Extensions Guide

This guide have some instructions and tips on how to create a new Tachimanga extension. Please read it carefully if you don't have any experience on the required languages and knowledges.

Table of Contents

1. Prerequisites
2. Writing an extension
   1. Setting up a new Gradle module
   2. Core dependencies
   3. Extension main class
   4. Extension call flow
   5. Misc notes
3. Building

Prerequisites

Before you start, please note that the ability to use following technologies is required and that existing contributors will not actively teach them to you.

• Kotlin (opens new window)
• Web scraping
  • HTML (opens new window)
  • CSS selectors (opens new window)
  • OkHttp (opens new window)
  • JSoup (opens new window)

Writing an extension

The quickest way to get started is to copy an existing extension's folder structure and renaming it as needed. We also recommend reading through a few existing extensions' code before you start.

Setting up a new Gradle module

Each extension should reside in src/<lang>/<mysourcename>. Use all as <lang> if your target source supports multiple languages or if it could support multiple sources.

The <lang> used in the folder inside src should be the major language part. For example, if you will be creating a pt-BR source, use <lang> here as pt only. Inside the source class, use the full locale string instead.

Loading a subset of Gradle modules

By default, all individual extensions are loaded for local development. This may be inconvenient if you only need to work on one extension at a time.

To adjust which modules are loaded, make adjustments to the settings.gradle.kts file as needed.

Extension file structure

The simplest extension structure looks like this:

$ tree src/<lang>/<mysourcename>/
src/<lang>/<mysourcename>/
├── build.gradle
├── res
│   ├── mipmap-hdpi
│   │   └── ic_launcher.png
│   ├── mipmap-mdpi
│   │   └── ic_launcher.png
│   ├── mipmap-xhdpi
│   │   └── ic_launcher.png
│   ├── mipmap-xxhdpi
│   │   └── ic_launcher.png
│   ├── mipmap-xxxhdpi
│   │   └── ic_launcher.png
│   └── web_hi_res_512.png
└── src
    └── eu
        └── kanade
            └── tachiyomi
                └── extension
                    └── <lang>
                        └── <mysourcename>
                            └── <MySourceName>.kt

13 directories, 9 files

build.gradle

Make sure that your new extension's build.gradle file follows the following structure:

ext {
    extName = '<My source name>'
    pkgNameSuffix = '<lang>.<mysourcename>'
    extClass = '.<MySourceName>'
    extVersionCode = 1
}

apply from: "$rootDir/common.gradle"

Field	Description
extName	The name of the extension.
pkgNameSuffix	A unique suffix added to eu.kanade.tachiyomi.extension. The language and the site name should be enough. Remember your extension code implementation must be placed in this package.
extClass	Points to the class that implements Source. You can use a relative path starting with a dot (the package name is the base path). This is used to find and instantiate the source(s).
extVersionCode	The extension version code. This must be a positive integer and incremented with any change to the code.
libVersion	(Optional, defaults to 1.4) The version of the extensions library (opens new window) used.

The extension's version name is generated automatically by concatenating libVersion and extVersionCode. With the example used above, the version would be 1.4.1.

Core dependencies

Extension API

Extensions rely on extensions-lib (opens new window), which provides some interfaces and stubs from the app (opens new window) for compilation purposes. The actual implementations can be found here (opens new window). Referencing the actual implementation will help with understanding extensions' call flow.

DataImage library

lib-dataimage (opens new window) is a library for handling base 64 encoded image data (opens new window) using an OkHttp interceptor (opens new window).

dependencies {
    implementation(project(':lib-dataimage'))
}

i18n library

lib-i18n (opens new window) is a library for handling internationalization in the sources. It allows loading .properties files with messages located under the assets/i18n folder of each extension, that can be used to translate strings under the source.

dependencies {
    implementation(project(':lib-i18n'))
}

Extension main class

The class which is referenced and defined by extClass in build.gradle. This class should implement either SourceFactory or extend one of the Source implementations: HttpSource or ParsedHttpSource.

