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Plugin User Guide

This guide intends to provide the necessary context for registering plugins with web3.js packages.

To help you get started, take a look at a list of useful plugins at https://web3js.org/plugins

Installing the Plugin​

Unless otherwise mentioned by the plugin author, installing a plugin should be as simple as yarn add web3-plugin-example. This should add the plugin as a dependency within your package.json and the plugin should be available to import within your code.

# package.json
{
	...
	"dependencies": {
		"web3-plugin-example": "0.1.0"
	}
}

Registering the Plugin​

To add a plugin to an instance of a class sourced from web3.js' modules (such as Web3 or Web3Eth), you will use the .registerPlugin method. It's important to note that this method is only available on classes that extend Web3Context, so it may not be available on every class you import from a Web3.js package.

For illustration purposes, let's assume a plugin developer has the following code for their plugin. Please note that this code should not be touched by the plugin user:

// code written by the plugin **developer**

import { Web3PluginBase } from 'web3';

export class PluginExample extends Web3PluginBase {
  public pluginNamespace = 'pluginExample';

  public sampleMethod() {
    return 'simpleValue';
  }
}

// Module Augmentation
declare module 'web3' {
  interface Web3Context {
    pluginExample: PluginExample;
  }
}

Here is an example of how to register the PluginExample onto an instance of Web3:

// code written by the plugin **user**

import { Web3 } from 'web3';
import { PluginExample } from 'web3-plugin-example';

const web3 = new Web3('http://127.0.0.1:8545');
web3.registerPlugin(new PluginExample(any_parameters, if_needed));

web3.pluginExample.sampleMethod();