Managing plugins (for admins)
This page covers the administrative side of plugins: who can act, what the rest of the team sees, what an uninstalled plugin’s screens look like, and how platform overrides behave. For the basics — browsing, installing, uninstalling — start at Plugins & the Marketplace.
Who can do what
| Action | Owner / Admin | Member | 3442 platform team |
|---|---|---|---|
| Browse the Marketplace, read plugin details | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Install a plugin | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Uninstall a plugin | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Set a platform override (force on/off) | — | — | ✓ |
| Use an installed plugin | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
The Install / Uninstall buttons are shown to everyone who opens the Marketplace, but the action itself is restricted: a member who clicks one gets an error message (“Owner or admin required”) and nothing changes. If your team asks why the button “doesn’t work”, that’s why.
Permission-gated plugins
The plugin system can gate a plugin’s visibility on permission keys: if a plugin declares required permissions, a member must hold all of them to see it at all (owners and admins always see everything). The detail drawer lists any such requirement under Requires permissions.
None of the five plugins available today declares one — once installed, each is visible to every member of the workspace. Sensitivity is handled inside the features instead; most notably, Company Chat restricts individual channels by role (see Company Chat in the catalog).
What uninstalling looks like to the team
Uninstalling removes the plugin’s entry from everyone’s sidebar. Its screens still exist as web addresses, though — a bookmark, a browser history entry, or a link in an old message can still point there. Anyone landing on an uninstalled plugin’s screen sees a calm holding page instead of the feature:
Screen: A centered cell with the eyebrow ”// not installed”, the plugin’s name as the heading, the line “This feature is a plugin your workspace hasn’t installed yet. Install it from the Marketplace to enable it.”, and an Open Marketplace button.
Clicking Open Marketplace takes the user to the Plugins module — where, if they are an owner or admin, one click restores the feature.
Buttons in other modules that depend on a plugin do not disappear when it is uninstalled. For example, the Open discussion button on order records still shows without Company Chat — it deep-links into the chat module, so the user lands on the “not installed” page above. Data is never lost either way.
Data survives uninstall
Uninstalling never deletes anything:
- Company Chat — channels, threads, and message history remain; reinstalling brings them back as they were. (Retention/purge inside chat settings is the only thing that removes messages — see Company Chat.)
- Surcharge Invoicing — issued bills and invoices stay posted in Accounting; pass-through records reappear on reinstall (see Surcharge Invoicing). The customer portal’s Invoices tab disappears while uninstalled (see the Customer Portal guide).
- Analytics, AOG Desk, Shipping Desk — read-only views over data owned by other modules; there is nothing to lose.
Platform overrides — the 3442 controls
3442 platform staff see one extra section at the bottom of each plugin’s detail drawer:
Screen: Below the Install/Uninstall button, a section headed ”// platform controls” with a Platform override dropdown offering No override, Force on, and Force off, and the hint “Force this plugin on or off for this workspace, overriding the org’s own choice.”
From the workspace’s side:
- Force on — the plugin is visible even if you never installed it (pill: Forced on, magenta). Uninstalling does not hide it while the override stands.
- Force off — the plugin is hidden even if you installed it (pill: Forced off, red). Installing does not surface it while the override stands.
- No override — normal behavior; your own install state decides.
An override changes visibility only — it never touches data. If your workspace needs an override lifted, raise it with the APEX platform team; the Build module is the in-product channel.
Versions
Each catalog row shows the plugin’s version (e.g. v1.0.0). Plugins update together with APEX itself — there is nothing for you to upgrade, and no action is needed when the version number changes.