Class	Description
SourceFactory	Used to expose multiple Sources. Use this in case of a source that supports multiple languages or mirrors of the same website.
HttpSource	For online source, where requests are made using HTTP.
ParsedHttpSource	Similar to HttpSource, but has methods useful for scraping pages.

Main class key variables

Field	Description
name	Name displayed in the "Sources" tab in Tachiyomi.
baseUrl	Base URL of the source without any trailing slashes.
lang	An ISO 639-1 compliant language code (two letters in lower case in most cases, but can also include the country/dialect part by using a simple dash character).
id	Identifier of your source, automatically set in HttpSource. It should only be manually overriden if you need to copy an existing autogenerated ID.

Extension call flow

Popular Manga

a.k.a. the Browse source entry point in the app (invoked by tapping on the source name).

• The app calls fetchPopularManga which should return a MangasPage containing the first batch of found SManga entries.
  • This method supports pagination. When user scrolls the manga list and more results must be fetched, the app calls it again with increasing page values (starting with page=1). This continues while MangasPage.hasNextPage is passed as true and MangasPage.mangas is not empty.
• To show the list properly, the app needs url, title and thumbnail_url. You must set them here. The rest of the fields could be filled later (refer to Manga Details below).
  • You should set thumbnail_url if is available, if not, getMangaDetails will be immediately called (this will increase network calls heavily and should be avoided).

Latest Manga

a.k.a. the Latest source entry point in the app (invoked by tapping on the "Latest" button beside the source name).

• Enabled if supportsLatest is true for a source
• Similar to popular manga, but should be fetching the latest entries from a source.

Manga Search

• When the user searches inside the app, fetchSearchManga will be called and the rest of the flow is similar to what happens with fetchPopularManga.
  • If search functionality is not available, return Observable.just(MangasPage(emptyList(), false))
• getFilterList will be called to get all filters and filter types.

Filters

The search flow have support to filters that can be added to a FilterList inside the getFilterList method. When the user changes the filters' state, they will be passed to the searchRequest, and they can be iterated to create the request (by getting the filter.state value, where the type varies depending on the Filter used). You can check the filter types available here (opens new window) and in the table below.

Filter	State type	Description
Filter.Header	None	A simple header. Useful for separating sections in the list or showing any note or warning to the user.
Filter.Separator	None	A line separator. Useful for visual distinction between sections.
Filter.Select<V>	Int	A select control, similar to HTML's <select>. Only one item can be selected, and the state is the index of the selected one.
Filter.Text	String	A text control, similar to HTML's <input type="text">.
Filter.CheckBox	Boolean	A checkbox control, similar to HTML's <input type="checkbox">. The state is true if it's checked.
Filter.TriState	Int	A enhanced checkbox control that supports an excluding state. The state can be compared with STATE_IGNORE, STATE_INCLUDE and STATE_EXCLUDE constants of the class.
Filter.Group<V>	List<V>	A group of filters (preferentially of the same type). The state will be a List with all the states.
Filter.Sort	Selection	A control for sorting, with support for the ordering. The state indicates which item index is selected and if the sorting is ascending.

All control filters can have a default state set. It's usually recommended if the source have filters to make the initial state match the popular manga list, so when the user open the filter sheet, the state is equal and represents the current manga showing.

The Filter classes can also be extended, so you can create new custom filters like the UriPartFilter:

open class UriPartFilter(displayName: String, private val vals: Array<Pair<String, String>>) :
    Filter.Select<String>(displayName, vals.map { it.first }.toTypedArray()) {
    fun toUriPart() = vals[state].second
}

Manga Details

• When user taps on a manga, getMangaDetails and getChapterList will be called and the results will be cached.
  • A SManga entry is identified by it's url.
• getMangaDetails is called to update a manga's details from when it was initialized earlier.
  • SManga.initialized tells the app if it should call getMangaDetails. If you are overriding getMangaDetails, make sure to pass it as true.
  • SManga.genre is a string containing list of all genres separated with ", ".
  • SManga.status is an "enum" value. Refer to the values in the SManga companion object (opens new window).
  • During a backup, only url and title are stored. To restore the rest of the manga data, the app calls getMangaDetails, so all fields should be (re)filled in if possible.
  • If a SManga is cached, getMangaDetails will be only called when the user does a manual update (Swipe-to-Refresh).
• getChapterList is called to display the chapter list.
  • The list should be sorted descending by the source order.
• getMangaUrl is called when the user taps "Open in WebView".
  • If the source uses an API to fetch the data, consider overriding this method to return the manga absolute URL in the website instead.
  • It defaults to the URL provided to the request in mangaDetailsRequest.

