# Providers

Certain plugins can be extended via the installation and configuration of additional providers.

Providers add an extension to the core capabilities of the plugin, for example to upload media files to AWS S3 instead of the local server, or using Amazon SES for emails instead of Sendmail.

For the relevant plugins, there are both official providers maintained by Strapi — discoverable via the Marketplace — and many community maintained providers available via npm (opens new window).

# Installing providers

New providers can be installed using npm or yarn using the following format @strapi/provider-<plugin>-<provider> --save.

For example:

# Install the AWS S3 provider for the Upload plugin
npm install @strapi/provider-upload-aws-s3 --save

# Install the Sendgrid provider for the Email plugin
npm install @strapi/provider-email-sendgrid --save

# Install the AWS S3 provider for the Upload plugin
yarn add @strapi/provider-upload-aws-s3

# Install the Sendgrid provider for the Email plugin
yarn add @strapi/provider-email-sendgrid --save

# Configuring providers

Newly installed providers are enabled and configured in the ./config/plugins.js file. If this file does not exist you must create it.

Each provider will have different configuration settings available. Review the respective entry for that provider in the Marketplace or npm (opens new window) to learn more.

Below are example configurations for the Upload and Email plugins.

// path: ./config/plugins.js

module.exports = ({ env }) => ({
  // ...
  upload: {
    config: {
      provider: 'aws-s3', // For community providers pass the full package name (e.g. provider: 'strapi-provider-upload-google-cloud-storage')
      providerOptions: {
        accessKeyId: env('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID'),
        secretAccessKey: env('AWS_ACCESS_SECRET'),
        region: env('AWS_REGION'),
        params: {
          Bucket: env('AWS_BUCKET'),
        },
      },
    },
  },
  // ...
});
 
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// path: ./config/plugins.js

module.exports = ({ env }) => ({
  // ...
  email: {
    config: {
      provider: 'sendgrid', // For community providers pass the full package name (e.g. provider: 'strapi-provider-email-mandrill')
      providerOptions: {
        apiKey: env('SENDGRID_API_KEY'),
      },
      settings: {
        defaultFrom: 'juliasedefdjian@strapi.io',
        defaultReplyTo: 'juliasedefdjian@strapi.io',
        testAddress: 'juliasedefdjian@strapi.io',
      },
    },
  },
  // ...
});
 
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# Configuration per environment

When configuring your provider you might want to change the configuration based on the NODE_ENV environment variable or use environment specific credentials.

You can set a specific configuration in the ./config/env/{env}/plugins.js configuration file and it will be used to overwrite the default configuration.

# Creating providers

To implement your own custom provider you must create a Node.js module (opens new window).

The interface that must be exported depends on the plugin you are developing the provider for. Below are templates for the Upload and Email plugins:

module.exports = {
  init(providerOptions) {
    // init your provider if necessary

    return {
      upload(file) {
        // upload the file in the provider
        // file content is accessible by `file.buffer`
      },
      uploadStream(file) {
        // upload the file in the provider
        // file content is accessible by `file.stream`
      },
      delete(file) {
        // delete the file in the provider
      },
    };
  },
};
 
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module.exports = {
  init: (providerOptions = {}, settings = {}) => {
    return {
      send: async options => {},
    };
  },
};
 
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You can review the Strapi maintained providers (opens new window) for example implementations.

After creating your new provider you can publish it to npm (opens new window) to share with the community or use it locally for your project only.

# Local providers

If you want to create your own provider without publishing it on npm you can follow these steps:

1. Create a providers folder in your application.
2. Create your provider (e.g. ./providers/strapi-provider-<plugin>-<provider>)
3. Then update your package.json to link your strapi-provider-<plugin>-<provider> dependency to the local path (opens new window) of your new provider.

{
  ...
  "dependencies": {
    ...
    "strapi-provider-<plugin>-<provider>": "file:providers/strapi-provider-<plugin>-<provider>",
    ...
  }
}
 
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4. Update your ./config/plugins.js file to configure the provider.
5. Finally, run yarn install or npm install to install your new custom provider.