Plugin Lifecycle

Every Zotero plugin follows a lifecycle, from installation to uninstallation. During this cycle, the plugin triggers a series of "hooks"—points in the plugin's execution where certain actions can be taken.

Hook	Triggered when...	Description
install	The plugin is installed or updated	Set up initial configurations. This hook is only for setup tasks and the plugin isn't running yet.
startup	The plugin is being loaded	Initialize everything needed for the plugin to function.
shutdown	The plugin is being unloaded	Clean up resources before the plugin stops running.
uninstall	The plugin is being uninstalled or replaced by a newer installation	Perform cleanup for uninstallation.
onMainWindowLoad	The main Zotero window opens. Can happen multiple times during a session.	Initialize UI changes for the main window.
onMainWindowUnload	The main Zotero window closes. Can happen multiple times during a session.	Remove any window-specific changes.

The figure below illustrates the plugin lifecycle and the order in which the hooks are called. The figure below shows the lifecycle of a plugin and how the hooks are called.

💡 Try this out!

Add the following line to the bootstrap.js file's startup() function of the example plugin, then apply the changes and restart Zotero with debug output enabled.

Zotero.debug("Hello, World! The plugin is loaded.");

Check the debug output to see if the message is printed when the plugin is loaded.

Disable and then enable the plugin in the Plugins Manager to see if the message is printed again.