Gerrit Code Review - Plugin Development

The Gerrit server functionality can be extended by installing plugins. This page describes how plugins for Gerrit can be developed.

Depending on how tightly the extension code is coupled with the Gerrit server code, there is a distinction between plugins and extensions.

A plugin in Gerrit is tightly coupled code that runs in the same JVM as Gerrit. It has full access to all server internals. Plugins are tightly coupled to a specific major.minor server version and may require source code changes to compile against a different server version.

An extension in Gerrit runs inside of the same JVM as Gerrit in the same way as a plugin, but has limited visibility to the server’s internals. The limited visibility reduces the extension’s dependencies, enabling it to be compatible across a wider range of server versions.

Most of this documentation refers to either type as a plugin.

Getting started

To get started with the development of a plugin clone the sample plugin:

$ git clone https://gerrit.googlesource.com/plugins/cookbook-plugin

This is a project that demonstrates the various features of the plugin API. It can be taken as an example to develop an own plugin.

When starting from this example one should take care to adapt the Gerrit-ApiVersion in the BUILD to the version of Gerrit for which the plugin is developed.

API

There are two different API formats offered against which plugins can be developed:

gerrit-extension-api.jar: A stable but thin interface. Suitable for extensions that need to be notified of events, but do not require tight coupling to the internals of Gerrit. Extensions built against this API can expect to be binary compatible across a wide range of server versions.
gerrit-plugin-api.jar: The complete internals of the Gerrit server, permitting a plugin to tightly couple itself and provide additional functionality that is not possible as an extension. Plugins built against this API are expected to break at the source code level between every major.minor Gerrit release. A plugin that compiles against 2.5 will probably need source code level changes to work with 2.6, 2.7, and so on.

Manifest

Plugins may provide optional description information with standard manifest fields:

  Implementation-Title: Example plugin showing examples
  Implementation-Version: 1.0
  Implementation-Vendor: Example, Inc.

ApiType

Plugins using the tightly coupled gerrit-plugin-api.jar must declare this API dependency in the manifest to gain access to server internals. If no Gerrit-ApiType is specified the stable extension API will be assumed. This may cause ClassNotFoundExceptions when loading a plugin that needs the plugin API.

  Gerrit-ApiType: plugin

Explicit Registration

Plugins that use explicit Guice registration must name the Guice modules in the manifest. Up to three modules can be named in the manifest. Gerrit-Module supplies bindings to the core server; Gerrit-SshModule supplies SSH commands to the SSH server (if enabled); Gerrit-HttpModule supplies servlets and filters to the HTTP server (if enabled). If no modules are named automatic registration will be performed by scanning all classes in the plugin JAR for @Listen and @Export("") annotations.

  Gerrit-Module:     tld.example.project.CoreModuleClassName
  Gerrit-SshModule:  tld.example.project.SshModuleClassName
  Gerrit-HttpModule: tld.example.project.HttpModuleClassName

Plugin Name

A plugin can optionally provide its own plugin name.

  Gerrit-PluginName: replication

This is useful for plugins that contribute plugin-owned capabilities that are stored in the project.config file. Another use case is to be able to put project specific plugin configuration section in project.config. In this case it is advantageous to reserve the plugin name to access the configuration section in the project.config file.

If Gerrit-PluginName is omitted, then the plugin’s name is determined from the plugin file name.

If a plugin provides its own name, then that plugin cannot be deployed multiple times under different file names on one Gerrit site.

For Maven driven plugins, the following line must be included in the pom.xml file:

<manifestEntries>
  <Gerrit-PluginName>name</Gerrit-PluginName>
</manifestEntries>

For Bazel driven plugins, the following line must be included in the BUILD configuration file:

manifest_entries = [
   'Gerrit-PluginName: name',
]

A plugin can get its own name injected at runtime:

public class MyClass {

  private final String pluginName;

  @Inject
  public MyClass(@PluginName String pluginName) {
    this.pluginName = pluginName;
  }

  [...]
}

A plugin can get its canonical web URL injected at runtime:

public class MyClass {

  private final String url;

  @Inject
  public MyClass(@PluginCanonicalWebUrl String url) {
    this.url = url;
  }

  [...]
}

The URL is composed of the server’s canonical web URL and the plugin’s name, i.e. http://review.example.com:8080/plugin-name.

The canonical web URL may be injected into any .jar plugin regardless of whether or not the plugin provides an HTTP servlet.

Reload Method

If a plugin holds an exclusive resource that must be released before loading the plugin again (for example listening on a network port or acquiring a file lock) the manifest must declare Gerrit-ReloadMode to be restart. Otherwise the preferred method of reload will be used, as it enables the server to hot-patch an updated plugin with no down time.

  Gerrit-ReloadMode: restart

In either mode ('restart' or 'reload') any plugin or extension can be updated without restarting the Gerrit server. The difference is how Gerrit handles the upgrade:

restart: The old plugin is completely stopped. All registrations of SSH commands and HTTP servlets are removed. All registrations of any extension points are removed. All registered LifecycleListeners have their stop() method invoked in reverse order. The new plugin is started, and registrations are made from the new plugin. There is a brief window where neither the old nor the new plugin is connected to the server. This means SSH commands and HTTP servlets will return not found errors, and the plugin will not be notified of events that occurred during the restart.
reload: The new plugin is started. Its LifecycleListeners are permitted to perform their start() methods. All SSH and HTTP registrations are atomically swapped out from the old plugin to the new plugin, ensuring the server never returns a not found error. All extension point listeners are atomically swapped out from the old plugin to the new plugin, ensuring no events are missed (however some events may still route to the old plugin if the swap wasn’t complete yet). The old plugin is stopped.

To reload/restart a plugin the plugin reload command can be used.

Init step

Plugins can contribute their own "init step" during the Gerrit init wizard. This is useful for guiding the Gerrit administrator through the settings needed by the plugin to work properly.

For instance plugins to integrate Jira issues to Gerrit changes may contribute their own "init step" to allow configuring the Jira URL, credentials and possibly verify connectivity to validate them.

  Gerrit-InitStep: tld.example.project.MyInitStep

MyInitStep needs to follow the standard Gerrit InitStep syntax and behavior: writing to the console using the injected ConsoleUI and accessing / changing configuration settings using Section.Factory.

In addition to the standard Gerrit init injections, plugins receive the @PluginName String injection containing their own plugin name.

During their initialization plugins may get access to the project.config file of the All-Projects project and they are able to store configuration parameters in it. For this a plugin InitStep can get com.google.gerrit.pgm.init.api.AllProjectsConfig injected:

  public class MyInitStep implements InitStep {
    private final String pluginName;
    private final ConsoleUI ui;
    private final AllProjectsConfig allProjectsConfig;

    @Inject
    public MyInitStep(@PluginName String pluginName, ConsoleUI ui,
        AllProjectsConfig allProjectsConfig) {
      this.pluginName = pluginName;
      this.ui = ui;
      this.allProjectsConfig = allProjectsConfig;
    }

    @Override
    public void run() throws Exception {
    }

    @Override
    public void postRun() throws Exception {
      ui.message("\n");
      ui.header(pluginName + " Integration");
      boolean enabled = ui.yesno(true, "By default enabled for all projects");
      Config cfg = allProjectsConfig.load().getConfig();
      if (enabled) {
        cfg.setBoolean("plugin", pluginName, "enabled", enabled);
      } else {
        cfg.unset("plugin", pluginName, "enabled");
      }
      allProjectsConfig.save(pluginName, "Initialize " + pluginName + " Integration");
    }
  }

Bear in mind that the Plugin’s InitStep class will be loaded but the standard Gerrit runtime environment is not available and the plugin’s own Guice modules were not initialized. This means the InitStep for a plugin is not executed in the same way that the plugin executes within the server, and may mean a plugin author cannot trivially reuse runtime code during init.

For instance a plugin that wants to verify connectivity may need to statically call the constructor of their connection class, passing in values obtained from the Section.Factory rather than from an injected Config object.

Plugins' InitSteps are executed during the "Gerrit Plugin init" phase, after the extraction of the plugins embedded in the distribution .war file into $GERRIT_SITE/plugins and before the DB Schema initialization or upgrade.

