The development of packages atop of Ixhibition is encouraged, especially packages that add more animation sets and ones that provide additional functionality. However, in an attempt to streamline and standardise this such that multiple packages could be used in any given project, a set of guidelines are provided.

General Guidelines

These guidelines apply to all packages:

1. The package should request for an instance of ixhibition to be passed in as the parameter when the package is instantiated. E.g.

   
   var ixb = Ixhibition();
   
   //Do either:
   MyPackage(ixb); //Useful for packages only dealing with simple animation options
   //Or
   var mypackage = MyPackage(ixb); //Used for all other types of packages
   

2. It is not advised to modify the Ixhibition object itself, including adding more functions, changing functions, and deleting functions. Ixhibition has been developed in an encapsulated and self-contained format, and therefore any modification to the object may have unintended consequences. The only form of acceptable interaction is through the provided functions from the object.
3. It is strongly recommended to provide documentation for the package if the package is intended to be for public use (should go without saying).

Animation-oriented Package Guidelines

Packages that only provide additional animation sets should follow these requirements:

1. In order to avoid conflict, the keynames for the animations provided by the package should start with the package name or abbreviation, followed by an underscore, and finally followed by the preset name, i.e. {package name}__{preset name}
   An example would be if the package is called MyAnimation, then the keynames would follow these patterns: myanimation_[preset name] or ma_[preset name]
   e.g. myanimation_1 or ma_1

   
   ixb.saveOption("ma_1", function(data){
   
       var settingsX = {
           "segueType" : "vertical",
           "phaseInDuration" : 2,
           "phaseInAnimations" : [
               {"transform" : "scale(0.7, 0.7)"},
               {"transform" : "scale(0.7, 0.7)"},
               {"transform" : "scale(1, 1)"}
           ],
           "phaseOutDuration" : 2,
           "phaseOutAnimations" : [
               {"transform" : "scale(1.05, 1.05)"},
               {"transform" : "scale(0.7, 0.7)"},
               {"transform" : "scale(0.7, 0.7)"}
           ],
           "phaseOverlap" : 1,
           "segueDuration" : "overlap",
       };
   
       return settingsX;
   
   });
   

2. When using preset options, due to possible additional calculations required within the preset based of the data object provided see Saving , it may be neccessary for the loadOption(keyname) function to be executed relatively last; i.e. after setting setDisplayDuration(displayDuration), setPhaseIn(pIn_duration, pIn_animation), setPhaseOut(pOut_duration, pOut_animation), and/or setPhaseOverlap(poDuration). Therefore, if dependant on any of the values provided by the data object, then it will be necessary to explain this within the package documentation or preferably provide functions from the package object which take into account and deal with these attributes.

Functionality-oriented (and other) Package Guidelines

Packages that only provide additional animation sets should follow these requirements:

1. It is recommended that the package (object) is encapsulated and self-contained (similar to Ixhibition), and provides (public) functions in order to perform various tasks. This is not only to regulate name-space, but also to retain and maintain control within the package itself.
2. The package may be dependent on other APIs and/or Libraries, and therefore this should be made clear within the package documentation, and possibly resolve the dependancies itself by appending the required scripts to the DOM upon package instantiation.
3. Animations should follow the Animation-oriented Package Guidelines and provide (public) functions regardlessly.