg uses an AMD-compatible JavaScript system provided by require.js. Bundled with Elgg are jQuery
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  46. 1.11.0, jQuery UI 1.10.4, jQuery Form v20140304, jQuery jeditable, and jQuery UI Autocomplete.
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  47. 

  48. Plugins can load their own JS libs.
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  49. 

  50. Internationalization
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  51. ====================
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  52. 

  53. Elgg's interface supports multiple languages, and uses `Transifex`_ for translation.
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  54. 

  55. Caching
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  56. =======
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  57. 

  58. Elgg uses two caches to improve performance: a system cache and SimpleCache.
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  59. 

  60. .. _Transifex: https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/elgg-core/
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