A plugin’s InitStep cannot refer to Gerrit’s DB Schema or any other Gerrit runtime objects injected at startup.

public class MyInitStep implements InitStep {
  private final ConsoleUI ui;
  private final Section.Factory sections;
  private final String pluginName;

  @Inject
  public GitBlitInitStep(final ConsoleUI ui, Section.Factory sections, @PluginName String pluginName) {
    this.ui = ui;
    this.sections = sections;
    this.pluginName = pluginName;
  }

  @Override
  public void run() throws Exception {
    ui.header("\nMy plugin");

    Section mySection = getSection("myplugin", null);
    mySection.string("Link name", "linkname", "MyLink");
  }

  @Override
  public void postRun() throws Exception {
  }
}

Classpath

Each plugin is loaded into its own ClassLoader, isolating plugins from each other. A plugin or extension inherits the Java runtime and the Gerrit API chosen by Gerrit-ApiType (extension or plugin) from the hosting server.

Plugins are loaded from a single JAR file. If a plugin needs additional libraries, it must include those dependencies within its own JAR. Plugins built using Maven may be able to use the shade plugin to package additional dependencies. Relocating (or renaming) classes should not be necessary due to the ClassLoader isolation.

Listening to Events

Certain operations in Gerrit trigger events. Plugins may receive notifications of these events by implementing the corresponding listeners.

com.google.gerrit.common.EventListener:

Allows to listen to events without user visibility restrictions. These are the same events that are also streamed by the gerrit stream-events command.
com.google.gerrit.common.UserScopedEventListener:

Allows to listen to events visible to the specified user. These are the same events that are also streamed by the gerrit stream-events command.
com.google.gerrit.extensions.events.LifecycleListener:

Plugin start and stop
com.google.gerrit.extensions.events.NewProjectCreatedListener:

Project creation
com.google.gerrit.extensions.events.ProjectDeletedListener:

Project deletion
com.google.gerrit.extensions.events.HeadUpdatedListener:

Update of HEAD on a project
com.google.gerrit.extensions.events.UsageDataPublishedListener:

Publication of usage data
com.google.gerrit.extensions.events.GarbageCollectorListener:

Garbage collection ran on a project
com.google.gerrit.server.extensions.events.ChangeIndexedListener:

Update of the change secondary index
com.google.gerrit.server.extensions.events.AccountIndexedListener:

Update of the account secondary index
com.google.gerrit.server.extensions.events.GroupIndexedListener:

Update of the group secondary index
com.google.gerrit.httpd.WebLoginListener:

User login or logout interactively on the Web user interface.

The event listener is under the Gerrit http package to automatically inherit the javax.servlet.http dependencies and allowing to influence the login or logout flow with additional redirections.

Sending Events to the Events Stream

Plugins may send events to the events stream where consumers of Gerrit’s stream-events ssh command will receive them.

To send an event, the plugin must invoke one of the postEvent methods in the EventDispatcher interface, passing an instance of its own custom event class derived from com.google.gerrit.server.events.Event.

import com.google.gerrit.common.EventDispatcher;
import com.google.gerrit.extensions.registration.DynamicItem;
import com.google.gwtorm.server.OrmException;
import com.google.inject.Inject;

class MyPlugin {
  private final DynamicItem<EventDispatcher> eventDispatcher;

  @Inject
  myPlugin(DynamicItem<EventDispatcher> eventDispatcher) {
    this.eventDispatcher = eventDispatcher;
  }

  private void postEvent(MyPluginEvent event) {
    try {
      eventDispatcher.get().postEvent(event);
    } catch (OrmException e) {
      // error handling
    }
  }
}

Plugins which define new Events should register them via the com.google.gerrit.server.events.EventTypes.registerClass() method. This will make the EventType known to the system. Deserializing events with the com.google.gerrit.server.events.EventDeserializer class requires that the event be registered in EventTypes.

Modifying the Stream Event Flow

It is possible to modify the stream event flow from plugins by registering an com.google.gerrit.server.events.EventDispatcher. A plugin may register a Dispatcher class to replace the internal Dispatcher. EventDispatcher is a DynamicItem, so Gerrit may only have one copy.

Validation Listeners

Certain operations in Gerrit can be validated by plugins by implementing the corresponding listeners.

Change Message Modifier

com.google.gerrit.server.git.ChangeMessageModifier: plugins implementing this can modify commit message of the change being submitted by Rebase Always and Cherry Pick submit strategies as well as change being queried with COMMIT_FOOTERS option.

Receive Pack Initializers

Plugins may provide ReceivePack initializers which will be invoked by Gerrit just before a ReceivePack instance will be used. Usually, plugins will make use of the setXXX methods on the ReceivePack to set additional properties on it.

Post Receive-Pack Hooks

Plugins may register PostReceiveHook instances in order to get notified when JGit successfully receives a pack. This may be useful for those plugins which would like to monitor changes in Git repositories.

Pre Upload-Pack Hooks

Plugins may register PreUploadHook instances in order to get notified when JGit is about to upload a pack. This may be useful for those plugins which would like to monitor usage in Git repositories.

Post Upload-Pack Hooks

Plugins may register PostUploadHook instances in order to get notified after JGit is done uploading a pack.

SSH Commands

Plugins may provide commands that can be accessed through the SSH interface (extensions do not have this option).

Command implementations must extend the base class SshCommand:

import com.google.gerrit.sshd.SshCommand;
import com.google.gerrit.sshd.CommandMetaData;

@CommandMetaData(name="print", description="Print hello command")
class PrintHello extends SshCommand {
  @Override
  protected void run() {
    stdout.print("Hello\n");
  }
}

If no Guice modules are declared in the manifest, SSH commands may use auto-registration by providing an @Export annotation:

import com.google.gerrit.extensions.annotations.Export;
import com.google.gerrit.sshd.SshCommand;

@Export("print")
class PrintHello extends SshCommand {
  @Override
  protected void run() {
    stdout.print("Hello\n");
  }
}

If explicit registration is being used, a Guice module must be supplied to register the SSH command and declared in the manifest with the Gerrit-SshModule attribute:

import com.google.gerrit.sshd.PluginCommandModule;

class MyCommands extends PluginCommandModule {
  @Override
  protected void configureCommands() {
    command(PrintHello.class);
  }
}

For a plugin installed as name helloworld, the command implemented by PrintHello class will be available to users as:

$ ssh -p 29418 review.example.com helloworld print

Multiple Commands bound to one implementation

Multiple SSH commands can be bound to the same implementation class. For example a Gerrit Shell plugin can bind different shell commands to the same implementation class:

public class SshShellModule extends PluginCommandModule {
  @Override
  protected void configureCommands() {
    command("ls").to(ShellCommand.class);
    command("ps").to(ShellCommand.class);
    [...]
  }
}

With the possible implementation:

public class ShellCommand extends SshCommand {
  @Override
  protected void run() throws UnloggedFailure {
    String cmd = getName().substring(getPluginName().length() + 1);
    ProcessBuilder proc = new ProcessBuilder(cmd);
    Process cmd = proc.start();
    [...]
  }
}

And the call:

$ ssh -p 29418 review.example.com shell ls
$ ssh -p 29418 review.example.com shell ps

Root Level Commands

Single command plugins are also supported. In this scenario plugin binds SSH command to its own name. SshModule must inherit from SingleCommandPluginModule class:

public class SshModule extends SingleCommandPluginModule {
 @Override
 protected void configure(LinkedBindingBuilder<Command> b) {
    b.to(ShellCommand.class);
  }
}

If the plugin above is deployed under sh.jar file in $site/plugins directory, generic commands can be called without specifying the actual SSH command. Note in the example below, that the called commands ls and ps was not explicitly bound:

$ ssh -p 29418 review.example.com sh ls
$ ssh -p 29418 review.example.com sh ps

Search Operators

Plugins can define new search operators to extend change searching by implementing the ChangeQueryBuilder.ChangeOperatorFactory interface and registering it to an operator name in the plugin module’s configure() method. The search operator name is defined during registration via the DynamicMap annotation mechanism. The plugin name will get appended to the annotated name, with an underscore in between, leading to the final operator name. An example registration looks like this:

bind(ChangeOperatorFactory.class)
   .annotatedWith(Exports.named("sample"))
   .to(SampleOperator.class);

If this is registered in the myplugin plugin, then the resulting operator will be named sample_myplugin.

