A "Plugin" is, in its simplest form, an HTML tag that you place into an Hyperseek Application template. By Using Plugins, you are able to design the complete HTML output of the application as you see fit, and to use these special "Plugin" tags to, well, plug in to your template the specific application output in the exact location of your HTML that you would like.
A plugin tag must be placed with HTML Comments within your Hyperseek Templates, using the following syntax:
<!-- PLUGIN:NAME -->
ð Each plugin must be contained within HTML Comment Tags: <!-- -->
ð Each plugin must be prefaced with the identifier: PLUGIN:
ð Each plugin must identified by its name, in capital letters: NAME
At the exact point in your HTML where you have placed these special PLUGIN tags, the Hyperseek application, when run by your website visitor, will replace the plugin tag with the Application output associated with the plugin.
Plugins come in 2 varieties:
Content Plugins
These plugins are placed within your template, on a line by themselves (as in the above examples) and will generally output full snippets of HTML code, representing a major part of the program's output. This could be a FORM, a set of results, a graph, or other piece of HTML related to the program.
Link Plugins
These are more of a convenience item for you. Link plugins are special plugins used within HREF tags in your template ( ie: <A HREF="<!-- PLUGIN:REFERER -->">Go Back</A> ). Rather than produce a bunch of HTML, these plugins return valid target URLs, related to the program. You could, if you prefer, code these links by hand, but the Plugins are easier to use, and will be content sensitive, when possible ... for example, in Hyperseek, PLUGIN:ADD_URL will return a link to the "Add URL" form, with the current category the user is viewing coded into the link.
Plugin Options
Some plugins can accept parameters within the plugin tag. These will be shown and explained in detail in the documentation for each plugin that supports (or expects) options.