Addons

Using Docksal addons to make development easier

We touched on creating your own commands in Advanced Customizations: Project 3, however many frequently used commands have been contributed to the Docksal project in the form of addons.

List of current addons

Name Description Requirements
adminer Adminer database management tool MySQL
andock Andock makes it dead simple to get Docksal environments up on your server. Docksal
artisan Runs Laravel’s Artisan command in cli. Requires artisan pre-installed inside cli. Laravel, Artisan
blt Acquia BLT tool launcher (requires BLT installation) Drupal
codeclimate CodeClimate code quality tool
mailhog Mailhog e-mail capture service for current project
phpcs PHP Code Sniffer and Code Beautifier
phpunit Creates a phpunit.xml file and runs PHPUnit tests Drupal
pma PhpMyAdmin database management tool MySQL
redis Add Redis to current project
sequelpro Launches SequelPro with the connection information for current project. macOS
simpletest Runs SimpleTest tests in Drupal 7 and 8 Drupal
solr Apache Solr search service for current project
uli Generate one time login url for current site Drupal

All of these are available to install and use to make development a little quicker and easier. Let’s install an addon.

We’re going to install uli which is a wrapper for the Drupal Drush command drush uli.

$ fin addon install uli

This will download the file to your .docksal/addons folder and make it available to your project.

To run any addon, you just need to run fin [addon name]. For example:

$ fin uli

Additionally, since Docksal is an open source project, you can create your own addons and submit them back to the project. Say you have a command that speeds up your process and you think others may benefit from it. To contribute back, you would do the following:

  1. Fork the addons repo from https://github.com/docksal/addons
  2. Create a feature branch
  3. Add your addon into your fork of the repo
  4. Update the repo’s README.md file with your addon a description and any requirements
  5. Submit a pull request against the Docksal addons repo with a description of what your addon does and how it’s beneficial

Summary

Addons are generally community contributed commands that have been submitted to the Docksal project for the greater good of all users. You can use existing addons or submit your own back to the project. The process for installing an addon is simple and after an addon is in your project, you are free to tweak it to your own needs.