How to publish an extension in the Contao Extension Repository

To publish your own extension in the Extension Repository, you need a contributor's account. Once you are logged in, you can access the developer interface of the Extension Repository through the Manage extensions and Manage translations links.

Adding an extension ¶

To add a new extension, follow the Manage extensions link and click the Add extension button. You will be redirected to a form where you can enter the extension details. The yellow box above contains important information about naming conventions, which you should read carefully.

The following categories are currently available:

Adding a release ¶

After you have created the extension, you can add a first release. Every new version of the extension will be stored as separate release. Open the release manager with the respective navigation icon and click the Add release button.

Version numbers in the Extension Repository consist of three numeric blocks that indicate the major, minor and maintenance version (e.g. 1.0.0) as well as a textual development status (e.g. beta1).

Adding files ¶

Next you have to add files to the new release. Open the file manager and click the Add/update files button. You can upload single files or complete .zip archives. Make sure to choose the correct target directory so the file paths are correct after the upload.

Adding translations ¶

Before you can publish an extension, you have to create at least one translation. Open the translation manager and click the Add language button. It is recommended to always create an English translation, because back end users generally only see extensions in the extension manager which are available in their language or in English (fallback language).

Completed translations can be published by clicking the respective navigation icon.

Adding dependencies ¶

Maybe one of your extensions uses the functionality of another one like e.g. cron jobs. To run your extension, it is therefore required to install the cron extension, which is usually referred to as dependency. Those dependencies can be stored in the Extension Repository, so all required modules are installed automatically when you install a particular extension.

First choose the extension that you want to add as dependency and confirm your choice by clicking the Continue button. Then select the minimum and maximum version that is known to work with your extension.

Publishing an extension ¶

After you have created at least one release, uploaded at least one file, published at least one translation and added the necessary dependencies, you can publish the extension with the respective navigation icon. Note that you cannot remove the extension anymore once it has been published. To check if everything works as expected, log into the back end and make a test installation with the extension manager.