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Introduction

This tutorial, unlike some other tutorials, goes on a test-then-explain basis. Because understand everything about PocketMine plugins require a deep knowledge in coding, this tutorial attempts to explain everything and make everything sensible, but sometimes I'll simply say Put it into your code, I won't explain. At these points, it would be because you don't have enough foundation knowledge. I'll explain once you have enough knowledge to understand.

Requirements

This tutorial is written for "general public", which means that it is expected to be read by everyone. However, there are some very basic things that you need to understand:

• How to run a basic PocketMine server that is joinable
• How to install plugins in PocketMine
• Basic knowledge in computers, such as the definition of files

Introduction to Coding

So let me explain what coding is. What comes up into your mind when I talk about "coding"? A programmer with a computer showing a black screen like that of a PocketMine console? A lot of meaningless characters and symbols?

Let's get the correct idea for "coding", at least in terms of PocketMine plugins. Here, we are going to write PHP code, which is a language fairly easy to learn. Coding is a very logical and human-readable process. For evidence, let's take a look at this example line of code:

$player->sendMessage("Hello world!");

The above line means to sendMessage (send a message) to a player $player (we will look into variables later), with a message Hello world!.

So you can see, as long as you don't have phobia to monospace (the font type usually used for coding, which is also the font type used on PocketMine consoles), coding can actually be very easy and a lot of fun. It is just like working with redstone in Minecraft; you can make a simple lever-to-open-door setup, while you can also make a complicated Minecraft "calculator" or mob arenas. The only difference is that we don't have that much graphics, but words and symbols instead, in coding. However, obviously coding is much more powerful. 😀

The PHP official documentation said somewhere,

... is very dangerous because it allows execution of arbitrary PHP code. 

Being able to write and execute code gives you unlimited power. It brings you to the top of the world. After finally finishing a piece of software after a long time of trial and error, it would feel like you have flown through the stars, and now you are there, actualizing your dream. Are you ready for that?

Creating plugin.yml

Now let's create our first plugin. I call it MyPlugin.

First of all, at anywhere you like on your device, create an empty directory (folder, in case you don't understand) called MyPlugin. For the sake of convenience, I'll assume the directory is /plugins/MyPlugin. However, it would be convenient for testing if you create it in the plugins folder of your test server instead.

This MyPlugin directory will contain all the files required in a plugin, namely plugin.yml, src (source code) and resources.

The basic information of the plugin, including the plugin name, version and author (your name!), are specified in a file called plugin.yml. Here is an example:

name: MyPlugin
version: 1.0.0
author: YourName
api: 1.12.0
main: yourname\myplugin\MyPlugin

The first three lines are obvious, but I guess the last two lines need a bit explanation.

api is the PocketMine API version the plugin is compatible with. You don't need to understand this at the moment; simply copy that line. Basically it means whether the plugin can run on the current version PocketMine is running, but it is not related to the release code like 1.5.

main is the fully qualified name of your main class. Yes I know, you understand every word but you don't understand what I mean. That will be explained in the next section.

So, create a file called plugin.yml in /plugins/MyPlugin and copy the above things into it. For Windows users, I recommend using a program called Notepad++ to edit YAML files (and PHP files in the future, too).

Small trick: create a new file in Notepad++, copy the contents into it and click Save as. Browse to /plugins/MyPlugin and put plugin.yml as the file name, then hit enter.

First PHP File

Steady, calm down. It's not that scary.

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