Plugin with third party libraries

This page describes the correct way to include third party libraries with your plugin.

A third party library refers to any library where the latest version of the code is not maintained and hosted by Moodle. An example is "Mustache.php".

Instructions

The process for including a third party library is the same for core code as it is for a plugin - there are a number of steps to follow.

1. Check the license. Moodle can only use libraries that use a GPL compatible license. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/License_compatibility#GPL_compatibility 2. Check the library is not already shipped by core - we don't want multiple versions of the same library. 3. Download the latest stable release of the code. 4. Perform any build steps required to get a distributable version of the library. This will vary depending on the library - but an example is running less to generate minified css files. 5. Put that library into a sub folder in your plugin. It is best to NOT use version numbers in the foldername ("jquery" not "jquery-1.7.3"). 6. Create or update the "lib/thirdpartylibs.xml" file for your plugin. https://docs.moodle.org/dev/NEWMODULE_Documentation#thirdpartylibs.xml describes this file. 7. Create a readme_moodle.txt file in the new third party library folder containing detailed instructions on how to complete steps 3-6 above. This should list download urls, build instructions etc. 8. Note any creation, update or deletion of third party libraries in your plugins upgrade.txt

Exceptions:

Javascript AMD modules

Javascript AMD modules cannot exist in a sub-folder - they must exist in a single .js file in the amd/src folder for your plugin. So - the process for AMD files is the same as above, except that the license and readme_moodle.txt file contents must be added as a javascript comment to the top of the libraries .js file.