How to create multiple instances of the same plugin?

Introduction

A recent question in the support tickets is how to create a new instance of the same search plugin next to the original one. It can be useful in case of using our improved content or k2 search plugins, because it has category and item exclusion parameter. So you can create a plugin what can search only in 'category A', and another one for another search module what can only show results from 'category B'. You can read the steps below:

Steps to make more instances of plugins

  1. Download the selected search plugin from our free download section.
  2. Navigate to the downloaded location, and open the downloaded archive file.
  3. Append a custom keyword to the files of the plugin (php and xml), like 'customone'.

    For example: contentimprovedcustomone.php & contentimprovedcustomone.xml

  4. Open the PHP file, and append the PHP class name with the previously used keyword, like:

    class PlgSearchContentImprovedCustomOne extends JPlugin

  5. After that open the xml file, and rewrite the plugin name to can identify it in the plugin manager. The name of the plugin can be found between the tags.
  6. Finally you need to change the filename referring to the plugin's php file for the changed one:

    <filename plugin="contentimprovedcustomone">contentimprovedcustomone.php</filename>

  7. Repack the files, and install on your site. Don't forget to enable the plugin after successfull installation in the plugin manager.