I am currently developing a website in Ghost and I need the ability to store contact form data in the actual website itself. For this what I would ideally want to do is add a tab in the backend which contains a data area that accesses a database and displays all the submitted contact form details.
I am aware you can do this with integrations however I find that method to be very stupid and one which adds cost for absolutely no good reason. I don’t want to use a third-party service.
Which brings me to my question. Is there a way to develop plugins for Ghost CMS that extends it’s functionality?
It’s not possible to develop plugins in Ghost. You can modify the Ghost Core which is not recommended since Ghost is constantly evolving, or you can use external services. There are many code hosting services with a generous free tier, as well as many use-case-specific services.
Do you know if something like this is being planned or looked at? Plugins are a huge thing for services like these because others can extend the functionality without putting load on the developers to add features. For example I need a way to view data in the backend and I would make a plugin, release it and then others can make use of it for free.
I am basically looking for a CMS like Wordpress but one that uses handlebars and is made in Javascript. I hate using php and hate the old childish and inefficient way Wordpress is made in that makes it very annoying to work with. If you know of anything like that or something even close to it please let me know. I am actively looking.
Probably not any time soon. Ghost had a concept of “apps” a few years ago, but it was removed in later versions, most likely because correctly making and supporting a pluggable system is extremely complicated, and can lead to disastrous effects.
That being said, Ghost has a great API, though some of it isn’t fully documented/alpha, and there have been a couple of services that have popped up to add niche features to Ghost.
Ghost’s architecture uses an integration model, rather than a plugin model - which means that it’s possible to build 3rd party functionality outside the codebase, and then interact with Ghost using its API.