Plugin

Plugin is an extension which can extend beyond existing functionalities and features. In Crawlab, the Plugin Framework is in place for users to customize their web crawler management platforms.

Why Plugin

Why don't we just hack around the source code in Crawlab when customization is needed? The reason is the concern for Maintainability. When you change some code of core modules in Crawlab, you might risk your project's maintainability because there will be upgrades in the future, which would very likely break your current customization.

A well-designed plugin is less likely to be tightly coupled with Crawlab, so that updates in Crawlab will not significantly affect the plugin. Plugins are pluggable and easy to be installed or uninstalled.

Plugin Framework

Plugin Framework is embedded in Crawlab which manages official and third-party plugins. Crawlab users can develop plugins based on Crawlab Plugin Framework (CPF).

Official Plugins

There are some public official plugins maintained by Crawlab Team. The GitHub repos of official Crawlab plugins are normally located in Crawlab Team's repositories, each of which has a prefix plugin-.

Name	Description	仓库链接
plugin-notification	Sending alerts and notifications such as emails and mobile push notifications	Link
plugin-dependency	Installing and managing dependencies and running environment	Link
plugin-spider-assistant	Providing advanced web crawler features such as framework support (e.g. Scrapy, etc.)	Link

Install Plugin

Tips

After a plugin is installed, you should refresh page in your web browser in order for plugin UI components to display.

There are several ways of installing plugins in Crawlab.

Install Official Plugins

You can install official plugins by only input the plugin name in Install Plugin dialog.

1. Navigate to Plugins.
2. Choose Public.
3. Click Install button on plugins you would like to install.

Install by Git

If you know the git url of a Crawlab plugin, you can install it through git url.

1. Navigate to Plugins.
2. Choose Type as Git.
3. Enter the url of the plugin in the field Install URL.
4. Click Confirm.

Install by Local

Note

This method is recommended only when you are developing Crawlab with source code.

1. Navigate to Plugins.
2. Choose Type as Local.
3. Enter local path of the plugin in the field Install Path.
4. Click Confirm.

Installation Source

Note

Installation Source is only for official plugins.

The default installation source of official plugins is GitHub. But GitHub is not always the best Source to access. For example, if you are in Mainland China, accessing GitHub can sometimes be slow; then you can choose Gitee as Source of official plugins, which will largely speed up plugin installation.

Uninstall Plugin

You can uninstall a plugin by clicking Delete button on the right in Plugins page.

Start/Stop

You can start or stop a plugin by clicking Start or Stop button on the right in Plugins page.