1 SocialEngine:Create a New Module

Creating the module:

1. First off, head to your website, and login with a user who has admin privileges.
2. We need the Package Manager, so go to this link after you login: http://<SOCIAL_ENGINE_ADDR>/install/manage, replacing of course <SOCIAL_ENGINE_ADDR> with the correct one. Inside the package manager you’ll find different installed modules, and you can enable/ disable them as you wish.
3. Switch to Developer SDK Tab and click on Create a Package
4. As you see Social Engine can setup for you any type of package you might need. In our case we’d select package of type Module. Complete the rest of required fields and hit “Create Package” button.

Create Package form

By now you’ll have a compressed archive downloaded. If you look into it you’ll find the basic module file structure has been created for you. So next step is to actually make that module part of Social Engine so that you could start working on it and preview the changes immediately.

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Installing the module:

Head again to http://<SOCIAL_ENGINE_ADDR>/install/manage, and click on Install New Packages link. The process of installing a new package consists of several automated steps. You just need to specify the package to install (which is the one downloaded from the previous steps), and the Step called “Enter FTP Info“. If Social Engine is running on your local server (the actual computer that you’re developing on), then you could just choose “None” for the FTP Connection Type, put in the Path to SE (it should be already there though) and mark “Search for SocialEngine Path“. Otherwise you’ll have to fill up the FTP connection fields.

FTP Fields

Then keep hitting continue until you’re done. You should get message like this in the end:

So now you’ve got you’re package created, installed and enabled in your SocialEngine application. You’ll find your module has appeared in SE’s modules folder and you can now modify it as you wish. If you’re still getting started with SocialEngine, these guides might be useful as well:

• Creating a Widget
• Creating a Model
• Creating a Controller
• Creating an API

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Building the module:

When you have finished developing your module and you’re ready to send it for example to a client, or sell it somewhere, you can have SocialEngine build an installable package for your module.

1. “Go to the “Developer SDK Tab” in the Package Manager.
2. Click on Build Packages
3. Find your module an make a tick in the associated checkbox
4. Click on “Build Packages” button.
5. You can now click on your package to download it. This page is also accessible from “Manage Package Files” link in Developer SDK Tab under Package Manager