Extending / Introduction to Bolt Extensions

Note: You are currently reading the documentation for Bolt 3.7. Looking for the documentation for Bolt 5.2 instead?

The core functionality of Bolt can be extended by taking advantage of the rich ecosystem of extensions that are available on the Bolt Marketplace.

Discovering Extensions¶

The Bolt Extensions Marketplace is the place to discover new extensions. You can search by name or keyword and also see what the most popular extensions are.

Installing New Extensions¶

Within the administration area of your Bolt site, if you have the correct permissions you will see a link to 'Extend Bolt'.

Once you know the name of the extension as listed on the Marketplace then you can use the installation form to add it to your Bolt site. Fill in the name and click the Browse Versions button, this will launch a new window which will show you versions of the extension that are compatible with the current version of Bolt you are using.

The Extension installation form

Checking for Updated Versions¶

From time to time it's good practice to update any installed extensions, this allows developers to supply security updates along with added functionality.

Using the check for updates button (as shown above) you can see a list of updates that are available and optionally install them one at a time.

Note that because installing updates will potentially affect the way your Bolt site functions then it is important that you test updated extensions on a staging version of the site to ensure that everything works correctly before you update on a production site.

Security of Extensions¶

It's important to remember that the majority of extensions are developed and maintained by third party developers and you should be careful about reviewing the source code (or asking somebody capable to review for you) before you install on your Bolt Site.

If you think you have found a security bug you should contact both the developer of the extension along with the Bolt core team.