Django-CMS plugin isn't showing up in available plugins

Question

I've been attempting to write a Django CMS plugin, but it's not showing up in the "Available plugins" on the page edits and I'm very unsure why as I've read the source of another few plugins trying to see what I've done wrong. It's as if Django-CMS hasn't registered the plugin.

Directory structure:

/linkrotator
  __init__.py
  admin.py
  cms_plugins.py
  links.html
  models.py
  tests.py
  views.py

cms_plugins.py

from cms.plugin_base import CMSPluginBase
from cms.plugin_pool import plugin_pool
from linkrator.models import LinksPlugin as LinksPluginModel

class LinkListPlugin(CMSPluginBase):
    text_enabled = True
    model = LinkListPluginModel
    render_template = "linkrotator/links.html"

    def render(self, context, instance, placeholder):
        context.update({'instance':instance})
        return context

plugin_pool.register_plugin(LinkListPlugin)

models.py

from django.db import models
from cms.models import CMSPlugin

class LinkListPlugin(CMSPlugin):
    linklist = models.ForeignKey('linkrotator.LinkListList', related_name='plugins')

    def __unicode__( self ):
        return self.linklist.name

class Link(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField( max_length = 140 )
    in_list = models.ForeignKey( 'linkrotator.LinkList' )
    link = models.URLField()

    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.name

class LinkList(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField( max_length = 140 )
    in_list = models.ForeignKey('linkrotator.LinkListList', blank = True, null = True, on_delete=models.SET_NULL)

    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.name

class LinkListList(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField( max_length = 140 )
    number_of_links = models.IntegerField()

    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.name

settings.py

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import os

gettext = lambda s: s

PROJECT_DIR = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))

DEBUG = True
TEMPLATE_DEBUG = DEBUG

ADMINS = (
    # ('Your Name', '[email protected]'),
)

MANAGERS = ADMINS

LANGUAGES = [('en', 'en')]
DEFAULT_LANGUAGE = 0

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'NAME': os.path.join(PROJECT_DIR, 'mycms.db'),
    }
}

# Local time zone for this installation. Choices can be found here:
# http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_zones_by_name
# although not all choices may be available on all operating systems.
# On Unix systems, a value of None will cause Django to use the same
# timezone as the operating system.
# If running in a Windows environment this must be set to the same as your
# system time zone.
TIME_ZONE = 'America/Chicago'

# Language code for this installation. All choices can be found here:
# http://www.i18nguy.com/unicode/language-identifiers.html
LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'

SITE_ID = 1

# If you set this to False, Django will make some optimizations so as not
# to load the internationalization machinery.
USE_I18N = True

# If you set this to False, Django will not format dates, numbers and
# calendars according to the current locale
USE_L10N = True

# Absolute filesystem path to the directory that will hold user-uploaded files.
# Example: "/home/media/media.lawrence.com/"
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(PROJECT_DIR, 'media')

# URL that handles the media served from MEDIA_ROOT. Make sure to use a
# trailing slash if there is a path component (optional in other cases).
# Examples: "http://media.lawrence.com", "http://example.com/media/"
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'

# URL prefix for admin media -- CSS, JavaScript and images. Make sure to use a
# trailing slash.
# Examples: "http://foo.com/media/", "/media/".
ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX = '/media/admin/'

# Make this unique, and don't share it with anybody.
SECRET_KEY = '0r6%7gip5tmez*vygfv+u14h@4lbt^8e2^26o#5_f_#b7%cm)u'

# List of callables that know how to import templates from various sources.
TEMPLATE_LOADERS = (
    'django.template.loaders.filesystem.Loader',
    'django.template.loaders.app_directories.Loader',
)

MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'cms.middleware.page.CurrentPageMiddleware',
    'cms.middleware.user.CurrentUserMiddleware',
    'cms.middleware.toolbar.ToolbarMiddleware',
    'cms.middleware.media.PlaceholderMediaMiddleware',
)

TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS = (
    'django.core.context_processors.auth',
    'django.core.context_processors.i18n',
    'django.core.context_processors.request',
    'django.core.context_processors.media',
    'cms.context_processors.media',
)

CMS_TEMPLATES = (
    ('example.html', 'Example Template'),
)

ROOT_URLCONF = 'urls'

TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
    os.path.join(PROJECT_DIR, 'templates'),
)

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.sites',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'cms',
    'menus',
    'mptt',
    'appmedia',
    'south',
    'cms.plugins.text',
    'cms.plugins.picture',
    'cms.plugins.link',
    'cms.plugins.file',
    'cms.plugins.snippet',
    'cms.plugins.googlemap',
    'snippetology',
    'linkrotator'
)

Answer 1

The problem is an import error in your cms_plugins.py. You do from linkrator.models import LinksPlugin as LinkListPluginModel, it should be from linkrotator.models import LinkListPluginModel. You should also set a name on LinkListPlugin, or the name will be blank when it shows up under available plugins. Giving us:

from linkrotator.models import LinkListPluginModel

class LinkListPlugin(CMSPluginBase):
    name = 'Link rotator'
    text_enabled = True
    model = LinkListPluginModel
    render_template = "linkrotator/links.html"

    def render(self, context, instance, placeholder):
        context.update({'instance':instance})
        return context

Generally speaking, if you have issues with loading plugins, open a Django shell and try importing the cms_plugins.py module from the app causing issues.