Starting in VuFind® 2.3, content-loading capabilities (for retrieving cover images, reviews, etc. from third-party APIs) were significantly refactored to rely on plugins.
Each “family” of content plugins (covers, excerpts, etc.) has its own plugin manager. All of those plugin managers are managed by this top-level plugin manager. In other words, every “plugin” in this family is actually a plugin manager in its own right – generally instances of \VuFind\Content\Loader with different configurations set. It is not usually necessary to add new services here unless you are implementing support for a whole new type of content.
Default Namespace: \VuFind\Content
Base Class: \VuFind\Content\Loader
Service Locator Configuration Section in module.config.php: ['vufind']['plugin_managers']['content']
Service Manager Name for Service Locator: VuFind\ContentPluginManager (VuFind® 2.x-4.x), VuFind\Content\PluginManager (VuFind® 5.0+)
See the General Plugin Information page for more details on VuFind® plugins.
Each content loader (described above) returns plugins of one of the types described below.
These plugins retrieve information about the author of a particular title.
Default Namespace: \VuFind\Content\AuthorNotes
Base Class: \VuFind\Content\AbstractBase
Service Locator Configuration Section in module.config.php: ['vufind']['plugin_managers']['content_authornotes']
Service Manager Name for Service Locator: VuFind\ContentAuthorNotesPluginManager (VuFind® 2.x-4.x), VuFind\Content\AuthorNotes\PluginManager (VuFind® 5.0+)
See the General Plugin Information page for more details on VuFind® plugins.
Cover drivers are used for retrieving cover image data. They accept an array of ID values and return the URL to an image. Building a new plugin usually consists of setting some flags in the constructor to indicate which types of identifier are supported, then building a method to convert those identifiers into a valid URL.
Default Namespace: \VuFind\Content\Covers
Base Class: \VuFind\Content\AbstractCover
Service Locator Configuration Section in module.config.php: ['vufind']['plugin_managers']['content_covers']
Service Manager Name for Service Locator: VuFind\ContentCoversPluginManager (VuFind® 2.x-4.x), VuFind\Content\Covers\PluginManager (VuFind® 5.0+)
See the General Plugin Information page for more details on VuFind® plugins.
These plugins retrieve excerpts of a particular title.
Default Namespace: \VuFind\Content\Excerpts
Base Class: \VuFind\Content\AbstractBase
Service Locator Configuration Section in module.config.php: ['vufind']['plugin_managers']['content_excerpts']
Service Manager Name for Service Locator: VuFind\ContentExcerptsPluginManager (VuFind® 2.x-4.x), VuFind\Content\Excerpts\PluginManager (VuFind® 5.0+)
See the General Plugin Information page for more details on VuFind® plugins.
These plugins retrieve reviews of a particular title.
Default Namespace: \VuFind\Content\Reviews
Base Class: \VuFind\Content\AbstractBase
Service Locator Configuration Section in module.config.php: ['vufind']['plugin_managers']['content_reviews']
Service Manager Name for Service Locator: VuFind\ContentReviewsPluginManager (VuFind® 2.x-4.x), VuFind\Content\Reviews\PluginManager (VuFind® 5.0+)
See the General Plugin Information page for more details on VuFind® plugins.
These plugins retrieve summaries of a particular title. Added in VuFind® 5.0.
Default Namespace: \VuFind\Content\Summaries
Base Class: \VuFind\Content\AbstractBase
Service Locator Configuration Section in module.config.php: ['vufind']['plugin_managers']['content_summaries']
Service Manager Name for Service Locator: VuFind\ContentSummariesPluginManager (VuFind® 2.x-4.x), VuFind\Content\Summaries\PluginManager (VuFind® 5.0+)
See the General Plugin Information page for more details on VuFind® plugins.
These plugins retrieve the table of contents for a particular title. Added in VuFind® 5.0.
Default Namespace: \VuFind\Content\TOC
Base Class: \VuFind\Content\AbstractBase
Service Locator Configuration Section in module.config.php: ['vufind']['plugin_managers']['content_toc']
Service Manager Name for Service Locator: VuFind\ContentTOCPluginManager (VuFind® 2.x-4.x), VuFind\Content\TOC\PluginManager (VuFind® 5.0+)
See the General Plugin Information page for more details on VuFind® plugins.