Sharing your extension
This guide builds upon the Getting started guide and describes how to go from local development to making other Forma users able to install your extension. We encourage authors to share and test their code early.
1. Deploying and hosting the extension
To make your extension available to other Forma users, you need to deploy and host it on a public URL. This can be done in many ways, but here is a guide on how to deploy a Vite application to GitHub Pages using GitHub Actions workflow.
When your extension is hosted on a public URL, you need to update the extension configuration to point to this URL instead of localhost. This is configured in the Integration section on the extension management page as previously touched upon in the Configure extension part of the Getting started guide.
2. Connect an extension to Autodesk Platform Services application
To share your extension with other Forma users, your extension needs to be owned by an Autodesk Platform Services (APS) application. Go to the extension management page and click the Owner drop-down. If you have already created an APS application, it will show up in the drop-down. If not, click “Manage APS applications” to create one. This will open a new tab, and you will get the option to Create application. Choose a name for your application and make sure to create a server-to-server app, as this will make it possible to create all the different types of Forma extensions. Then, go back to the extension management page and select the created APS application in the drop-down.
More information about creating APS applications can be found in this tutorial.
3. Add permission to the installed extension
For other users to be able to install the extension on their projects, you need to add their project IDs to the allowed list on the extension management page. Alternatively, you can select the option “All users of Forma”. Note: before going through the publishing steps, your extension will only be visible for users looking up the extension ID (as explained in the next step).
4. Share the extension ID with other Forma users
You can share your extension with other Forma users by sharing the extension ID. This is found at the top of the extension management page, as well as in the Forma product through the dot menu in the extension menu.
This help article, describes how a user can install an unpublished extension, and this link is useful to include when sharing your extension ID with other Forma users.
Next steps
Now you are able to share your extension with other Forma users by sharing the extension ID. To make the extension show up in the marketplace for all users, check out the publishing guide.
