Plugins are modular stand-alone additions to SynBioHub. They function in a way that is similar to browser extensions. They can be installed separately from the browser/SynBioHub and provide additional ‘custom’ functionality to the browser/SynBioHub experience despite having a completely separate code base from the browser/SynBioHub. Though, they seem integrated to the user.

Currently there are three types of plugins available:

Submit: Submit plugins are available to use from the submit endpoint. They work by taking in the file that is uploaded in the submit and processing it to return SBOL to the SynBioHub endpoint.

Visual: Visual plugins are available on all ‘endpoint’ pages, for example pages for components, sequences, activities, etc. Visual plugins return html to be displayed on the page.

Download: Download plugins are available on all ‘endpoint’ pages, for example pages for components, sequences, activities, etc. Download plugins return some kind of file which is downloaded by the user.