Plugin development query

[mlcrane]

Hi,

I'm trying to write a really simple "CRM Integration Plugin" for our MantisBT installation (against MBT v2.27). It's not going to be anything spectacular; when a value is saved into a particular custom field in MBT, the value is turned into an anchor tag by the plugin that points at the appropriate case/issue in the CRM, and a similar value is injected into the CRM database that points back at MBT.

I've figured out the logic of the anchor tags, but I'm struggling on how to trigger the update to the value in MBT. Are there any "reference plugins" anyone can recommend looking at that will give me a hint how I do this?

Alternatively, any plugin devs that can explain it?

Many thanks in advance.

[mlcrane]

Just to add, I'm comparing what I'm doing against "MantisCoreFormatting", which has at least allowed me to get my very old and never worked properly in the first place plugin code for MantisBT 1.3 config page working again in MantisBT 2.27.

[mlcrane]

Well, following a lot of "soul searching" and fruitless conversations with many, many LLMs (that all provided the same lie), it's clear to me that what we're trying to do isn't something a plugin can do. It's going to have to be "core modifications", and TBH, I want to avoid that entirely (this time) if I can, because keeping a heavily modified fork running is a big part of the problem we already have.

So, my gut tells me that having a "URL" (anchor tag) custom field would be a way to avoid the problem we're making for ourselves (not the entire answer, but a big part of the solution). Other than the very obvious "user controlled data in an <a> could very quickly become a nightmare" (which I completely understand and agree with), is there a technical reason why there currently isn't an "URL-type custom field"? Very hazy memory tells me that this question has been asked in the past...