Getting Started
ForumSpark lets third-party developers extend forum communities through apps, themes, widgets, and script injections. Your extensions are distributed through the built-in marketplace. Every board admin can discover and install them from their Admin Control Panel.
1 Create a developer account
Sign up or sign in via the ForumSpark Hub. Your Hub account is your developer identity, the same account you use to manage your boards.
2 Register your app
Go to your Developer Dashboard and create a new app. Choose a type (Theme, Widget, or Script Injection), give it a name, description, and icon.
3 Upload your package
Build your extension as a JSON package file following the specification for your extension type. Upload it from your app's detail page. The package is scanned for security issues automatically.
4 Submit for review
Once your app has a description, icon, and package file, submit it for review. We check for quality, security compliance, and adherence to our developer guidelines. Once approved, your extension appears in every board's extension marketplace.
Extension Types
ForumSpark supports three categories of extensions, each with different capabilities.
Theme Extension
Complete visual identities for forums. Themes control CSS variables, custom stylesheets, HTML layout templates, and dark mode behaviour. When installed, a new theme record is created in the board's theme library. Admins can activate it from the theme editor.
Widget Extension
Custom content blocks that board admins can place across their forum. Widgets use an HTML template with a simple variable interpolation syntax and a configurable settings schema. Admins position them in one of 10 widget areas (header, sidebar, footer, profile, etc).
Script Injection
Inject custom JavaScript and CSS directly into forum pages. Script extensions can target three injection points: the <head>,
top of the page body, or after the board content. Use the ForumSpark JavaScript SDK to hook into page events, read context, and interact with forum data.