 content plugins the ctools pluggable content system provides various pieces of content as discrete bits of data that can be added to other applications such as panels or dashboard via the ui whatever the content is added to stores the configuration for that individual piece of content and provides this to the content each content type plugin will be contained in a inc file with subsidiary files if necessary in or near the same directory each content type consists of some information and one or more subtypes which all use the same renderer subtypes are considered to be instances of the type for example the views content type would have each view in the system as a subtype many content types will have exactly one subtype because the content and forms can be provided via ajax the plugin also provides a list of css and javascript information that should be available on whatever page the content or forms may be ajaxed onto for the purposes of selecting content from the ui each content subtype will have the following information a title a short description a category do we want to add hierarchy categories do we want category to be more than just a string an icon do we want multiple icons this becomes a hefty requirement each piece of content provides one or more configuration forms if necessary and the system that includes the content will handle the data storage these forms can be provided in sequence as wizards or as extra forms that can be accessed through advanced administration the plugin for a content type should contain title for use on the content permissions screen content types either an array of content type definitions or a callback that will return content type definitions this callback will get the plugin definition as an argument content type optional provide a single content type definition this is only necessary if content types might be intensive render callback the callback to render the content parameters subtype the name of the subtype being rendered not the loaded subtype data conf the stored configuration for the content args any arguments passed context an array of contexts requested by the required contexts and assigned by the configuration step incomingcontent any incoming content if this is a wrapper admin title a callback to provide the administrative title if it is not a function then it will be counted as a string to use as the admin title admin info a callback to provide administrative information about the content to be displayed when manipulating the content it should contain a summary of configuration edit form either a single form id or an array of forms keyed by form id with the value to be used as the title of the form title me be used as a placeholder for the administrative title if necessary example array ctoolsexamplecontentformsecond t configure first form ctoolsexamplecontentformfirst t configure second form the first form will always have required configuration added to it these forms are normal fapi forms but you do not need to provide buttons these will be added by the form wizard add form optional if different from the edit forms provide them here in the same manner also may be set to false to not have an add form css a file or array of css files that are necessary for the content js a file or array of javascript files that are necessary for the content to be displayed admin css a file or array of css files that are necessary for the forms admin js a file or array of javascript files that are necessary for the forms extra forms an array of form information to handle extra administrative forms no title override set to true if the title cannot be overridden single set to true if this content provides exactly one subtype render last set to true if for some reason this content needs to render after other content this is primarily used for forms to ensure that render order is correct todo many of the above callbacks can be assumed based upon patterns modulename name function ie render admintitle admininfo etc todo some kind of simple access control to easily filter out content the subtype definition should contain title the title of the subtype icon the icon to display for the subtype path the path for the icon if it is not in the same directory as the plugin description the short description of the subtype to be used when selecting it in the ui category either a text string for the category or an array of the text string followed by the category weight required context optional either a ctoolscontextrequired or ctoolscontextoptional or array of contexts for this content if omitted no contexts are used rendered content rendered content is a little more than just html title the safe to render title of the content content the safe to render html content links an array of links associated with the content suitable for theme links more an optional more link destination only adminlinks administrative links associated with the content suitable for theme links feeds an array of feed icons or links associated with the content each member of the array is rendered html type the content type subtype the content subtype these two may be used together as moduledelta for block style rendering todo example todo after implementations are updated to new version  