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.