Shopware Deployment

Shopware 6 — Plugin Deployment Patterns

See the shopware skill for the map of Shopware skills.

Plugin Deployment Patterns

custom/static-plugins/ for project-specific code:

For larger Shopware projects, client-specific plugins and themes that are not published to the Shopware Store are placed in custom/static-plugins/ instead of custom/plugins/. This directory is symlinked into vendor/ via Composer's path repository type:

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{
    "repositories": [
        { "type": "path", "url": "custom/static-plugins/MyPlugin" }
    ],
    "require": {
        "vendor/my-plugin": "*"
    }
}

Composer creates a symlink vendor/vendor/my-plugin → ../../custom/static-plugins/MyPlugin/. This ensures the plugin is autoloaded via Composer's classloader and follows the same dependency resolution as Store plugins, while keeping project-specific code clearly separated and version-controlled in the project repository.

Shopware Store as Composer repository:

The Shopware Plugin Store can be added as a Composer repository to install Store plugins via composer require instead of manual upload:

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{
    "repositories": [
        {
            "type": "composer",
            "url": "https://packages.shopware.com"
        }
    ]
}

Store plugins are then installed with: composer require store.shopware.com/pluginname.

Shopware Partner wildcard environments:

Shopware Partners can set up wildcard test environments. These allow testing any Store plugin before purchasing, so agencies can evaluate plugins for clients without incurring costs upfront. The wildcard license covers all plugins on the test domain.

Plugin base class (src/SwagExample.php):

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namespace Swag\Example;

use Doctrine\DBAL\Connection;
use Shopware\Core\Framework\Plugin;
use Shopware\Core\Framework\Plugin\Context\UninstallContext;

class SwagExample extends Plugin
{
    public function uninstall(UninstallContext $context): void
    {
        parent::uninstall($context);

        if ($context->keepUserData()) {
            return;
        }

        /** @var Connection $connection */
        $connection = $this->container->get(Connection::class);

        // Check existence before dropping (idempotency)
        $columns = $connection->fetchAllAssociative(
            'SHOW COLUMNS FROM `my_table` LIKE :col',
            ['col' => 'my_column']
        );

        if (count($columns) === 0) {
            return;
        }

        $connection->executeStatement(
            'ALTER TABLE `my_table` DROP FOREIGN KEY `fk.my_table.my_column`, DROP COLUMN `my_column`'
        );
    }
}

Always check keepUserData() before touching the database in uninstall(). Drop FK constraints before columns.

composer.json (complete recommended structure):

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{
    "name": "vendor/plugin-name",
    "description": "Short description.",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "type": "shopware-platform-plugin",
    "license": "MIT",
    "authors": [
        { "name": "Developer Name", "email": "dev@example.com", "role": "Developer" },
        { "name": "Company GmbH", "email": "info@example.com", "homepage": "https://example.com/", "role": "Manufacturer" }
    ],
    "require": {
        "shopware/core": ">=6.6.0 <6.8.0",
        "shopware/administration": ">=6.6.0 <6.8.0"
    },
    "extra": {
        "shopware-plugin-class": "Vendor\\PluginName\\PluginName",
        "manufacturerLink": { "de-DE": "https://example.com/", "en-GB": "https://example.com/" },
        "supportLink":      { "de-DE": "https://example.com/kontakt/", "en-GB": "https://example.com/contact/" },
        "label":       { "de-DE": "Plugin Name DE", "en-GB": "Plugin Name EN" },
        "description": { "de-DE": "Beschreibung DE", "en-GB": "Description EN" }
    },
    "autoload": {
        "psr-4": { "Vendor\\PluginName\\": "src/" }
    }
}

Critical: manufacturerLink and supportLink must be locale-keyed objects, not plain strings. PluginService::getTranslations() iterates all four extra keys with foreach — a plain string causes a fatal error on plugin:refresh.

Admin dependency: Always require shopware/administration (same version range) for plugins that add or override admin components.

Plugin icon: Place a 128×128 PNG at src/Resources/config/plugin.png. Shopware stores it as a blob in plugin.icon on plugin:refresh.

Scaffold with: bin/console plugin:create SwagExample