XF 2.2 Why would my add-on not be working?

[Wildcat Media]

I had a simple add-on that added code to extra.less via a series of a half dozen small template modifications.

For whatever reason, all of those template modifications have disappeared--they are no longer listed among Appearance / Template modifications in the admin menu. The entire add-on no longer appears there.

Digging into the files. Everything is still present in the .json files, but I see that the template_modifications.xml file is now largely empty (nothing but default XF text). I have uninstalled and reinstalled the add-on, and the template modifications no longer appear. I've tried rebuilding with development mode on or off, and still, nothing.

What step am I missing?

 

[pegasus]

I have had something similar happen if I install/upgrade the add-on while development mode is active and the add-on folder contains an _output directory that is either incomplete or empty. In development mode, XenForo prefers the contents of _output to the contents of your add-on's _data XML files.

 

[Wildcat Media]

I know the feeling. Yet I've tried installing, uninstalling, rebuilding, etc. in and out of development mode and just can't get it to load.

I'm done with messing with it--I'll have to spend an hour or more recreating the addon under a different name, and hope it doesn't get wiped out a second time. Didn't have this issue in the past (prior to 2.2.15).

 

[Jeremy P]

I'm not sure I'd recommend developing an add-on in a production environment. Normally you would build the add-on using the CLI and then install it in production from the control panel.

Nevertheless you can run php cmd.php xf-dev:import -a Your/AddOn to import from the development files and then potentially php cmd.php xf-addon:export to export the data into the XML files properly.

 

[Wildcat Media]

I'm not sure I'd recommend developing an add-on in a production environment.

But isn't that how editing phrases, templates, etc. are done, while in development mode, by tying them to an add-on I've created at the command line? Those options are not available otherwise.

Nevertheless you can run php cmd.php xf-dev:import -a Your/AddOn to import from the development files and then potentially php cmd.php xf-addon:export to export the data into the XML files properly.

This is good to know. Thanks!

 

[Jeremy P]

But isn't that how editing phrases, templates, etc. are done, while in development mode, by tying them to an add-on I've created at the command line? Those options are not available otherwise.

Generally add-ons are developed on a separate installation (usually local).

 

[Wildcat Media]

Generally add-ons are developed on a separate installation (usually local).

This isn't on a production site, so, no worries. But the test installation still resides on the same server, so I know there are no conflicts.

 

[Xon]

This can happen if you use the web-installer while development mode is enabled, and have an _output directory that isn't fully populated.

It is something of a foot-gun.

 

[Wildcat Media]

This can happen if you use the web-installer while development mode is enabled, and have an _output directory that isn't fully populated.

It is something of a foot-gun.

This all started when I was tracking down a bug with a third-party style, which wasn't a bug on their side, but an add-on that was causing it to fail. I disabled all add-ons, then re-enabled one by one. Somewhere in there, this simple add-on of mine stopped working.

I've since built a new one, as it turns out some of the template modifications were no longer needed with the new style I chose. It's not a big deal to clean up the JSON files with some regex search-and-replace so I can drop the mods right into a new template modification.

I just wanted to see what happened, and why, so I don't run into this again. I just think that things should be a little more predictable when we are in development mode--I can't be hopping back and forth to enable/disable it every time I do something, as I've done this type of work before strictly in development mode for years and never had issues. But...leave it to me, to break something...