In your admin panel, select Plugins, then select Build on the next page. Click on the name of the plugin you're working on. On the following page, click on the Components tab.
There are six different types of components you can use in your plugins, all available in the right sidebar.
- Main - Any code you place in the Main component will only show on your forum's index page, where all of your boards and categories are listed. Accepts any tags that are valid in HTML.
- Global - Code in this component will be everywhere on your forum except for the admin panel and custom pages. Accepts valid HTML.
- Category - Code entered in this component will only display in specific categories. The user can select which categories this applies to in the About tab of the plugin. Accepts valid HTML.
- Boards - Code entered in this component will only display on specific boards. The user can select which boards this applies to in the About tab of the plugin. Accepts valid HTML.
- CSS - Any CSS you enter in this field will be placed in its own external .css file and does not need to be surrounded by style tags.
- Javascript - Any Javascript you enter in this field will be placed in its own external .js file and does not need to be surrounded by script tags. This will be loaded in the header of your forum.
Below the components in the sidebar is a list of variable IDs from within your plugin, as you've named them in the User Interface and Images tabs. (Note: If you haven't added any fields in the User Interface tab of your plugin, nothing will appear here.)
If you select one of the variables from the list and click the Insert button, the proper variable code will be inserted into the component you're currently editing so it can be utilized in your plugin's code.
A special feature to note about the HTML-based components is {if} statements. Similar to the Layout Templates section, plugins can utilize if statements using the {if} syntax. As with the Layout Templates, the if statements made using this method will not be viewable in your forum's source by users on your forum.