It’s time to release the newest version of the ARK Desktop Wallet and this one is a BIG one! With the release of v2.4, we are officially debuting one of our most anticipated new developments — the desktop wallet plugin system. The plugin system makes our wallets even more versatile, providing developers and hobbyists with a means to easily develop and deploy additional functionality for the wallet. We can’t wait to see what great ideas you come up with!

The initial implementation of the ARK Desktop Wallet plugin system is complete. The new plugin system gives developers additional ways to expand the usability of the Desktop Wallet and develop innovative ways to interact within the ARK Ecosystem. Plugins are always optional for the user to install. Each plugin is installed on a per profile basis, allowing the ARK Desktop Wallet to remain free of any bloat. This means you get the experience you want, without any of the hassles you don’t.

With the impending release of the ARK Deployer on May 28th, we have expanded and improved bridgechain support inside the Desktop Wallet as well. We have also made all of the necessary changes for the wallet to be compatible with the upcoming Core v2.4 upgrade, ensuring that all of our product releases are in alignment and we are able maintain a smooth transition when the network is updated.

The new wallet is available for download at: https://github.com/ArkEcosystem/desktop-wallet/releases

Note for developers: With the upcoming release of ARK Core v2.5 in June (which will mainly be focused on cleaning up some legacy code alongside API v1), we will be dropping API v1 support in the Desktop Wallet. Please prepare any tools or services that are still utilizing API v1 and update to API v2 prior to that time.

Plugin System

While the plugin system is already fully working, we have marked this plugin system release as a beta, as we want to receive feedback from developers to gauge where they see room for improvement. This will give us a chance to develop any necessary tools and implement features that could aid them with developing plugins and help improve the process and interface.

The beta version of the plugin system comes with the following features:

Sidebar menu items for custom pages.

Tabs on the Wallet page.

The ability to specify permissions on a per-plugin basis, so users can see what the plugin is capable of and what services it may access.

Access to wallet events so they can react at key times, such as playing a sound when a new transaction is found.

Access to machine audio so it has the capability to play additional sounds.

Alert popups to provide the user with information within the wallet (the same system used to notify users of new transactions).

Additional profile avatars which can be included with a plugin.

The ability to install and apply custom themes to the wallet.

We have already developed a few simple official plugins to show the power and ease of use of the new plugin system. Users can enable or disable the plugin system at any time in the plugin menu. Plugins are separate for each profile so you can have different profiles with different plugin settings.

Repository with official Desktop Wallet plugins is available at: https://github.com/ark-ecosystem-desktop-plugins

When you initially install Desktop Wallet v2.4 it will create a plugins folder where you can place Desktop Wallet compatible plugins and the wallet will auto-discover them when you start it. Once we move out of beta, we’ll have an auto-discovery option inside the wallet itself, without the need to manually copy files to the plugins folder or searching for them on our repositories.

Developers can also expect a guide on how to build their first plugin based on an example (and yes, it is really simple), which will be released tomorrow!

How To Install ARK Plugins?

The Desktop Wallet will create a plugins folder in your default local users folder:

Windows users: c:\users\<username>\.ark-desktop\plugins

Mac / Linux users: ~/.ark-desktop/plugins

You can open this folder within the wallet itself, by going to Plugin Manager and pressing on the Open Plugins button.