Docs: Modules
Modules
What a tilspire module is, the Blog, Forums and Tickets modules, and how Pro modules are licensed and installed.
What a module is #
A module is a self-contained folder that adds a feature — routes, admin screens, database tables, everything it needs. Only enabled modules load: one you haven't installed, or have disabled, contributes nothing to a request. No code runs, no routes register, no queries fire.
That means adding a feature you don't use costs you nothing, and a site that needs very little stays fast.
Modules that come with tilspire #
| Module | Tier | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Blog | Free, in every package | A blog index and post pages, with tags and cover images, and its own editor. |
| Assistant | Free, in every package, off until you enable it | AI mode in the admin: ask about your site in plain language, keep your chats, and approve what it proposes. See AI and the Assistant. |
| Analytics | Free, in every package, off until you enable it | Page views, the sites that send visitors and a count of unique visitors, with no cookie and no third party. See Analytics. |
| Comments | Free, in every package, off until you enable it | Comments on posts and pages from members and, if you allow it, guests, with a spam gate and one moderation queue. See Comments. |
| Importer | Free, in every package, off until you enable it | Brings a ProcessWire or WordPress site’s content into tilspire, with a dry run first and an undo. See The importer. |
| Forums | Pro | Community forums for your members: categories, topics and replies, moderation, and an optional rule that only members with a verified email address may post. Its moderation can be helped by the Assistant. |
| Tickets | Pro | A support form for visitors and members, and an admin queue to answer them from. With site search on, the form suggests answers as the visitor types. |
Blog comments #
Since 1.17.0, comments on Blog posts come from the Comments module. Before that they lived in Forums; updating copies them across and leaves the forum topics as they were.
Managing modules #
Install, enable, disable and uninstall modules under System ▸ Modules. Modules are updated together with the core — see Updates.
Pro modules and licences #
Pro modules need a licence key. Activate yours under System ▸ License, which ties it to your site, then install the modules it covers from System ▸ Modules. A key can be moved to another site by deactivating it first.
If a licence lapses, the modules you already installed keep working; only new versions and support stop. Your public website is never affected by the state of a licence.
Pro modules are licensed under the Tilspire Pro Module License, not the Apache License 2.0 that covers tilspire itself.
Anatomy of a module #
- module.json — a manifest naming the module, its version and its tier.
- src/module.php — the entry file that declares the module's routes, permissions and admin screens when it loads. Each admin screen names a group, which places it in one of the admin menu's five sections; a group tilspire doesn't know places it in System.
- Its own admin views, templates, assets, language files and, where it needs its own tables, migrations.
The names of the modules that come with tilspire — blog, assistant, analytics, comments, importer, forums and tickets — are reserved: an update replaces a folder by those names. A module can also offer its content to the Operator API, under the same gates and grants as tilspire's own, and since 1.16.0 name jobs of its own, which appear beside tilspire's on each credential.