The search operator itself is implemented by ensuring that the create() method of the class implementing the ChangeQueryBuilder.ChangeOperatorFactory interface returns a Predicate<ChangeData>. Here is a sample operator factory definition which creates a MyPredicate:

@Singleton
public class SampleOperator
    implements ChangeQueryBuilder.ChangeOperatorFactory {
  public static class MyPredicate extends OperatorChangePredicate<ChangeData> {
    ...
  }

  @Override
  public Predicate<ChangeData> create(ChangeQueryBuilder builder, String value)
      throws QueryParseException {
    return new MyPredicate(value);
  }
}

Search Operands

Plugins can define new search operands to extend change searching. Plugin methods implementing search operands (returning a Predicate<ChangeData>), must be defined on a class implementing one of the ChangeQueryBuilder.ChangeOperandsFactory interfaces (.e.g., ChangeQueryBuilder.ChangeHasOperandFactory). The specific ChangeOperandFactory class must also be bound to the DynamicSet from a module’s configure() method in the plugin.

The new operand, when used in a search would appear as: operatorName:operandName_pluginName

A sample ChangeHasOperandFactory class implementing, and registering, a new has:sample_pluginName operand is shown below:

@Singleton
public class SampleHasOperand implements ChangeHasOperandFactory {
  public static class Module extends AbstractModule {
    @Override
    protected void configure() {
      bind(ChangeHasOperandFactory.class)
          .annotatedWith(Exports.named("sample")
          .to(SampleHasOperand.class);
    }
  }

@Override
public Predicate<ChangeData> create(ChangeQueryBuilder builder)
    throws QueryParseException {
  return new HasSamplePredicate();
}

Simple Configuration in `gerrit.config`

In Gerrit, global configuration is stored in the gerrit.config file. If a plugin needs global configuration, this configuration should be stored in a plugin subsection in the gerrit.config file.

This approach of storing the plugin configuration is only suitable for plugins that have a simple configuration that only consists of key-value pairs. With this approach it is not possible to have subsections in the plugin configuration. Plugins that require a complex configuration need to store their configuration in their own configuration file where they can make use of subsections. On the other hand storing the plugin configuration in a 'plugin' subsection in the gerrit.config file has the advantage that administrators have all configuration parameters in one file, instead of having one configuration file per plugin.

To avoid conflicts with other plugins, it is recommended that plugins only use the plugin subsection with their own name. For example the helloworld plugin should store its configuration in the plugin.helloworld subsection:

[plugin "helloworld"]
  language = Latin

Via the com.google.gerrit.server.config.PluginConfigFactory class a plugin can easily access its configuration and there is no need for a plugin to parse the gerrit.config file on its own:

@Inject
private com.google.gerrit.server.config.PluginConfigFactory cfg;

[...]

String language = cfg.getFromGerritConfig("helloworld")
                     .getString("language", "English");

Configuration in own config file

Plugins can store their configuration in an own configuration file. This makes sense if the plugin configuration is rather complex and requires the usage of subsections. Plugins that have a simple key-value pair configuration can store their configuration in a plugin subsection of the gerrit.config file.

The plugin configuration file must be named after the plugin and must be located in the etc folder of the review site. For example a configuration file for a default-reviewer plugin could look like this:

$site_path/etc/default-reviewer.config

[branch "refs/heads/master"]
  reviewer = Project Owners
  reviewer = john.doe@example.com
[match "file:^.*\.txt"]
  reviewer = My Info Developers

Plugins that have sensitive configuration settings can store those settings in an own secure configuration file. The plugin’s secure configuration file must be named after the plugin and must be located in the etc folder of the review site. For example a secure configuration file for a default-reviewer plugin could look like this:

$site_path/etc/default-reviewer.secure.config

[auth]
  password = secret

Via the com.google.gerrit.server.config.PluginConfigFactory class a plugin can easily access its configuration:

@Inject
private com.google.gerrit.server.config.PluginConfigFactory cfg;

[...]

String[] reviewers = cfg.getGlobalPluginConfig("default-reviewer")
                        .getStringList("branch", "refs/heads/master", "reviewer");
String password = cfg.getGlobalPluginConfig("default-reviewer")
                     .getString("auth", null, "password");

Simple Project Specific Configuration in `project.config`

In Gerrit, project specific configuration is stored in the project’s project.config file on the refs/meta/config branch. If a plugin needs configuration on project level (e.g. to enable its functionality only for certain projects), this configuration should be stored in a plugin subsection in the project’s project.config file.

This approach of storing the plugin configuration is only suitable for plugins that have a simple configuration that only consists of key-value pairs. With this approach it is not possible to have subsections in the plugin configuration. Plugins that require a complex configuration need to store their configuration in their own configuration file where they can make use of subsections. On the other hand storing the plugin configuration in a 'plugin' subsection in the project.config file has the advantage that project owners have all configuration parameters in one file, instead of having one configuration file per plugin.

  [plugin "helloworld"]
    enabled = true

Via the com.google.gerrit.server.config.PluginConfigFactory class a plugin can easily access its project specific configuration and there is no need for a plugin to parse the project.config file on its own:

@Inject
private com.google.gerrit.server.config.PluginConfigFactory cfg;

[...]

boolean enabled = cfg.getFromProjectConfig(project, "helloworld")
                     .getBoolean("enabled", false);

It is also possible to get missing configuration parameters inherited from the parent projects:

@Inject
private com.google.gerrit.server.config.PluginConfigFactory cfg;

[...]

boolean enabled = cfg.getFromProjectConfigWithInheritance(project, "helloworld")
                     .getBoolean("enabled", false);

Project owners can edit the project configuration by fetching the refs/meta/config branch, editing the project.config file and pushing the commit back.

Plugin configuration values that are stored in the project.config file can be exposed in the ProjectInfoScreen to allow project owners to see and edit them from the UI.

For this an instance of ProjectConfigEntry needs to be bound for each parameter. The export name must be a valid Git variable name. The variable name is case-insensitive, allows only alphanumeric characters and '-', and must start with an alphabetic character.

The example below shows how the parameters plugin.helloworld.enabled and plugin.helloworld.language are bound to be editable from the Web UI. For the parameter plugin.helloworld.enabled "Enable Greeting" is provided as display name and the default value is set to true. For the parameter plugin.helloworld.language "Preferred Language" is provided as display name and "en" is set as default value.

class Module extends AbstractModule {
  @Override
  protected void configure() {
    bind(ProjectConfigEntry.class)
        .annotatedWith(Exports.named("enabled"))
        .toInstance(new ProjectConfigEntry("Enable Greeting", true));
    bind(ProjectConfigEntry.class)
        .annotatedWith(Exports.named("language"))
        .toInstance(new ProjectConfigEntry("Preferred Language", "en"));
  }
}

By overwriting the onUpdate method of ProjectConfigEntry plugins can be notified when this configuration parameter is updated on a project.

Referencing groups in `project.config`

Plugins can refer to groups so that when they are renamed, the project config will also be updated in this section. The proper format to use is the string representation of a GroupReference, as shown below.

Group[group_name / group_uuid]

Project Specific Configuration in own config file

Plugins can store their project specific configuration in an own configuration file in the projects refs/meta/config branch. This makes sense if the plugins project specific configuration is rather complex and requires the usage of subsections. Plugins that have a simple key-value pair configuration can store their project specific configuration in a plugin subsection of the project.config file.

The plugin configuration file in the refs/meta/config branch must be named after the plugin. For example a configuration file for a default-reviewer plugin could look like this:

default-reviewer.config

[branch "refs/heads/master"]
  reviewer = Project Owners
  reviewer = john.doe@example.com
[match "file:^.*\.txt"]
  reviewer = My Info Developers

Via the com.google.gerrit.server.config.PluginConfigFactory class a plugin can easily access its project specific configuration:

@Inject
private com.google.gerrit.server.config.PluginConfigFactory cfg;

[...]

