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System Discovery

Farm includes a System Discovery feature that allows users and developers to easily identify which modules and features are active within the platform.

Overview

As Farm grows and more plugins are added, it's important to have a central place where you can see all available platform capabilities. The System Discovery mechanism provides this visibility by:

  1. Transparency: Showing exactly which versions of core modules and optional plugins are running.
  2. Metadata-Driven: Displaying descriptions and authorship for each component.
  3. Real-Time: Reflecting the current state of the application as it was started.

How it Works

The backend exposes an API endpoint (/api/v1/plugins) that lists all modules that have been registered with the PluginManager.

Active Plugins

Each module in Farm, including core features like the Software Catalog and Technical Documentation, is treated as a plugin. This ensures a consistent approach to feature detection across the platform.

When you access the system discovery features, you can see information such as:

  • Plugin Name: The unique identifier for the feature.
  • Version: The current release version of the module.
  • Description: A brief explanation of what the feature provides.

Benefits for Users

  • Feature Awareness: Know which tools are at your disposal without having to search through multiple menus.
  • Platform Updates: Easily verify when new versions of features have been deployed.
  • Support: Provide specific version information when reporting issues or requesting assistance.

Benefits for Developers

  • API Compatibility: Programmatically check if a specific plugin is available before making calls to its endpoints.
  • Modularity: Build new features that can optionally interact with other plugins if they are present.
  • Extensibility: Add your own custom plugins and have them automatically appear in the system discovery list.