This repository serves as an example for external plugins. It contains code for a simple plugin that creates a virtual keyboard in the Qt GUI of Electrum.

Publishing a plugin as .zip file

In order to publish an external plugin, fork this directory and use the contrib/make_plugin script in the electrum repository.

./contrib/make_plugin <plugin_directory>

It will create a plugin file named yourplugin-version.zip, where version is set in manifest.json of the plugin.

The manifest.json file

The file contains the following fields:

• name: The plugin internal name. Electrum will install only one plugin per name.
• fullname: User visible name, shown in GUI
• description: User visible description
• available_for: List of GUIs for which the plugin is available.
• author: The plugin author
• license: The licence.
• version: The version of the plugin. It is added to the zipfile name.
• min_electrum_version (optional): Minimum supported version of Electrum
• max_electrum_version (optional): Max supported version of Electrum

Installing a zipfile plugin

The plugin zipfile needs to be added the plugins directory of your electrum directory.

On Linux:

cp myplugin.zip ~/lelectrum/plugins/myplugin.zip

The GUI will prompt the user for a plugin authorization password.

Development and testing

If you are developing an external plugin, you may fork this directory, and create a symbolic link in your electrum/electrum/plugins directory to the place where you where you forked this repository. That way, you will not need to publish your plugin in order to test it.