String[] reviewers = cfg.getProjectPluginConfig(project, "default-reviewer")
                        .getStringList("branch", "refs/heads/master", "reviewer");

It is also possible to get missing configuration parameters inherited from the parent projects:

@Inject
private com.google.gerrit.server.config.PluginConfigFactory cfg;

[...]

String[] reviewers = cfg.getProjectPluginConfigWithInheritance(project, "default-reviewer")
                        .getStringList("branch", "refs/heads/master", "reviewer");

Project owners can edit the project configuration by fetching the refs/meta/config branch, editing the <plugin-name>.config file and pushing the commit back.

React on changes in project configuration

If a plugin wants to react on changes in the project configuration, it can implement a GitReferenceUpdatedListener and filter on events for the refs/meta/config branch:

public class MyListener implements GitReferenceUpdatedListener {

  private final MetaDataUpdate.Server metaDataUpdateFactory;

  @Inject
  MyListener(MetaDataUpdate.Server metaDataUpdateFactory) {
    this.metaDataUpdateFactory = metaDataUpdateFactory;
  }

  @Override
  public void onGitReferenceUpdated(Event event) {
    if (event.getRefName().equals(RefNames.REFS_CONFIG)) {
      Project.NameKey p = new Project.NameKey(event.getProjectName());
      try {
        ProjectConfig oldCfg = parseConfig(p, event.getOldObjectId());
        ProjectConfig newCfg = parseConfig(p, event.getNewObjectId());

        if (oldCfg != null && newCfg != null
            && !oldCfg.getProject().getSubmitType().equals(newCfg.getProject().getSubmitType())) {
          // submit type has changed
          ...
        }
      } catch (IOException | ConfigInvalidException e) {
        ...
      }
    }
  }

  private ProjectConfig parseConfig(Project.NameKey p, String idStr)
      throws IOException, ConfigInvalidException, RepositoryNotFoundException {
    ObjectId id = ObjectId.fromString(idStr);
    if (ObjectId.zeroId().equals(id)) {
      return null;
    }
    return ProjectConfig.read(metaDataUpdateFactory.create(p), id);
  }
}

Plugin Owned Capabilities

Plugins may provide their own capabilities and restrict usage of SSH commands or UiAction to the users who are granted those capabilities.

Plugins define the capabilities by overriding the CapabilityDefinition abstract class:

public class PrintHelloCapability extends CapabilityDefinition {
  @Override
  public String getDescription() {
    return "Print Hello";
  }
}

If no Guice modules are declared in the manifest, capability may use auto-registration by providing an @Export annotation:

@Export("printHello")
public class PrintHelloCapability extends CapabilityDefinition {
  [...]
}

Otherwise the capability must be bound in a plugin module:

public class HelloWorldModule extends AbstractModule {
  @Override
  protected void configure() {
    bind(CapabilityDefinition.class)
      .annotatedWith(Exports.named("printHello"))
      .to(PrintHelloCapability.class);
  }
}

With a plugin-owned capability defined in this way, it is possible to restrict usage of an SSH command or UiAction to members of the group that were granted this capability in the usual way, using the RequiresCapability annotation:

@RequiresCapability("printHello")
@CommandMetaData(name="print", description="Print greeting in different languages")
public final class PrintHelloWorldCommand extends SshCommand {
  [...]
}

Or with UiAction:

@RequiresCapability("printHello")
public class SayHelloAction extends UiAction<RevisionResource>
  implements RestModifyView<RevisionResource, SayHelloAction.Input> {
  [...]
}

Capability scope was introduced to differentiate between plugin-owned capabilities and core capabilities. Per default the scope of the @RequiresCapability annotation is CapabilityScope.CONTEXT, that means:

when @RequiresCapability is used within a plugin the scope of the capability is assumed to be that plugin.
If @RequiresCapability is used within the core Gerrit Code Review server (and thus is outside of a plugin) the scope is the core server and will use the GlobalCapability known to Gerrit Code Review server.

If a plugin needs to use a core capability name (e.g. "administrateServer") this can be specified by setting scope = CapabilityScope.CORE:

@RequiresCapability(value = "administrateServer", scope =
    CapabilityScope.CORE)
  [...]

UI Extension

Panels

GWT plugins can contribute panels to Gerrit screens.

Gerrit screens define extension points where plugins can add GWT panels with custom controls:

Change Screen:
- GerritUiExtensionPoint.CHANGE_SCREEN_HEADER:
  
  Panel will be shown in the header bar to the right of the change status.
- GerritUiExtensionPoint.CHANGE_SCREEN_HEADER_RIGHT_OF_BUTTONS:
  
  Panel will be shown in the header bar on the right side of the buttons.
- GerritUiExtensionPoint.CHANGE_SCREEN_HEADER_RIGHT_OF_POP_DOWNS:
  
  Panel will be shown in the header bar on the right side of the pop down buttons.
- GerritUiExtensionPoint.CHANGE_SCREEN_BELOW_COMMIT_INFO_BLOCK:
  
  Panel will be shown below the commit info block.
- GerritUiExtensionPoint.CHANGE_SCREEN_BELOW_CHANGE_INFO_BLOCK:
  
  Panel will be shown below the change info block.
- GerritUiExtensionPoint.CHANGE_SCREEN_BELOW_RELATED_INFO_BLOCK:
  
  Panel will be shown below the related info block.
- GerritUiExtensionPoint.CHANGE_SCREEN_HISTORY_RIGHT_OF_BUTTONS:
  
  Panel will be shown in the history bar on the right side of the buttons.
- The following parameters are provided:
  - GerritUiExtensionPoint.Key.CHANGE_INFO:
    
    The ChangeInfo entity for the current change.
    
    The RevisionInfo entity for the current patch set.
Project Info Screen:
- GerritUiExtensionPoint.PROJECT_INFO_SCREEN_TOP:
  
  Panel will be shown at the top of the screen.
- GerritUiExtensionPoint.PROJECT_INFO_SCREEN_BOTTOM:
  
  Panel will be shown at the bottom of the screen.
- The following parameters are provided:
  - GerritUiExtensionPoint.Key.PROJECT_NAME:
    
    The name of the project.
User Password Screen:
- GerritUiExtensionPoint.PASSWORD_SCREEN_BOTTOM:
  
  Panel will be shown at the bottom of the screen.
- The following parameters are provided:
  - GerritUiExtensionPoint.Key.ACCOUNT_INFO:
    
    The AccountInfo entity for the current user.
User Preferences Screen:
- GerritUiExtensionPoint.PREFERENCES_SCREEN_BOTTOM:
  
  Panel will be shown at the bottom of the screen.
- The following parameters are provided:
  - GerritUiExtensionPoint.Key.ACCOUNT_INFO:
    
    The AccountInfo entity for the current user.
User Profile Screen:
- GerritUiExtensionPoint.PROFILE_SCREEN_BOTTOM:
  
  Panel will be shown at the bottom of the screen below the grid with the profile data.
- The following parameters are provided:
  - GerritUiExtensionPoint.Key.ACCOUNT_INFO:
    
    The AccountInfo entity for the current user.

Example panel:

public class MyPlugin extends PluginEntryPoint {
  @Override
  public void onPluginLoad() {
    Plugin.get().panel(GerritUiExtensionPoint.CHANGE_SCREEN_BELOW_CHANGE_INFO_BLOCK,
        new Panel.EntryPoint() {
          @Override
          public void onLoad(Panel panel) {
            panel.setWidget(new InlineLabel("My Panel for change "
                + panel.getInt(GerritUiExtensionPoint.Key.CHANGE_ID, -1));
          }
        });
  }
}

Actions

Plugins can contribute UI actions on core Gerrit pages. This is useful for workflow customization or exposing plugin functionality through the UI in addition to SSH commands and the REST API.

For instance a plugin to integrate Jira with Gerrit changes may contribute a "File bug" button to allow filing a bug from the change page or plugins to integrate continuous integration systems may contribute a "Schedule" button to allow a CI build to be scheduled manually from the patch set panel.

