Before you begin developing plugins or applications for the IPS Community Suite, you need to enable Developer Mode. Developer mode causes the software to load required files directly from the filesystem, rather than cached versions or from the database.
Developer Mode will cause the software to run much slower than usual and may introduce security vulnerabilities. You should only enable Developer Mode if you are a PHP developer intending to develop Applications and Plugins and should only do so on a local installation that is not web-accessible
Enabling Developer Mode
Follow these steps to enable Developer Mode on your installation:
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Download the Developer Tools, making sure you download the correct version for the version of IPS Community Suite you are using. Developer Tools for pre-release versions may be available, so you may need to download an older version from the "Previous Versions" section.
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Extract the developer tools and move them to where IPS Community Suite is installed, merging with the existing files. There is a root "dev" folder, and "dev" folders for each application. If you do not have every IPS Community Suite application installed, you should delete the folders you don't need from the Developer Tools folder before copying. The presence of Developer Tools for uninstalled applications may cause errors.
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If you do not already have a constants.php file in the root folder of your installation, create one.
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Add the following line to your constants.php file:
<?php define( 'IN_DEV', TRUE );
For more information on how to use the tools which become available when Developer Mode is enabled, and for more information on developing for the IPS Community Suite, see the developer documentation.
Important notes
The developer tools includes the files necessary for all IPS applications. If you are enabling developer mode on an install where third-party applications and plugins are present you will also need to obtain and apply the developer tools (i.e. the "dev" folder) for those from the author.
Note that when you upgrade your installation, you will need to download the updated Developer Tools.
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