strapi/docs/3.0.0-beta.x/plugin-development/backend-development.md

Back-end Development

This section explains how the 'back-end part' of your plugin works.

Routes

The plugin API routes are defined in the ./plugins/**/config/routes.json file.

::: tip Please refer to router documentation for information. :::

Route prefix

Each route of a plugin is prefixed by the name of the plugin (eg: /my-plugin/my-plugin-route).

To disable the prefix, add the prefix attribute to each concerned route, like below:

{
  "method": "GET",
  "path": "/my-plugin-route",
  "handler": "MyPlugin.action",
  "config": {
    "policies": [],
    "prefix": false
  }
}

CLI

The CLI can be used to generate files in the plugins folders.

Please refer to the CLI documentation for more information.

Controllers

Controllers contain functions executed according to the requested route.

Please refer to the Controllers documentation for more information.

Models

A plugin can have its own models.

Table/Collection naming

Sometimes it happens that the plugins inject models that have the same name as yours. Let's take a quick example.

You already have User model defining in your ./api/user/models/User.settings.json API. And you decide to install the Users & Permissions plugin. This plugin also contains a User model. To avoid the conflicts, the plugins' models are not globally exposed which means you cannot access to the plugin's model like this:

module.exports = {
  findUser: async function(params) {
    // This `User` global variable will always make a reference the User model defining in your `./api/xxx/models/User.settings.json`.
    return await User.find();
  },
};

Also, the table/collection name won't be users because you already have a User model. That's why, the framework will automatically prefix the table/collection name for this model with the name of the plugin. Which means in our example, the table/collection name of the User model of our plugin Users & Permissions will be users-permissions_users. If you want to force the table/collection name of the plugin's model, you can add the collectionName attribute in your model.

Please refer to the Models documentation for more information.

Policies

Global policies

A plugin can also use a globally exposed policy in the current Strapi project.

{
  "routes": [
    {
      "method": "GET",
      "path": "/",
      "handler": "MyPlugin.index",
      "config": {
        "policies": ["global::isAuthenticated"]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Plugin policies

A plugin can have its own policies, such as adding security rules. For instance, if the plugin includes a policy named isAuthenticated, the syntax to use this policy would be:

{
  "routes": [
    {
      "method": "GET",
      "path": "/",
      "handler": "MyPlugin.index",
      "config": {
        "policies": ["plugins::myplugin.isAuthenticated"]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Please refer to the Policies documentation for more information.