Two different places on core Gerrit pages are supported:

Change screen
Project info screen

Plugins contribute UI actions by implementing the UiAction interface:

@RequiresCapability("printHello")
class HelloWorldAction implements UiAction<RevisionResource>,
    RestModifyView<RevisionResource, HelloWorldAction.Input> {
  static class Input {
    boolean french;
    String message;
  }

  private Provider<CurrentUser> user;

  @Inject
  HelloWorldAction(Provider<CurrentUser> user) {
    this.user = user;
  }

  @Override
  public String apply(RevisionResource rev, Input input) {
    final String greeting = input.french
        ? "Bonjour"
        : "Hello";
    return String.format("%s %s from change %s, patch set %d!",
        greeting,
        Strings.isNullOrEmpty(input.message)
            ? Objects.firstNonNull(user.get().getUserName(), "world")
            : input.message,
        rev.getChange().getId().toString(),
        rev.getPatchSet().getPatchSetId());
  }

  @Override
  public Description getDescription(
      RevisionResource resource) {
    return new Description()
        .setLabel("Say hello")
        .setTitle("Say hello in different languages");
  }
}

Sometimes plugins may want to be able to change the state of a patch set or change in the UiAction.apply() method and reflect these changes on the core UI. For example a buildbot plugin which exposes a 'Schedule' button on the patch set panel may want to disable that button after the build was scheduled and update the tooltip of that button. But because of Gerrit’s caching strategy the following must be taken into consideration.

The browser is allowed to cache the UiAction information until something on the change is modified. More accurately the change row needs to be modified in the database to have a more recent lastUpdatedOn or a new rowVersion, or the refs/meta/config of the project or any parents needs to change to a new SHA-1. The ETag SHA-1 computation code can be found in the ChangeResource.getETag() method.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to update lastUpdatedOn of the change:

@Override
public Object apply(RevisionResource rcrs, Input in) {
  // schedule a build
  [...]
  // update change
  ReviewDb db = dbProvider.get();
  try (BatchUpdate bu = batchUpdateFactory.create(
      db, project.getNameKey(), user, TimeUtil.nowTs())) {
    bu.addOp(change.getId(), new BatchUpdate.Op() {
      @Override
      public boolean updateChange(ChangeContext ctx) {
        return true;
      }
    });
    bu.execute();
  }
  [...]
}

UiAction must be bound in a plugin module:

public class Module extends AbstractModule {
  @Override
  protected void configure() {
    install(new RestApiModule() {
      @Override
      protected void configure() {
        post(REVISION_KIND, "say-hello")
            .to(HelloWorldAction.class);
      }
    });
  }
}

The module above must be declared in the pom.xml for Maven driven plugins:

<manifestEntries>
  <Gerrit-Module>com.googlesource.gerrit.plugins.cookbook.Module</Gerrit-Module>
</manifestEntries>

or in the BUILD configuration file for Bazel driven plugins:

manifest_entries = [
  'Gerrit-Module: com.googlesource.gerrit.plugins.cookbook.Module',
]

In some use cases more user input must be gathered, for that UiAction can be combined with the JavaScript API. This would display a small popup near the activation button to gather additional input from the user. The JS file is typically put in the static folder within the plugin’s directory:

Gerrit.install(function(self) {
  function onSayHello(c) {
    var f = c.textfield();
    var t = c.checkbox();
    var b = c.button('Say hello', {onclick: function(){
      c.call(
        {message: f.value, french: t.checked},
        function(r) {
          c.hide();
          window.alert(r);
          c.refresh();
        });
    }});
    c.popup(c.div(
      c.prependLabel('Greeting message', f),
      c.br(),
      c.label(t, 'french'),
      c.br(),
      b));
    f.focus();
  }
  self.onAction('revision', 'say-hello', onSayHello);
});

The JS module must be exposed as a WebUiPlugin and bound as an HTTP Module:

public class HttpModule extends HttpPluginModule {
  @Override
  protected void configureServlets() {
    DynamicSet.bind(binder(), WebUiPlugin.class)
        .toInstance(new JavaScriptPlugin("hello.js"));
  }
}

The HTTP module above must be declared in the pom.xml for Maven driven plugins:

<manifestEntries>
  <Gerrit-HttpModule>com.googlesource.gerrit.plugins.cookbook.HttpModule</Gerrit-HttpModule>
</manifestEntries>

or in the BUILD configuration file for Bazel driven plugins

manifest_entries = [
  'Gerrit-HttpModule: com.googlesource.gerrit.plugins.cookbook.HttpModule',
]

If UiAction is annotated with the @RequiresCapability annotation, then the capability check is done during the UiAction gathering, so the plugin author doesn’t have to set UiAction.Description.setVisible() explicitly in this case.

The following prerequisites must be met, to satisfy the capability check:

user is authenticated
user is a member of a group which has the Administrate Server capability, or
user is a member of a group which has the required capability

The apply method is called when the button is clicked. If UiAction is combined with JavaScript API (its own JavaScript function is provided), then a popup dialog is normally opened to gather additional user input. A new button is placed on the popup dialog to actually send the request.

Every UiAction exposes a REST API endpoint. The endpoint from the example above can be accessed from any REST client, i. e.:

  curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{message: "François", french: true}' \
    --user joe:secret \
    http://host:port/a/changes/1/revisions/1/cookbook~say-hello
  "Bonjour François from change 1, patch set 1!"

A special case is to bind an endpoint without a view name. This is particularly useful for DELETE requests:

public class Module extends AbstractModule {
  @Override
  protected void configure() {
    install(new RestApiModule() {
      @Override
      protected void configure() {
        delete(PROJECT_KIND)
            .to(DeleteProject.class);
      }
    });
  }
}

For a UiAction bound this way, a JS API function can be provided.

Currently only one restriction exists: per plugin only one UiAction can be bound per resource without view name. To define a JS function for the UiAction, "/" must be used as the name:

Gerrit.install(function(self) {
  function onDeleteProject(c) {
    [...]
  }
  self.onAction('project', '/', onDeleteProject);
});

Action Visitors

In addition to providing new actions, plugins can have fine-grained control over the ActionInfo map, modifying or removing existing actions, including those contributed by core.

Visitors are provided the ActionInfo, which is mutable, along with copies of the ChangeInfo and RevisionInfo. They can modify the action, or return false to exclude it from the resulting map.

These operations only affect the action buttons that are displayed in the UI; the underlying REST API endpoints are not affected. Multiple plugins may implement the visitor interface, but the order in which they are run is undefined.

For example, to exclude "Cherry-Pick" only from certain projects, and rename "Abandon":

public class MyActionVisitor implements ActionVisitor {
  @Override
  public boolean visit(String name, ActionInfo actionInfo,
      ChangeInfo changeInfo) {
    if (name.equals("abandon")) {
      actionInfo.label = "Drop";
    }
    return true;
  }

  @Override
  public boolean visit(String name, ActionInfo actionInfo,
      ChangeInfo changeInfo, RevisionInfo revisionInfo) {
    if (project.startsWith("some-team/") && name.equals("cherrypick")) {
      return false;
    }
    return true;
  }
}

Plugins can contribute items to Gerrit’s top menu.

A single top menu extension can have multiple elements and will be put as the last element in Gerrit’s top menu.

Plugins define the top menu entries by implementing TopMenu interface:

public class MyTopMenuExtension implements TopMenu {

  @Override
  public List<MenuEntry> getEntries() {
    return Lists.newArrayList(
               new MenuEntry("Top Menu Entry", Lists.newArrayList(
                      new MenuItem("Gerrit", "http://gerrit.googlecode.com/"))));
  }
}

Plugins can also add additional menu items to Gerrit’s top menu entries by defining a MenuEntry that has the same name as a Gerrit top menu entry:

public class MyTopMenuExtension implements TopMenu {

  @Override
  public List<MenuEntry> getEntries() {
    return Lists.newArrayList(
               new MenuEntry(GerritTopMenu.PROJECTS, Lists.newArrayList(
                      new MenuItem("Browse Repositories", "https://gerrit.googlesource.com/"))));
  }
}

MenuItems that are bound for the MenuEntry with the name GerritTopMenu.PROJECTS can contain a ${projectName} placeholder which is automatically replaced by the actual project name.

