Extensions

InstaDB is a powerful framework which gives a lot of useful features out of the box. Such power usually limits the flexibility of a platform. But InstaDB is different — it keeps stability and power of the core low-lode development platform, but also lets you easily cross any limitations using plugins written in PHP and JavaScript.

Note: All the InstaDB functionalities listed below are accessible in payable business plans only!

PHP

PHP is one of the most popular server-side scripting languages. In InstaDB it is used mostly for all kind of back-end actions which cannot be easily expressed in the Schema Editor, like notifications, custom printing and data exchange with other systems.

PHP scripts can be used in several ways:

• they can be hidden for user and executed on specific system demand (other script call, JavaScript request, time triggered and so on);

• can be executed by a user for a given table/view, as shown at the screen below;

• can be executed by a user for a given record (see the second picture below).

Schema Editor lets you to define whether an action is accessible as "table action" or "edit action":

JavaScript

JavaScript is a scripting language used mostly for web page programming. In InstaDB it is used mostly for some modifications of the standard layout and interactive extensions, like table row coloring, data validators and PHP scripts triggering.

InstaDB supports standard JavaScript, but has jQuery library installed as well.

Plugin management

Both PHP and JavaScript extensions can be easily uploaded in InstaDB Manager. The screen below presents the list of uploaded plugins:

Plugin examples

List below presents some examples of tasks frequently realized by plugins:

• e-mail and on-screen notifications,

• attachment presentation (image galleries, pdf viewers),

• data validators,

• data export to formats different than csv,

• some specific data manipulations,

• data exchange triggering and processing,

• simple custom prints and more complex print engines.