Creating a Static Extensions Repository#
To host your own extensions and leverage Blender update system all that is required is a static JSON file on a server, pointing towards download links for the extensions.
JSON#
To generate a valid JSON file you can use the command-line tool:
blender --command extension server-generate --repo-dir=/path/to/packages
This creates a listing from all the packages found in the specified location.
See server-generate docs.
The generated JSON is aligned with the API.
Download Links#
In order to support drag and drop for installing from a remote repository, there are a few optional ways to prepare the URLs.
The only strict requirement is that the download URL must end in .zip.
You can pass different arguments to the URL to give more clues to Blender about what to do with the dragged URL.
- repository:
Link to the JSON file to be used to install the repository on Blender. It supports relative URLs.
- platforms:
Comma-separated list of supported platforms. If omitted, the extension will be available in all operating systems.
- blender_version_min:
Minimum supported Blender version.
- blender_version_max:
Blender version that the extension does not support, earlier versions are supported.
Tip
The more details you provide, the better the user experience.
With the exception of the repository, all the other parameters can be extracted from the extensions manifest.
Those arguments are to be encoded as part of the URL.
- Expected format:
<URL>.zip?repository=<repository>&blender_version_min=<version_min>&blender_max=<version_max_exclusive>&platforms=<platform1,platform2,...>- Example:
https://extensions.blender.org/add-ons/amaranth-toolset/1.0.23/download/add-on-amaranth-toolset-v1.0.23.zip?repository=/api/v1/extensions/&blender_version_min=4.2.0&platforms=linux-x64,macos-x64
HTML Example#
For a sample of the HTML code you can use to list all the extensions in the repository, use the html option
when generating the server.
blender --command extension server-generate --repo-dir=/path/to/packages --html
This creates a download.html file with all the extra URLs parameters ready to use.