Greetings everyone,
I've been working on this one for a while, and it's finally ready to talk about properly.
ForumSpark now has a full Developer Portal. It's a place where anyone can build extensions - themes, widgets, and scripts - and publish them for the entire platform. Every board gets access to a built-in Extension Directory right inside the Admin Panel, and anything published through the developer portal shows up there, ready to install with one click.
I wanted to break down what this means in practice, what you can build today, and how it all fits together.
The Extension Directory
If you run a board, head to your Admin Panel and look under Extensions. You'll find a Browse page where you can search, filter by type, and install extensions directly. Once installed, you can enable or disable them, check for updates, and uninstall them - all from the same place.
This is the other side of the developer portal. Whatever gets built and approved on the developer side shows up here automatically. No manual file transfers, no JSON imports. Just browse and install.
What You Can Build
There are three types of extensions right now.
Themes are the most complete. You get control over 100+ CSS variables, custom stylesheets, layout templates, and dark mode. They can be built directly on a test board using the theme editor in the AdminCP, which gives you a live preview of every change on your actual forum. Once you're happy with it, export it and upload it as a developer app. The recommended approach is to start with the theme editor, layer in custom CSS, and go from there.
Widgets let you create custom content blocks that board admins can place in different areas - header, sidebar, footer, profile pages, and more. Each widget has an HTML template with simple variable support, optional CSS, and a settings schema so admins can configure them without touching code. The developer portal includes a visual builder where you can design a widget, preview it live, and download the package file.
Script Injections are for custom JavaScript and CSS. You pick where it loads - in the <head>, at the top of the page body, or after the board content - and write your code. This is where you can build things like toolbar buttons, video embed handlers, live indicators, or anything that talks to an external service. There's a built-in security scanner that flags potentially dangerous patterns before you even submit. The portal has a script builder with a live security preview so you can catch issues early.
The API
ForumSpark has a REST API that covers forums, topics, replies, users, groups, and themes. Authentication is token-based with fine-grained scopes - you request exactly the permissions your app needs, and board admins grant them when they install it.
On top of that, there are webhooks. You subscribe to events and ForumSpark sends signed payloads to your endpoints whenever something happens. This makes it possible to build things like Discord bots that announce new topics, moderation dashboards that react to flagged content, or analytics tools that track engagement in real time.
Developer apps get their own Client ID and Client Secret for server-to-server authentication.
Full API documentation is at https://docs.forumspark.net/api/.
How Publishing Works
The process is straightforward. You create a developer account through the Hub, register your app with a name and description, upload your package file, add an icon and screenshots, and submit it for review. We check for security issues, quality, and compliance. Once approved, it goes live in the directory.
Every extension is scanned automatically when you upload the package - things like eval(), direct DOM manipulation with innerHTML, cookie access, and other patterns get flagged with severity levels. This isn't to stop you from building powerful things, it's to make sure nothing harmful gets through to other people's boards.
If your submission gets rejected, you'll get a reason and can fix it and resubmit. If it's approved, it's live for every board on the platform to discover and install.
The Builder Tools
For widgets and scripts, the developer portal includes visual builder tools. You don't need to write JSON by hand.
The Widget Builder lets you define your HTML template, add a settings schema with different field types (text, color, number, checkbox, URL), pick which areas your widget is allowed in, and see a live preview of both the rendered output and the final package JSON. When you're done, you download the file and upload it to your app.
The Script Builder works similarly - you write your JavaScript and optional CSS, pick the injection point, and the tool runs a live security scan as you type. You can see exactly what will be flagged before you submit.
For themes, the best approach is building directly on a test board. The theme editor gives you a live preview with real forum content, which is always going to be more accurate than any sandbox preview. Create a free board, build your theme there, export it, and upload it as a developer app.
What This Means for You
If you're a board admin, you now have a growing library of community-built extensions available right in your Admin Panel. No technical knowledge required - just browse, install, and configure.
If you're someone who's comfortable with CSS, HTML, or JavaScript, you can now build something once and share it with every board on the platform. Whether that's a theme you've been refining, a widget that solves a common need, or a script that adds a feature you always wished existed.
And if you're a developer who works with APIs, you can build external tools and integrations that connect to ForumSpark boards programmatically. Webhooks, REST endpoints, server-to-server auth - it's all there.
The portal is live now at the Developers section of the site. Docs, builder tools, and the submission process are all available. If you build something, I'd genuinely like to see it.
The developers site is a work in progress. Some things may see some changes or additions in the next few weeks/months.
An eye on ForumSpark 2.0
Some may have heard, but since @Mace has joined us, she's made some stunning progress on making the user interface on ForumSpark more clear, more modern, and overall just much better. I'm very excited to drop FS2 when that is ready to launch.
ForumSpark 1.4.1
Additionally, there hasn't been much done besides the Theme stylesheet editor fix and the ability to create new conversations when previously left.
As always, feedback is welcome. If something's unclear in the docs or you run into a wall trying to build something, let me know. That kind of feedback is exactly what shapes what we work on next.