E.g. plugins may register an HTTP Servlet to handle project specific requests and add an menu item for this:

---
  new MenuItem("My Screen", "/plugins/myplugin/project/${projectName}");
---

This also enables plugins to provide menu items for project aware screens:

---
  new MenuItem("My Screen", "/x/my-screen/for/${projectName}");
---

If no Guice modules are declared in the manifest, the top menu extension may use auto-registration by providing an @Listen annotation:

@Listen
public class MyTopMenuExtension implements TopMenu {
  [...]
}

Otherwise the top menu extension must be bound in the plugin module used for the Gerrit system injector (Gerrit-Module entry in MANIFEST.MF):

package com.googlesource.gerrit.plugins.helloworld;

public class HelloWorldModule extends AbstractModule {
  @Override
  protected void configure() {
    DynamicSet.bind(binder(), TopMenu.class).to(MyTopMenuExtension.class);
  }
}

Gerrit-ApiType: plugin
Gerrit-Module: com.googlesource.gerrit.plugins.helloworld.HelloWorldModule

It is also possible to show some menu entries only if the user has a certain capability:

public class MyTopMenuExtension implements TopMenu {
  private final String pluginName;
  private final Provider<CurrentUser> userProvider;
  private final List<MenuEntry> menuEntries;

  @Inject
  public MyTopMenuExtension(@PluginName String pluginName,
      Provider<CurrentUser> userProvider) {
    this.pluginName = pluginName;
    this.userProvider = userProvider;
    menuEntries = new ArrayList<TopMenu.MenuEntry>();

    // add menu entry that is only visible to users with a certain capability
    if (canSeeMenuEntry()) {
      menuEntries.add(new MenuEntry("Top Menu Entry", Collections
          .singletonList(new MenuItem("Gerrit", "http://gerrit.googlecode.com/"))));
    }

    // add menu entry that is visible to all users (even anonymous users)
    menuEntries.add(new MenuEntry("Top Menu Entry", Collections
          .singletonList(new MenuItem("Documentation", "/plugins/myplugin/"))));
  }

  private boolean canSeeMenuEntry() {
    if (userProvider.get().isIdentifiedUser()) {
      CapabilityControl ctl = userProvider.get().getCapabilities();
      return ctl.canPerform(pluginName + "-" + MyCapability.ID)
          || ctl.canAdministrateServer();
    } else {
      return false;
    }
  }

  @Override
  public List<MenuEntry> getEntries() {
    return menuEntries;
  }
}

GWT UI Extension

Plugins can extend the Gerrit UI with own GWT code.

A GWT plugin must contain a GWT module file, e.g. HelloPlugin.gwt.xml, that bundles together all the configuration settings of the GWT plugin:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<module rename-to="hello_gwt_plugin">
  <!-- Inherit the core Web Toolkit stuff. -->
  <inherits name="com.google.gwt.user.User"/>
  <!-- Other module inherits -->
  <inherits name="com.google.gerrit.Plugin"/>
  <inherits name="com.google.gwt.http.HTTP"/>
  <!-- Using GWT built-in themes adds a number of static -->
  <!-- resources to the plugin. No theme inherits lines were -->
  <!-- added in order to make this plugin as simple as possible -->
  <!-- Specify the app entry point class. -->
  <entry-point class="${package}.client.HelloPlugin"/>
  <stylesheet src="hello.css"/>
</module>

The GWT module must inherit com.google.gerrit.Plugin and com.google.gwt.http.HTTP.

To register the GWT module a GwtPlugin needs to be bound.

If no Guice modules are declared in the manifest, the GWT plugin may use auto-registration by using the @Listen annotation:

@Listen
public class MyExtension extends GwtPlugin {
  public MyExtension() {
    super("hello_gwt_plugin");
  }
}

Otherwise the binding must be done in an HttpModule:

public class HttpModule extends HttpPluginModule {

  @Override
  protected void configureServlets() {
    DynamicSet.bind(binder(), WebUiPlugin.class)
        .toInstance(new GwtPlugin("hello_gwt_plugin"));
  }
}

The HTTP module above must be declared in the pom.xml for Maven driven plugins:

<manifestEntries>
  <Gerrit-HttpModule>com.googlesource.gerrit.plugins.myplugin.HttpModule</Gerrit-HttpModule>
</manifestEntries>

The name that is provided to the GwtPlugin must match the GWT module name compiled into the plugin. The name of the GWT module can be explicitly set in the GWT module XML file by specifying the rename-to attribute on the module. It is important that the module name be unique across all plugins installed on the server, as the module name determines the JavaScript namespace used by the compiled plugin code.

<module rename-to="hello_gwt_plugin">

The actual GWT code must be implemented in a class that extends com.google.gerrit.plugin.client.PluginEntryPoint:

public class HelloPlugin extends PluginEntryPoint {

  @Override
  public void onPluginLoad() {
    // Create the dialog box
    final DialogBox dialogBox = new DialogBox();

    // The content of the dialog comes from a User specified Preference
    dialogBox.setText("Hello from GWT Gerrit UI plugin");
    dialogBox.setAnimationEnabled(true);
    Button closeButton = new Button("Close");
    VerticalPanel dialogVPanel = new VerticalPanel();
    dialogVPanel.setWidth("100%");
    dialogVPanel.setHorizontalAlignment(VerticalPanel.ALIGN_CENTER);
    dialogVPanel.add(closeButton);

    closeButton.addClickHandler(new ClickHandler() {
      public void onClick(ClickEvent event) {
        dialogBox.hide();
      }
    });

    // Set the contents of the Widget
    dialogBox.setWidget(dialogVPanel);

    RootPanel rootPanel = RootPanel.get(HelloMenu.MENU_ID);
    rootPanel.getElement().removeAttribute("href");
    rootPanel.addDomHandler(new ClickHandler() {
        @Override
        public void onClick(ClickEvent event) {
          dialogBox.center();
          dialogBox.show();
        }
    }, ClickEvent.getType());
  }
}

This class must be set as entry point in the GWT module:

<entry-point class="${package}.client.HelloPlugin"/>

In addition this class must be defined as module in the pom.xml for the gwt-maven-plugin and the webappDirectory option of gwt-maven-plugin must be set to ${project.build.directory}/classes/static:

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
  <artifactId>gwt-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>2.7.0</version>
  <configuration>
    <module>com.googlesource.gerrit.plugins.myplugin.HelloPlugin</module>
    <disableClassMetadata>true</disableClassMetadata>
    <disableCastChecking>true</disableCastChecking>
    <webappDirectory>${project.build.directory}/classes/static</webappDirectory>
  </configuration>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <goals>
        <goal>compile</goal>
      </goals>
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>

To attach a GWT widget defined by the plugin to the Gerrit core UI com.google.gwt.user.client.ui.RootPanel can be used to manipulate the Gerrit core widgets:

RootPanel rootPanel = RootPanel.get(HelloMenu.MENU_ID);
rootPanel.getElement().removeAttribute("href");
rootPanel.addDomHandler(new ClickHandler() {
  @Override
  public void onClick(ClickEvent event) {
    dialogBox.center();
    dialogBox.show();
  }
}, ClickEvent.getType());

GWT plugins can come with their own css file. This css file must have a unique name and must be registered in the GWT module:

<stylesheet src="hello.css"/>

If a GWT plugin wants to invoke the Gerrit REST API it can use com.google.gerrit.plugin.client.rpc.RestApi to construct the URL path and to trigger the REST calls.

Example for invoking a Gerrit core REST endpoint:

new RestApi("projects").id(projectName).view("description")
    .put("new description", new AsyncCallback<JavaScriptObject>() {

  @Override
  public void onSuccess(JavaScriptObject result) {
    // TODO
  }

  @Override
  public void onFailure(Throwable caught) {
    // never invoked
  }
});

Example for invoking a REST endpoint defined by a plugin:

new RestApi("projects").id(projectName).view("myplugin", "myview")
    .get(new AsyncCallback<JavaScriptObject>() {

  @Override
  public void onSuccess(JavaScriptObject result) {
    // TODO
  }

  @Override
  public void onFailure(Throwable caught) {
    // never invoked
  }
});

The onFailure(Throwable) of the provided callback is never invoked. If an error occurs, it is shown in an error dialog.

In order to be able to do REST calls the GWT module must inherit com.google.gwt.json.JSON:

<inherits name="com.google.gwt.json.JSON"/>

Add Screen

A GWT plugin can add a menu item that opens a screen that is implemented by the plugin. This way plugin screens can be fully integrated into the Gerrit UI.

