Basic Plugin

This includes everything to get your first plugin up and running

Some things are needed before your plugin can actually start:

• Create a cotton-plugin.toml file

• Write an initialization class

• Building the plugin JAR

After you created your Java project, open the resources folder and create a new file named cotton-plugin.toml

In this file you will need to specify all needed things for your plugin to start:

• Name*

• Authors*

• Version*

• Namespace*

• Target Minecraft Version*

• API Version*

• Main Class Path*

Things tagged with * are required

Here's a working example of a cotton-plugin.toml file

# In the information category, you can specify all "cosmetic"
# information about your plugin.
[information]
# (required) This is the name of how the plugin will show up.
name = "Example Plugin"
# (required) This is a list of strings of all people who have worked 
# on this plugin.
authors = ["JX_Snack"]
# (required) The plugin's version
version = "1.0"

# In the execution category everything shown here is required. You
# will configure everything that your plugin needs to start up.
[execution]
# The plugin's namespace. This may only contain lowercase letters,
# underscores and numbers. If there are multiple plugins with the
# same namespace the server will crash. Make sure to pick a unique name!
namespace = "example"
# The targeted Minecraft version for your plugin. If the server is running
# a lower version your plugin will send an error to the console.
minecraft-version = "1.20.1"
# The API version you are depending on. If the server is running an older version
# than the specified API version your plugin will send an error to the console.
api-version = "0.1.0"
# The path to your main class
main = "com.example.plugin.ExamplePlugin"

Initialization class

This is where the specified path in your cotton-plugin.toml file leads to. Here's a working example:

package com.example.plugin;

import net.snackbag.cottonpowered.api.CottonPlugin;

public class ExamplePlugin extends CottonPlugin {
    @Override
    public void onInitialize() {
        // Plugin startup logic
        
    }
    
    @Override
    public void onTerminate() {
        // Plugin shutdown logic

    }
}

The onInitialize method will run when the plugin loads up (e.g. when the server starts) and onTerminate when the plugin gets terminated (e.g. when the server stops). You can access the plugin info file through code by using getPluginInfoFile in your main class.

It is recommended to set a namespace variable which is the same as in your plugin info file. Learn more here