Creating a new plugin

Now it is time for you to create your very first plugin. You will go through the different steps from the concept of the plugin to its installation within Cacti.

The plugin will be quite simple but will show you most of the common features and hooks of the Plugin Architecture.

File structure

All plugins should at least consist of an index.php and setup.php file. These two files are required for any plugin to work properly, but of course, you should consider adding a readme file, as well as further documentation to your plugin. You can find a more complete file structure for plugins on the Cacti website here:

http://docs.cacti.net/plugins:development.reference_plugin.

Concept and design

Let's assume that you want to display additional data such as a table at the end of each host graph. The data to be displayed will have the following requirements:

• Display the hostname and IP address

• Show location information (country, site, room)

• Display a contact address (e-mail)

• Have a...