Server Plugins

Introduction

There are four components that can be used in a server side plugin:

  • Migrations: It is advantageous, but not required, to define a migration tracker before your plugin’s first release. Pulp’s migration system allows you to adjust your data schema at upgrade time. Please see the Migration documentation for details.
  • Type definitions are used to tell Pulp about the types of content that will be stored. These definitions contain metadata about the type itself (e.g. name, description) and clues about the structure of the unit, such as uniqueness information and search indexes. Pulp uses that information to properly configure its internal storage of the unit to be optimized for the expected usage of the type. Type definitions are defined in a JSON document.
  • Importers are used to handle the addition of content to a repository. This includes both synchronizing content from an external source or handling user-uploaded content units. An importer is linked to one or more type definitions to describe the types of units it will handle. At runtime, an importer is attached to a repository to provide the behavior of that repository’s sync call. Importers are Python code that is run by the server.
  • Distributors are added to a repository to publish its content. The definition of publish varies depending on the distributor and can include anything from serving the repository’s content over HTTP to generating an RSS feed with information about the repositories contents. One or more distributors may be attached to a repository, allowing the repository to be exposed over a number of different mechanisms. Like importers, distributors are Python code executed on the server.