web2py plugins are self contained pieces of an application that can be added to any existing application. They usually define components, i.e. objects that can be embedded in a page and talk to the server via ajax. Often they include corresponding jQuery plugins and the serverside funcitonality to make them work. Here you can find some examples. The web2py admin interface provides a web interface to upload and manage the plugins. The plugin themsselves are .w2p files (as for web2py apps). There are just tar gzipped files containing the source code. You do not need to unzip them. The admin interface will unzip them on upload in web2py. Once a plugin becomes part of your app, you can customize it without affecting other apps. Look and feel can be customized via CSS.

About Plugin Locking

This plugin allows to lock a record so that two distinct users cannot access it at the same time. The record is kept locked by an ajax keepalize signal.

Example Source code (user code)

Controller: default.py

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def index():
    lock=plugin_locking('tablename',record_id,locktime=60,expiration=3600)
    if not lock:
         session.flash="record tablename.id==%s locked by other user" % record_id
         redirect(....)
    return dict(lock=lock)

plugin_locking returns None if it fails to acquire the lock

View: default/index.html

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{{extend 'layout.html'}}

{{=lock}}

The lock returned by the plugin_locking is a piece of javascript code that performs the ajax keepalive and it must be embedded in the page

Required plugin (including plugin source code)