How to get started to develop inventree plugins

[jesseyu1984918]

I'm interested to try out developing some plugins and wonder where should I start? I'm quite proficient in Python but haven't done any development for web before

[matmair]

We provide extensive docs around this:https://docs.inventree.org/en/stable/extend/plugins/

[RedEchidnaUK]

I've recently been creating a plugin myself, and I'm not a developer and have no formal development training, but I have written code in many languages.

As suggested, start with the documentation and use the Plugin Generator to create a simple plugin. From there you will need to have some understanding of React and TypeScript. Both of those are well documented and there are plenty of videos out there. If you struggle with TypeScript, you could ignore if for a while and just use React with JavaScript, but you won't be able to use the Plugin Generator. This is what I did, as it was just one extra layer of complication and most of my code doesn't interact with/rely on Inventree. Once I was happy with my base code and had more of an understanding of React I converted it to TypeScript (a fun challenge, but helped me learn even more).

Lastly, if you get stuck on a particular issue, ask here,. The developers are generally friendly and have tolerated me asking what are probably simple questions :)

[SchrodingersGat]

@jesseyu1984918 and @RedEchidnaUK if you do find any areas in which the plugin development docs are lacking, please submit a PR. Most of the plugin architecture is written and utilised by developers who already have a very intimate knowledge of the InvenTree codebase, so some "fresh eyes" on the docs would be appreciated.