Example menu item:

public class MyMenu implements TopMenu {
  private final List<MenuEntry> menuEntries;

  @Inject
  public MyMenu(@PluginName String name) {
    menuEntries = new ArrayList<>();
    menuEntries.add(new MenuEntry("My Menu", Collections.singletonList(
      new MenuItem("My Screen", "#/x/" + name + "/my-screen", ""))));
  }

  @Override
  public List<MenuEntry> getEntries() {
    return menuEntries;
  }
}

Example screen:

public class MyPlugin extends PluginEntryPoint {
  @Override
  public void onPluginLoad() {
    Plugin.get().screen("my-screen", new Screen.EntryPoint() {
      @Override
      public void onLoad(Screen screen) {
        screen.add(new InlineLabel("My Screen");
        screen.show();
      }
    });
  }
}

Add User Settings Screen

A GWT plugin can implement a user settings screen that is integrated into the Gerrit user settings menu.

Example settings screen:

public class MyPlugin extends PluginEntryPoint {
  @Override
  public void onPluginLoad() {
    Plugin.get().settingsScreen("my-preferences", "My Preferences",
        new Screen.EntryPoint() {
          @Override
          public void onLoad(Screen screen) {
            screen.setPageTitle("Settings");
            screen.add(new InlineLabel("My Preferences"));
            screen.show();
          }
    });
  }
}

By defining an urlAlias Gerrit administrators can map plugin screens into the Gerrit URL namespace or even replace Gerrit screens by plugin screens.

Plugins may also programatically add URL aliases in the preferences of of a user. This way certain screens can be replaced for certain users. E.g. the plugin may offer a user preferences setting for choosing a screen that then sets/unsets a URL alias for the user.

Plugin Settings Screen

If a plugin implements a screen for administrating its settings that is available under "#/x/<plugin-name>/settings" it is automatically linked from the plugin list screen.

HTTP Servlets

Plugins or extensions may register additional HTTP servlets, and wrap them with HTTP filters.

Servlets may use auto-registration to declare the URL they handle:

import com.google.gerrit.extensions.annotations.Export;
import com.google.inject.Singleton;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

@Export("/print")
@Singleton
class HelloServlet extends HttpServlet {
  protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse res) throws IOException {
    res.setContentType("text/plain");
    res.setCharacterEncoding("UTF-8");
    res.getWriter().write("Hello");
  }
}

The auto registration only works for standard servlet mappings like /foo or /foo/*. Regex style bindings must use a Guice ServletModule to register the HTTP servlets and declare it explicitly in the manifest with the Gerrit-HttpModule attribute:

import com.google.inject.servlet.ServletModule;

class MyWebUrls extends ServletModule {
  protected void configureServlets() {
    serve("/print").with(HelloServlet.class);
  }
}

For a plugin installed as name helloworld, the servlet implemented by HelloServlet class will be available to users as:

$ curl http://review.example.com/plugins/helloworld/print

Data Directory

Plugins can request a data directory with a @PluginData Path (or File, deprecated) dependency. A data directory will be created automatically by the server in $site_path/data/$plugin_name and passed to the plugin.

Plugins can use this to store any data they want.

@Inject
MyType(@PluginData java.nio.file.Path myDir) {
  this.in = Files.newInputStream(myDir.resolve("my.config"));
}

SecureStore

SecureStore allows to change the way Gerrit stores sensitive data like passwords.

In order to replace the default SecureStore (no-op) implementation, a class that extends com.google.gerrit.server.securestore.SecureStore needs to be provided (with dependencies) in a separate jar file. Then SwitchSecureStore must be run to switch implementations.

The SecureStore implementation is instantiated using a Guice injector which binds the File annotated with the @SitePath annotation. This means that a SecureStore implementation class can get access to the site_path like in the following example:

@Inject
MySecureStore(@SitePath java.io.File sitePath) {
  // your code
}

No Guice bindings or modules are required. Gerrit will automatically discover and bind the implementation.

Account Creation

Plugins can hook into the account creation REST API and inject additional external identifiers for an account that represents a user in some external user store. For that, an implementation of the extension point com.google.gerrit.server.api.accounts.AccountExternalIdCreator must be registered.

class MyExternalIdCreator implements AccountExternalIdCreator {
  @Override
  public List<AccountExternalId> create(Account.Id id, String username,
      String email) {
    // your code
  }
}

bind(AccountExternalIdCreator.class)
  .annotatedWith(UniqueAnnotations.create())
  .to(MyExternalIdCreator.class);
}

Download Commands

Gerrit offers commands for downloading changes and cloning projects using different download schemes (e.g. for downloading via different network protocols). Plugins can contribute download schemes, download commands and clone commands by implementing com.google.gerrit.extensions.config.DownloadScheme, com.google.gerrit.extensions.config.DownloadCommand and com.google.gerrit.extensions.config.CloneCommand.

The download schemes, download commands and clone commands which are used most often are provided by the Gerrit core plugin download-commands.

Included In

For merged changes the Included In drop-down panel shows the branches and tags in which the change is included.

Plugins can add additional systems in which the change can be included by implementing com.google.gerrit.extensions.config.ExternalIncludedIn, e.g. a plugin can provide a list of servers on which the change was deployed.

Links To External Tools

Gerrit has extension points that enables development of a light-weight plugin that links commits to external tools (GitBlit, CGit, company specific resources etc).

PatchSetWebLinks will appear to the right of the commit-SHA1 in the UI.

import com.google.gerrit.extensions.annotations.Listen;
import com.google.gerrit.extensions.webui.PatchSetWebLink;;
import com.google.gerrit.extensions.webui.WebLinkTarget;

@Listen
public class MyWeblinkPlugin implements PatchSetWebLink {

  private String name = "MyLink";
  private String placeHolderUrlProjectCommit = "http://my.tool.com/project=%s/commit=%s";
  private String imageUrl = "http://placehold.it/16x16.gif";

  @Override
  public WebLinkInfo getPatchSetWebLink(String projectName, String commit) {
    return new WebLinkInfo(name,
        imageUrl,
        String.format(placeHolderUrlProjectCommit, project, commit),
        WebLinkTarget.BLANK);
  }
}

ParentWebLinks will appear to the right of the SHA1 of the parent revisions in the UI. The implementation should in most use cases direct to the same external service as PatchSetWebLink; it is provided as a separate interface because not all users want to have links for the parent revisions.

FileWebLinks will appear in the side-by-side diff screen on the right side of the patch selection on each side.

DiffWebLinks will appear in the side-by-side and unified diff screen in the header next to the navigation icons.

ProjectWebLinks will appear in the project list in the Repository Browser column.

BranchWebLinks will appear in the branch list in the last column.

FileHistoryWebLinks will appear on the access rights screen.

TagWebLinks will appear in the tag list in the last column.

LFS Storage Plugins

Gerrit provides an extension point that enables development of LFS (Large File Storage) storage plugins. Gerrit core exposes the default LFS protocol endpoint <project-name>/info/lfs/objects/batch and forwards the requests to the configured lfs.plugin plugin which implements the LFS protocol. By exposing the default LFS endpoint, the git-lfs client can be used without any configuration.

/** Provide an LFS protocol implementation */
import org.eclipse.jgit.lfs.server.LargeFileRepository;
import org.eclipse.jgit.lfs.server.LfsProtocolServlet;

@Singleton
public class LfsApiServlet extends LfsProtocolServlet {
  private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

  private final S3LargeFileRepository repository;

  @Inject
  LfsApiServlet(S3LargeFileRepository repository) {
    this.repository = repository;
  }

  @Override
  protected LargeFileRepository getLargeFileRepository() {
    return repository;
  }
}

/** Register the LfsApiServlet to listen on the default LFS protocol endpoint */
import static com.google.gerrit.httpd.plugins.LfsPluginServlet.URL_REGEX;

import com.google.gerrit.httpd.plugins.HttpPluginModule;

public class HttpModule extends HttpPluginModule {

  @Override
  protected void configureServlets() {
    serveRegex(URL_REGEX).with(LfsApiServlet.class);
  }
}

/** Provide an implementation of the LargeFileRepository */
import org.eclipse.jgit.lfs.server.s3.S3Repository;

public class S3LargeFileRepository extends S3Repository {
...
}

Metrics

Metrics Reporting

To send Gerrit’s metrics data to an external reporting backend, a plugin can get a MetricRegistry injected and register an instance of a class that implements the Reporter interface from DropWizard Metrics.

