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How To: Create an Extension Plugin

Owned by Ian Christopher (Deactivated)
Last updated: Jun 08, 2021 by Vinaya Mayya
3 min read

In this example, we will create an extension plugin and publish it to NuGet feed, which can then be placed in the plugin folder of a pre-deployed ODS / API to extend it.

Before you begin:

  • This walkthrough assumes you have a working extension project.
  • This article uses the student transportation extension as an example.
  • This example assumes you have the NuGet CLI tool. You can follow the instructions for Installing NuGet Client Tools.
  • This example assumes you have access to a Azure Artifacts feed. Alternatively, you can also work with other cost-effective options for distributing software packages such as GitHub Packages.

The steps can be summarized as:

Each step is outlined in detail, below. 

Creating Extension Plugins

Step 1. Run CodeGen

This step is optional. If you have followed through How To: Extend the Ed-Fi ODS / API - Student Transportation Example and have run initdev, code generation is already completed. 

After creating your extension project by following the example on How To: Extend the Ed-Fi ODS / API - Student Transportation Example,

Open a PowerShell session and navigate to Ed-Fi-ODS-Implementation folder and execute the following command to run code generation.

cd <source directory>\Ed-Fi-ODS-Implementation
.\Initialize-PowershellForDevelopment.ps1
Invoke-CodeGen -Engine SQLServer -ExtensionPaths <source directory>\Ed-Fi-ODS-Implementation\Application\EdFi.Ods.Extensions.SampleStudentTransportation\

Step 2. Build Your Extension Project 

From a PowerShell session, run the following command to build your extension project. If you followed the example on How To: Extend the Ed-Fi ODS / API - Student Transportation Example to create the EdFi.Ods.Extensions.SampleStudentTransportation project, your extension will be in Ed-Fi-ODS-Implementation\Application folder.

C:\Program Files\dotnet\dotnet.exe build <source directory>\Ed-Fi-ODS-Implementation\Application\EdFi.Ods.Extensions.SampleStudentTransportation --configuration release 

Step 3. Create a NuGet Package 

Go to the location of NuGet.exe in your system and execute the following command in a command prompt. Make sure to update the contents of the nuspec file with your information. It is recommended that you version your extension package with the same version as the ODS / API for which it was built. 


NuGet.exe pack <source directory>\Ed-Fi-ODS-Implementation\Application\EdFi.Ods.Extensions.SampleStudentTransportation\EdFi.Ods.Extensions.SampleStudentTransportation.nuspec -OutputDirectory <output directory> -Properties configuration=release -NoPackageAnalysis -NoDefaultExcludes


Step 4. Publish NuGet Package

In this step, execute the following command to publish NuGet package.

NuGet.exe push -source https://pkgs.dev.azure.com/ed-fi-alliance/Ed-Fi-Alliance-OSS/_packaging/EdFi/nuget/v3/index.json -apikey <PAT> <nuget directory>\EdFi.Ods.Extensions.SampleStudentTransportation.1.0.0.nupkg

Consuming Extension Plugins

Follow the approach described in How To: Deploy TPDM As Dynamic Plugin to consume the published extension package.