---
title: Plugin Extension Points
---

> **NOTE** See [Plugin Extensions](plugin_extensions.md) for _using_ extension points in your plugin.

By defining _extension points_ in your plugin, you can allow other plugins to extend the functionality of your plugin.
There are two types of extension points:

 * _Interface_ extension points allow other plugins to extend your plugins with _code_. When you define an interface
   extension point, you specify an interface, and other plugins will provide classes implementing that interface.
   You'll then be able to invoke methods on those interfaces.
 * _Bean_ extension points allow other plugins to extend your plugins with _data_. You specify the fully qualified
   name of an extension class, and other plugins will provide data which will be turned into instances of that class.  

## How to declare extension points

You can declare extensions and extension points in the plugin configuration file `plugin.xml`, within the `<extensions>` and `<extensionPoints>` sections, respectively.

To declare extension points in your plugin, add an `<extensionPoints>` section to your `plugin.xml`. Then insert a child element `<extensionPoint>` that defines the extension point name and the name of a bean class or an interface that is allowed to extend the plugin functionality in the `name`, `beanClass` and `interface` attributes, respectively.

_myPlugin/META-INF/plugin.xml_
```xml            
<idea-plugin>
  <id>my.plugin</id>
  
  <extensionPoints>
    <extensionPoint name="myExtensionPoint1" beanClass="com.myplugin.MyBeanClass"/>
    <extensionPoint name="myExtensionPoint2" interface="com.myplugin.MyInterface"/>
  </extensionPoints>

</idea-plugin>
```

* The `name` attribute assigns a unique name for this extension point, it will be prefixed with the plugin's `<id>` automatically.
* The `beanClass` attribute sets a bean class that specifies one or several properties annotated with the [`@Attribute`](upsource:///platform/util/src/com/intellij/util/xmlb/annotations/Attribute.java) annotation.
* The `interface` attribute sets an interface the plugin that contributes to the extension point must implement.

The plugin that contributes to the extension point will read those properties from the `plugin.xml` file.

To clarify this, consider the following sample `MyBeanClass` bean class used in the above `plugin.xml` file:

_myPlugin/src/com/myplugin/MyBeanClass.java_
```java
public class MyBeanClass extends AbstractExtensionPointBean {
  @Attribute("key")
  public String key;

  @Attribute("implementationClass")
  public String implementationClass;

  public String getKey() {
    return key;
  }

  public String getClass() {
    return implementationClass;
  }
}
```

> **TIP** See [Extension properties code insight](plugin_extensions.md#extension-properties-code-insight) on how to provide smart completion/validation.

For above extension points usage in _anotherPlugin_ would look like this (see also [Declaring Extensions](plugin_extensions.md#declaring-extensions)):
 
_anotherPlugin/META-INF/plugin.xml_
```xml
<idea-plugin>
  <id>another.plugin</id>
                         
  <!-- declare dependency on plugin defining extension point -->               
  <depends>my.plugin</id>
        
  <!-- use "my.plugin" namespace -->
  <extensions defaultExtensionNs="my.plugin">
    <myExtensionPoint1 key="someKey" implementationClass="another.some.implementation.class"/>  

    <myExtensionPoint2 implementation="another.MyInterfaceImpl"/>
  </extension>

</idea-plugin>
```

## Using extension points
To refer to all registered extension instances at runtime, declare an [`ExtensionPointName`](upsource:///platform/extensions/src/com/intellij/openapi/extensions/ExtensionPointName.java) passing in the fully-qualified name matching its [declaration in `plugin.xml`](#how-to-declare-extension-points).

_myPlugin/src/com/myplugin/MyExtensionUsingService.java_
```java 
public class MyExtensionUsingService {
 
    private static final ExtensionPointName<MyBeanClass> EP_NAME = ExtensionPointName.create("my.plugin.myExtensionPoint1");
    
    public void useExtensions() {
      for (MyBeanClass extension : EP_NAME.getExtensionList()) {
        String key = extension.getKey();  
        String clazz = extension.getClass();
        // ...
      }
    }
}
```
A gutter icon for the `ExtensionPointName` declaration allows navigating to the corresponding `<extensionPoint>` declaration in `plugin.xml`.

## Dynamic extension points
To support [Dynamic Plugins](dynamic_plugins.md) (2020.1 and later), an extension point must adhere to specific usage rules:

- extensions are enumerated on every use and extensions instances are not stored anywhere
- alternatively, an `ExtensionPointChangeListener` can perform necessary updates of data structures (register via `ExtensionPointName#addExtensionPointListener()`)

Extension points matching these conditions can then be marked as _dynamic_ by adding `dynamic="true"` in their declaration:
```xml
  <extensionPoints>
    <extensionPoint name="myDynamicExtensionPoint" beanClass="com.myplugin.MyBeanClass" dynamic="true" />
  </extensionPoints>
```

> **NOTE** All non-dynamic extension points are highlighted via _Plugin DevKit \| Plugin descriptor \| Plugin.xml dynamic plugin verification_ inspection available in IntelliJ IDEA 2020.1 or later. Previous versions also highlight `dynamic` attribute as "experimental".