Metric reporting plugin implementations are provided for JMX, Elastic Search, and Graphite.

There is also a working example of reporting metrics to the console in the cookbook plugin.

Providing own metrics

Plugins may provide metrics to be dispatched to external reporting services by getting a MetricMaker injected and creating instances of specific types of metric:

Counter

Metric whose value increments during the life of the process.
Timer

Metric recording time spent on an operation.
Histogram

Metric recording statistical distribution (rate) of values.

Note that metrics cannot be recorded from plugin init steps that are run during site initialization.

By default, plugin metrics are recorded under plugins/${plugin-name}/${metric-name}. This can be changed by setting plugins.${plugin-name}.metricsPrefix in the gerrit.config file. For example:

  [plugin "my-plugin"]
    metricsPrefix = my-metrics

will cause the metrics to be recorded under my-metrics/${metric-name}.

See the replication metrics in the replication plugin for an example of usage.

AccountPatchReviewStore

The AccountPatchReviewStore is used to store reviewed flags on changes. A reviewed flag is a tuple of (patch set ID, file, account ID) and records whether the user has reviewed a file in a patch set. Each user can easily have thousands of reviewed flags and the number of reviewed flags is growing without bound. The store must be able handle this data volume efficiently.

Gerrit implements this extension point, but plugins may bind another implementation, e.g. one that supports multi-master.

DynamicItem.bind(binder(), AccountPatchReviewStore.class)
    .to(MultiMasterAccountPatchReviewStore.class);

...

public class MultiMasterAccountPatchReviewStore
    implements AccountPatchReviewStore {
  ...
}

Documentation

If a plugin does not register a filter or servlet to handle URLs /Documentation/* or /static/*, the core Gerrit server will automatically export these resources over HTTP from the plugin JAR.

Static resources under the static/ directory in the JAR will be available as /plugins/helloworld/static/resource. This prefix is configurable by setting the Gerrit-HttpStaticPrefix attribute.

Documentation files under the Documentation/ directory in the JAR will be available as /plugins/helloworld/Documentation/resource. This prefix is configurable by setting the Gerrit-HttpDocumentationPrefix attribute.

Documentation may be written in the Markdown flavor pegdown if the file name ends with .md. Gerrit will automatically convert Markdown to HTML if accessed with extension .html.

Within the Markdown documentation files macros can be used that allow to write documentation with reasonably accurate examples that adjust automatically based on the installation.

The following macros are supported:

Macro	Replacement
@PLUGIN@	name of the plugin
@URL@	Gerrit Web URL
@SSH_HOST@	SSH Host
@SSH_PORT@	SSH Port

Macro

Replacement

@PLUGIN@

name of the plugin

@URL@

Gerrit Web URL

@SSH_HOST@

SSH Host

@SSH_PORT@

SSH Port

The macros will be replaced when the documentation files are rendered from Markdown to HTML.

Macros that start with \ such as \@KEEP@ will render as @KEEP@ even if there is an expansion for KEEP in the future.

Automatic Index

If a plugin does not handle its / URL itself, Gerrit will redirect clients to the plugin’s /Documentation/index.html. Requests for /Documentation/ (bare directory) will also redirect to /Documentation/index.html.

If neither resource Documentation/index.html or Documentation/index.md exists in the plugin JAR, Gerrit will automatically generate an index page for the plugin’s documentation tree by scanning every .md and .html file in the Documentation/ directory.

For any discovered Markdown (*.md) file, Gerrit will parse the header of the file and extract the first level one title. This title text will be used as display text for a link to the HTML version of the page.

For any discovered HTML (.html) file, Gerrit will use the name of the file, minus the .html extension, as the link text. Any hyphens in the file name will be replaced with spaces.

If a discovered file is named about.md or about.html, its content will be inserted in an 'About' section at the top of the auto-generated index page. If both about.md and about.html exist, only the first discovered file will be used.

If a discovered file name beings with cmd- it will be clustered into a 'Commands' section of the generated index page.

If a discovered file name beings with servlet- it will be clustered into a 'Servlets' section of the generated index page.

If a discovered file name beings with rest-api- it will be clustered into a 'REST APIs' section of the generated index page.

All other files are clustered under a 'Documentation' section.

Some optional information from the manifest is extracted and displayed as part of the index page, if present in the manifest:

Field	Source Attribute
Name	Implementation-Title
Vendor	Implementation-Vendor
Version	Implementation-Version
URL	Implementation-URL
API Version	Gerrit-ApiVersion

Field

Source Attribute

Name

Implementation-Title

Vendor

Implementation-Vendor

Version

Implementation-Version

URL

Implementation-URL

API Version

Gerrit-ApiVersion

Deployment

Compiled plugins and extensions can be deployed to a running Gerrit server using the plugin install command.

Web UI plugins distributed as single .js file can be deployed without the overhead of JAR packaging, for more information refer to plugin install command.

Plugins can also be copied directly into the server’s directory at $site_path/plugins/$name.(jar|js). The name of the JAR file, minus the .jar or .js extension, will be used as the plugin name. Unless disabled, servers periodically scan this directory for updated plugins. The time can be adjusted by plugins.checkFrequency.

For disabling plugins the plugin remove command can be used.

Disabled plugins can be re-enabled using the plugin enable command.

Known issues and bugs

Error handling in UI when using the REST API

When a plugin invokes a REST endpoint in the UI, it provides an AsyncCallback to handle the result. At the moment the onFailure(Throwable) of the callback is never invoked, even if there is an error. Errors are always handled by the Gerrit core UI which shows the error dialog. This means currently plugins cannot do any error handling and e.g. ignore expected errors.

In the following example the REST endpoint would return '404 Not Found' if the user has no username and the Gerrit core UI would display an error dialog for this. However having no username is not an error and the plugin may like to handle this case.

new RestApi("accounts").id("self").view("username")
    .get(new AsyncCallback<NativeString>() {

  @Override
  public void onSuccess(NativeString username) {
    // TODO
  }

  @Override
  public void onFailure(Throwable caught) {
    // never invoked
  }
});

Reviewer Suggestion Plugins

Gerrit provides an extension point that enables Plugins to rank the list of reviewer suggestion a user receives upon clicking "Add Reviewer" on the change screen. Gerrit supports both a default suggestion that appears when the user has not yet typed anything and a filtered suggestion that is shown as the user starts typing. Plugins receive a candidate list and can return a Set of suggested reviewers containing the Account.Id and a score for each reviewer. The candidate list is non-binding and plugins can choose to return reviewers not initially contained in the candidate list. Server administrators can configure the overall weight of each plugin using the weight config parameter on [addreviewer "<pluginName-exportName>"].

import com.google.gerrit.common.Nullable;
import com.google.gerrit.extensions.annotations.ExtensionPoint;
import com.google.gerrit.reviewdb.client.Account;
import com.google.gerrit.reviewdb.client.Change;
import com.google.gerrit.reviewdb.client.Project;

import java.util.Set;

public class MyPlugin implements ReviewerSuggestion {
  public Set<SuggestedReviewer> suggestReviewers(Project.NameKey project,
      @Nullable Change.Id changeId, @Nullable String query,
      Set<Account.Id> candidates) {
    Set<SuggestedReviewer> suggestions = new HashSet<>();
    // Implement your ranking logic here
    return suggestions;
  }
}

Mail Filter Plugins

Gerrit provides an extension point that enables Plugins to discard incoming messages and prevent further processing by Gerrit.

This can be used to implement spam checks, signature validations or organization specific checks like IP filters.

import com.google.gerrit.extensions.annotations.ExtensionPoint;
import com.google.gerrit.server.mail.receive.MailMessage;

public class MyPlugin implements MailFilter {
  boolean shouldProcessMessage(MailMessage message) {
    // Implement your filter logic here
    return true;
  }
}