Extensions

Upcoming Release Some or all of the features mentioned in this article may not be present in the current public release of Owl.

Overview

Extensions allow developers to add functionality to Owl. Extensions can be created to use the core functionality of Owl using the Lua scripting language. Extensions are not the same Parsers. Parsers allow Owl to communicate with additional websites, extensions give extra functionality to Owl.

Example

The following example defines an extension that allows users to use vBulletin's repuation system on anothermessageboard.com.

<source lang="lua">-- This Owl Extension provides functionality that allows users to use the reputation system -- on AMB (www.anothermessageboard.com). Since AMB's reputation system is heavily modified, -- the generic vBulletin Reputation Extension (3.x) will not work, so a custom extension -- is required

extension.name = "amb-reputation"; extension.version = "1.0"; extension.prettyName = "AMB Reputation"; extension.description = "Owl extension for the vBulletin reputation system used on anothermessageboard.com";

extension.owlversion.min = "1.0"; extension.domains = "*.anothermessageboard.com,*amb.la"; extension.boardware = "vbulletin/[3.6,4.0)/"; extension.owlware = "owl/1.*";</source>

Details

Owl requires basic information from all extensions in order to function properly. In the above examples the following settings are defined:

extension.name (required)

A normalized unique identifier for the extension.

extension.version (required)

The version number of the extension. In the event that Owl encounters the same extension more than once, the version with the highest version number will be used.

extension.prettyName (optional)

The name displayed within Owl's UI for a 'prettier' description of the extension.

extension.owlversion.min (optional)

The minimum version of Owl required to run the extension.

extension.owlversion.max (optional)

The maximum version of Owl that can run this extension.