Generator
The Generator (opens new window) is a first-party module, plugin, and component scaffolding tool designed to reduce friction when setting up system extensions. We like to think of it as both a learning and productivity tool.
# Installation
New Craft projects 4.3.5+ come with the Generator package installed and ready to use. If you started your project with a version of Craft earlier than 4.3.5, update and run:
composer require craftcms/generator --dev
Generator’s API is accessible via the command line, under the make command:
php craft make
Without passing an argument, you will be presented with the command’s help text, and two primary options:
php craft make plugin: Initialize and wire up a new Plugin.php craft make module: Create a new Module.
Feel free to explore the generator API at your own pace. See the official readme for a list of currently-supported components (opens new window), or run php craft make to see what is supported by your installed version.
Subsequent commands should be run with either a --module or --plugin flag, using the target module ID or plugin handle, respectively.
# Updates
To get the latest Generator functionality, run composer update in your project directory. Generator is not considered a plugin, and therefore will not appear in Craft’s built-in updater tool, nor will its presence be recorded in project config.
# Documentation Changes
We will be gradually rolling out Generator examples to system component documentation, and plan to make it the recommended tool for scaffolding new extensions and components (rather than providing bare-bones examples, in-line).
# Trivia
Rather than implementing Generator as a plugin or module, we chose to use a Yii feature known as bootstrapping (opens new window), which automatically initializes the core class based on the extra.bootstrap (opens new window) key in composer.json.
This is generally not a recommended extension point for Craft, as its presence in a project is opaque and non-optional once installed (bootstrapped classes cannot be temporarily disabled, unlike plugins and modules).