Plugin Settings

Plugins can declare a settings schema in their manifest. M3U Editor renders this schema as a form on the plugin edit page, validates input, and passes the saved values to the plugin at runtime through the execution context.

How settings work

Settings are declared in plugin.json under the settings key. Each setting has a type, a key, a label, and optionally a default value, required flag, and helper text.

When a plugin runs — whether triggered by a hook, a schedule, or a manual action — the current saved settings are passed in as $context->settings, a plain associative array.

public function runAction(string $action, array $payload, PluginExecutionContext $context): PluginActionResult
{
    $host = $context->settings['dvr_host'] ?? 'localhost';
    $port = (int) ($context->settings['dvr_port'] ?? 8089);

    // use $host and $port...
}

Setting field types

Type	Description
boolean	Renders as a toggle. Stored as true or false.
number	Renders as a number input. Stored as an integer or float.
text	Single-line text input.
textarea	Multi-line text input.
select	Drop-down with a static list of options defined in the manifest.
model_select	Drop-down populated from an Eloquent model (e.g. select a Playlist). Supports scope: owned to limit choices to the current user's records.

Example settings block in plugin.json

"settings": [
  {
    "key": "dvr_host",
    "type": "text",
    "label": "DVR Host",
    "default": "localhost",
    "required": true,
    "helper_text": "Hostname or IP address of your DVR server."
  },
  {
    "key": "dvr_port",
    "type": "number",
    "label": "DVR Port",
    "default": 8089
  },
  {
    "key": "default_playlist_id",
    "type": "model_select",
    "label": "Default Playlist",
    "model": "Playlist",
    "scope": "owned",
    "helper_text": "Playlist to sync stations into by default."
  },
  {
    "key": "overwrite_existing",
    "type": "boolean",
    "label": "Overwrite Existing Channels",
    "default": false
  },
  {
    "key": "log_level",
    "type": "select",
    "label": "Log Level",
    "default": "info",
    "options": [
      { "value": "info", "label": "Info" },
      { "value": "debug", "label": "Debug" },
      { "value": "warning", "label": "Warning" }
    ]
  }
]

Scheduled plugin settings

Plugins with the scheduled capability typically include settings for the schedule itself:

{
  "key": "schedule_enabled",
  "type": "boolean",
  "label": "Enable Schedule",
  "default": false
},
{
  "key": "schedule_cron",
  "type": "text",
  "label": "Cron Expression",
  "default": "0 * * * *",
  "helper_text": "Standard 5-part cron expression. Example: '0 * * * *' runs every hour."
}

The plugin's scheduledActions() method reads these at runtime and decides whether to return actions for the current tick.

Where settings are stored

Settings are stored in the extension_plugins table as a JSON column. They are preserved across reinstalls and plugin updates unless you explicitly purge them. This means you can update a plugin's version without losing user-configured values.