Stating to implement a CakePlugin class to allow the inclusion of bootraping files for plugins

lib/Cake/Core/App.php

@@ -349,13 +349,7 @@ class App {
  * @return string full path to the plugin.
  */
 	public static function pluginPath($plugin) {
-		$pluginDir = Inflector::underscore($plugin);
+		return CakePlugin::path($plugin);
-		foreach (self::$__packages['plugins'] as $pluginPath) {
-			if (is_dir($pluginPath . $pluginDir)) {
-				return $pluginPath . $pluginDir . DS ;
-			}
-		}
-		return self::$__packages['plugins'][0] . $pluginDir . DS;
 	}
 
 /**
@@ -760,6 +754,7 @@ class App {
 		self::$__map = (array)Cache::read('file_map', '_cake_core_');
 		self::$__objects = (array)Cache::read('object_map', '_cake_core_');
 		register_shutdown_function(array('App', 'shutdown'));
+		self::uses('CakePlugin', 'Core');
 	}
 
 /**

lib/Cake/Core/CakePlugin.php

@@ -0,0 +1,161 @@
+<?php
+
+class CakePlugin {
+
+/**
+ * Holds a list of all loaded plugins and their configuration
+ *
+ */
+	private static $_plugins = array();
+
+/**
+ * Loads a plugin and optionally loads bootstrapping, routing files or loads a initialization function
+ *
+ * Examples:
+ *
+ * 	`CakePlugin::load('DebugKit')` will load the DebugKit plugin and will not load any bootstrap nor route files
+ *	`CakePlugin::load('DebugKit', array('bootstrap' => true, 'routes' => true))` will load the bootstrap.php and routes.php files
+ * 	`CakePlugin::load('DebugKit', array('bootstrap' => false, 'routes' => true))` will load routes.php file but not bootstrap.php
+ * 	`CakePlugin::load('DebugKit', array('bootstrap' => array('config1', 'config2')))` will load config1.php and config2.php files
+ *	`CakePlugin::load('DebugKit', array('bootstrap' => 'aCallableMethod'))` will run the aCallableMethod function to initialize it
+ *
+ * Bootstrap initialization functions can be expressed as a PHP callback type, including closures. Callbacks will receive two
+ * parameters (plugin name, plugin configuration)
+ *
+ * It is also possible to load multiple plugins at once. Examples:
+ * 
+ * `CakePlugin::load(array('DebugKit', 'ApiGenerator'))` will load the DebugKit and ApiGenerator plugins
+ * `CakePlugin::load(array('DebugKit', 'ApiGenerator'), array('bootstrap' => true))` will load bootstrap file for both plugins
+ * 
+ * {{{
+ * 	CakePlugin::load(array(
+ * 		'DebugKit' => array('routes' => true),
+ * 		'ApiGenerator'
+ * 		), array('bootstrap' => true))
+ * }}}
+ * 
+ * Will only load the bootstrap for ApiGenerator and only the routes for DebugKit
+ * 
+ * @param mixed $plugin name of the plugin to be loaded in CamelCase format or array or plugins to load
+ * @param array $config configuration options for the plugin
+ * @throws MissingPluginException if the folder for the plugin to be loaded is not found
+ * @return void
+ */
+	public static function load($plugin, $config = array()) {
+		if (is_array($plugin)) {
+			foreach ($plugin as $name => $conf) {
+				list($name, $conf) = (is_numeric($name)) ? array($conf, $config) : array($name, $conf);
+				self::load($name, $config);
+			}
+			return;
+		}
+		$config += array('bootstrap' => false, 'routes' => false);
+		$underscored = Inflector::underscore($plugin);
+		if (empty($config[$path])) {
+			foreach (App::path('plugins') as $path) {
+				if (is_dir($path . $underscored)) {
+					self::$_plugins[$plugin] = $config + array('path' => $path . $underscored . DS);
+				}
+			}
+		} else {
+			self::$_plugins[$plugin] = $config;
+		}
+
+		if (empty(self::$_plugins[$plugin]['path'])) {
+			throw new MissingPluginException(array('plugin' => $plugin));
+		}
+		if (!empty(self::$_plugins[$plugin]['bootstrap'])) {
+			self::bootstrap($plugin);
+		}
+		if (!empty(self::$_plugins[$plugin]['routes'])) {
+			self::routes($plugin);
+		}
+	}
+
+
+/**
+ * Returns the filesystem path for a plugin
+ *
+ * @param string $plugin name of the plugin in CamelCase format
+ * @return string path to the plugin folder
+ * @throws MissingPluginException if the folder for plugin was not found or plugin has not been loaded
+ */
+	public static function path($plugin) {
+		if (empty(self::_$plugins[$plugin])) {
+			throw new MissingPluginException(array('plugin' => $plugin));
+		}
+		return self::_$plugins[$plugin]['path'];
+	}
+
+/**
+ * Loads the bootstrapping files for a plugin, or calls the initialization setup in the configuration
+ *
+ * @param string $plugin name of the plugin
+ * @return mixed
+ * @see CakePlugin::load() for examples of bootstrap configuration
+ */
+	public static function bootstrap($plugin) {
+		$config = self::$_plugins[$plugin];
+		if ($config['bootstrap'] === false) {
+			return false;
+		}
+		if (is_callable($config['bootstrap'])) {
+			return call_user_func_array($config['bootstrap'], array($plugin, $config));
+		}
+
+		$path = self::path($plugin);
+		if ($config['bootstrap'] === true && is_file($path . 'config' . DS . 'bootstrap.php')) {
+			return include($path . 'config' . DS . 'bootstrap.php');
+		}
+
+		$bootstrap = (array)$config['bootstrap'];
+		foreach ($bootstrap as $file) {
+			if (is_file($path . 'config' . DS . $file . '.php')) {
+				include $path . 'config' . DS . $file . '.php'
+			}
+		}
+
+		return true;
+	}
+
+/**
+ * Loads the routes file for a plugin
+ *
+ * @param string $plugin name of the plugin
+ * @return boolean
+ */
+	public static function routes($plugin) {
+		$config = self::$_plugins[$plugin];
+		if ($config['routes'] === false) {
+			return false;
+		}
+		$path = include self::path($plugin) . 'config' . DS . 'routes.php';
+		if (is_file($path)) {
+			include $path;
+		}
+		return true;
+	}
+
+/**
+ * Returns a list of all loaded plugins
+ *
+ * @return array list of plugins that have been loaded
+ */
+	public static function list() {
+		return array_keys(self::$_plugins);
+	}
+
+/**
+ * Forgets a loaded plugin or all of them if first parameter is null
+ *
+ * @param string $plugin name of the plugin to forget
+ * @return void
+ */
+	public static function unload($plugin = null) {
+		if (is_null($plugin)) {
+			self::$_plugins = array();
+		} else {
+			unset($_plugins[$plugin]);
+		}
+	}
+}

lib/Cake/Error/exceptions.php

@@ -417,6 +417,14 @@ class MissingTestLoaderException extends CakeException {
 	protected $_messageTemplate = 'Test loader %s could not be found.';
 }
 
+/**
+ * Exception Raised when a test loader could not be found
+ *
+ * @package cake.libs
+ */
+class MissingPluginException extends CakeException {
+	protected $_messageTemplate = 'Test plugin %s could not be found.';
+}
 
 /**
  * Exception class for Cache.  This exception will be thrown from Cache when it