Unraid Plugin Development Documentation
Welcome to the community-maintained documentation for building plugins for Unraid OS.
This is unofficial documentation maintained by the community. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information against official sources and existing plugins.
Quick Start
New to plugin development? Start here:
- Introduction to Plugins - What are plugins and how do they work?
- Your First Plugin - Step-by-step tutorial
- PLG File Reference - The plugin installer format
- Page Files - Creating web UI pages
Documentation Sections
Getting Started
- Introduction - Plugin system overview
- File System Layout - Where files go and why
- PLG File Reference - Plugin installer XML format
- Page Files - Web UI development
- Event System - Responding to system events
Core Concepts
- Dynamix Framework - The
$Dynamixglobal array - Plugin Settings Storage -
.cfgfiles andparse_plugin_cfg() - CSRF Tokens - Form security requirements
- nchan/WebSocket - Real-time updates
- Notifications System - User alerts
- Cron Jobs - Scheduled tasks
- rc.d Scripts - Service management
- Multi-language Support - Translations
UI Development
- Form Controls - Standard form elements
- JavaScript Patterns - jQuery and AJAX
- Icons and Styling - Font Awesome and CSS
- Tab Pages - Multi-tab interfaces
- Dashboard Tiles - Custom dashboard tiles
Advanced Topics
- Docker Integration - Container management
- Array/Disk Access - Disk and share info
- User Scripts Integration - Working with User Scripts
- Debugging Techniques - Logging and troubleshooting
- Package Management - Building
.txzpackages - Update Mechanisms - Version checking and updates
Security & Best Practices
- Input Validation - Sanitizing user input
- File Permissions - Correct permissions
- Error Handling - Graceful failures
Reference
- Plugin Command - CLI tool usage
- Build and Packaging - CI/CD pipelines
- Example Plugins - Learn from real plugins
- PHP Functions Reference - Available helpers
- File Path Reference - Important directories
- Event Types Reference - All event hooks
Why This Documentation?
As noted in this forum thread, official documentation for Unraid plugin development is scattered and incomplete. Most developers learn by:
- Reverse engineering existing plugins
- Asking questions in forums
- Trial and error
This project aims to consolidate that knowledge into a single, well-organized resource.
Contributing
This documentation is open source! Found an error? Want to add content?
