Interface for plugins.

A plugin is a Haskell module that is dynamically loaded by gitit.

There are three kinds of plugins: PageTransforms, PreParseTransforms, and PreCommitTransforms. These plugins differ chiefly in where they are applied. PreCommitTransform plugins are applied just before changes to a page are saved and may transform the raw source that is saved. PreParseTransform plugins are applied when a page is viewed and may alter the raw page source before it is parsed as a Pandoc document. Finally, PageTransform plugins modify the Pandoc document that results after a page's source is parsed, but before it is converted to HTML:

                +--------------------------+
                | edited text from browser |
                +--------------------------+
                             ||         <----  PreCommitTransform plugins
                             \/
                             ||         <----  saved to repository
                             \/
             +---------------------------------+
             | raw page source from repository |
             +---------------------------------+
                             ||         <----  PreParseTransform plugins
                             \/
                             ||         <----  markdown or RST reader
                             \/
                    +-----------------+
                    | Pandoc document |
                    +-----------------+
                             ||         <---- PageTransform plugins
                             \/
                  +---------------------+
                  | new Pandoc document |
                  +---------------------+
                             ||         <---- HTML writer
                             \/
                  +----------------------+
                  | HTML version of page |
                  +----------------------+

Note that PreParseTransform and PageTransform plugins do not alter the page source stored in the repository. They only affect what is visible on the website. Only PreCommitTransform plugins can alter what is stored in the repository.

Note also that PreParseTransform and PageTransform plugins will not be run when the cached version of a page is used. Plugins can use the doNotCache command to prevent a page from being cached, if their behavior is sensitive to things that might change from one time to another (such as the time or currently logged-in user).

You can use the helper functions mkPageTransform and mkPageTransformM to create PageTransform plugins from a transformation of any of the basic types used by Pandoc (for example, Inline, Block, [Inline], even String). Here is a simple (if silly) example:

-- Deprofanizer.hs
module Deprofanizer (plugin) where

-- This plugin replaces profane words with "XXXXX".

import Network.Gitit.Interface
import Data.Char (toLower)

plugin :: Plugin
plugin = mkPageTransform deprofanize

deprofanize :: Inline -> Inline
deprofanize (Str x) | isBadWord x = Str "XXXXX"
deprofanize x                     = x

isBadWord :: String -> Bool
isBadWord x = (map toLower x) `elem` ["darn", "blasted", "stinker"]
-- there are more, but this is a family program

Further examples can be found in the plugins directory in the source distribution. If you have installed gitit using Cabal, you can also find them in the directory CABALDIR/share/gitit-X.Y.Z/plugins, where CABALDIR is the cabal install directory and X.Y.Z is the version number of gitit.