Chapter

• After a chapter list for the manga is fetched and the app is going to cache the data, prepareNewChapter will be called.
• SChapter.date_upload is the UNIX Epoch time (opens new window) expressed in milliseconds.

  • If you don't pass SChapter.date_upload and leave it zero, the app will use the default date instead, but it's recommended to always fill it if it's available.

  • To get the time in milliseconds from a date string, you can use a SimpleDateFormat like in the example below.

    private fun parseDate(dateStr: String): Long {
        return runCatching { DATE_FORMATTER.parse(dateStr)?.time }
            .getOrNull() ?: 0L
    }
    
    companion object {
        private val DATE_FORMATTER by lazy {
            SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss", Locale.ENGLISH)
        }
    }
    

    Make sure you make the SimpleDateFormat a class constant or variable so it doesn't get recreated for every chapter. If you need to parse or format dates in manga description, create another instance since SimpleDateFormat is not thread-safe.

  • If the parsing have any problem, make sure to return 0L so the app will use the default date instead.

  • The app will overwrite dates of existing old chapters UNLESS 0L is returned.

  • The default date has changed (opens new window) in preview ≥ r4442 or stable > 0.13.4.

    • In older versions, the default date is always the fetch date.
    • In newer versions, this is the same if every (new) chapter has 0L returned.
    • However, if the source only provides the upload date of the latest chapter, you can now set it to the latest chapter and leave other chapters default. The app will automatically set it (instead of fetch date) to every new chapter and leave old chapters' dates untouched.
• getChapterUrl is called when the user taps "Open in WebView" in the reader.
  • If the source uses an API to fetch the data, consider overriding this method to return the chapter absolute URL in the website instead.
  • It defaults to the URL provided to the request in pageListRequest.

Chapter Pages

• When user opens a chapter, getPageList will be called and it will return a list of Pages.
• While a chapter is open in the reader or is being downloaded, fetchImageUrl will be called to get URLs for each page of the manga if the Page.imageUrl is empty.
• If the source provides all the Page.imageUrl's directly, you can fill them and let the Page.url empty, so the app will skip the fetchImageUrl source and call directly fetchImage.
• The Page.url and Page.imageUrl attributes should be set as an absolute URL.
• Chapter pages numbers start from 0.
• The list of Pages should be returned already sorted, the index field is ignored.

Misc notes

• Sometimes you may find no use for some inherited methods. If so just override them and throw exceptions: throw UnsupportedOperationException("Not used.")
• You probably will find getUrlWithoutDomain useful when parsing the target source URLs. Keep in mind there's a current issue with spaces in the URL though, so if you use it, replace all spaces with URL encoded characters (like %20).
• If possible try to stick to the general workflow from HttpSource/ParsedHttpSource; breaking them may cause you more headache than necessary.

Update strategy

There is some cases where titles in a source will always only have the same chapter list (i.e. immutable), and don't need to be included in a global update of the app because of that, saving a lot of requests and preventing causing unnecessary damage to the source servers. To change the update strategy of a SManga, use the update_strategy field. You can find below a description of the current possible values.

• UpdateStrategy.ALWAYS_UPDATE: Titles marked as always update will be included in the library update if they aren't excluded by additional restrictions.
• UpdateStrategy.ONLY_FETCH_ONCE: Titles marked as only fetch once will be automatically skipped during library updates. Useful for cases where the series is previously known to be finished and have only a single chapter, for example.

If not set, it defaults to ALWAYS_UPDATE.

Building

APKs can be created in Android Studio via Build > Build Bundle(s) / APK(s) > Build APK(s) or Build > Generate Signed Bundle / APK.