Extensions

Speaker 0: Directus has been built with flexibility and extensibility at its core. And can be added to by building or installing extensions to build features or integrate with external services. Extensions in directives run within the same environment as the core application, allowing them to leverage existing access to underlying services, authentication and access control systems, and UI components. App extensions run entirely in the data studio and API extensions run on the server and have different utilities available based on where they are run. Interfaces are used in the Directus editor providing the user with ways to create and edit items through forms and other elements, for example, a whiteboard interface.

Displays are used in directus explore to represent single data points in new ways. For example, showing a 1 to 5 rating as various emojis. Layouts are also used in directus explore to give control over how multiple items in a collection are presented. For example, inside of a Gantt chart or a spreadsheet. Modules introduce a new level of extensibility to Directus, allowing you to add an entirely new page to your Directus app from the module bar on the far left.

For example, a page solely containing an integration with an external service while still having access to all of the primitives inside of directors including all of the user state and the application state. Panels are used in directors insights to display or interact with data. Panels can also gather information from users through interfaces and act on them. For example, a panel to send an email to users. Hooks and operations allow for custom logic to be executed when data is changed or on schedules.

Hooks are entirely code based and operations provide the functionality inside of directors automate. And finally, end points, which allow for creating additional API end points on top of those provided by Directus. End points are implemented as collections of express route handlers. The Directus marketplace provides a way for admins to install extensions in their projects directly in the data studio. It's available for all projects whether run on directors cloud or on your own infrastructure.

While all app extensions can be published in the marketplace, API extensions must use our sandboxed extensions framework in order to be published, which is designed to provide robust security to your data and maintain strict control over interactions with the external environment by running extension code in an isolated sandbox. The world of extensions runs deep so I'm gonna stop at this high level overview. Just know that extensions are built in Node. Js and Vue, can be manually installed or installed via the marketplace and provide new functionality within your directors project.