Add note regarding the last plugin class

docs/changelog.rst

@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ Bug fixes:
 - :doc:`plugins/discogs` Fixed inconsistency in stripping disambiguation from
   artists but not labels. :bug:`5366`
 - :doc:`plugins/chroma` :doc:`plugins/bpsync` Fix plugin loading issue caused by
-  an import of another :class:`beets.plugins.BeetsPlugin` class. :bug:`6033`
+  an import of another |BeetsPlugin| class. :bug:`6033`
 - :doc:`/plugins/fromfilename`: Fix :bug:`5218`, improve the code (refactor
   regexps, allow for more cases, add some logging), add tests.
 - Metadata source plugins: Fixed data source penalty calculation that was
@@ -188,8 +188,8 @@ For plugin developers:
   art sources might need to be adapted.
 - We split the responsibilities of plugins into two base classes
 
-  1. :class:`beets.plugins.BeetsPlugin` is the base class for all plugins, any
-     plugin needs to inherit from this class.
+  1. |BeetsPlugin| is the base class for all plugins, any plugin needs to
+     inherit from this class.
   2. :class:`beets.metadata_plugin.MetadataSourcePlugin` allows plugins to act
      like metadata sources. E.g. used by the MusicBrainz plugin. All plugins in
      the beets repo are opted into this class where applicable. If you are
@@ -5072,7 +5072,7 @@ BPD). To "upgrade" an old database, you can use the included ``albumify`` plugin
   list of plugin names) and ``pluginpath`` (a colon-separated list of
   directories to search beyond ``sys.path``). Plugins are just Python modules
   under the ``beetsplug`` namespace package containing subclasses of
-  ``beets.plugins.BeetsPlugin``. See `the beetsplug directory`_ for examples or
+  |BeetsPlugin|. See `the beetsplug directory`_ for examples or
   :doc:`/plugins/index` for instructions.
 - As a consequence of adding album art, the database was significantly
   refactored to keep track of some information at an album (rather than item)

docs/conf.py

@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ man_pages = [
 rst_epilog = """
 .. |Album| replace:: :class:`~beets.library.models.Album`
 .. |AlbumInfo| replace:: :class:`beets.autotag.hooks.AlbumInfo`
+.. |BeetsPlugin| replace:: :class:`beets.plugins.BeetsPlugin`
 .. |ImportSession| replace:: :class:`~beets.importer.session.ImportSession`
 .. |ImportTask| replace:: :class:`~beets.importer.tasks.ImportTask`
 .. |Item| replace:: :class:`~beets.library.models.Item`

docs/dev/plugins/autotagger.rst

@@ -95,9 +95,9 @@ starting points include:
 Migration guidance
 ------------------
 
-Older metadata plugins that extend :py:class:`beets.plugins.BeetsPlugin` should
-be migrated to :py:class:`MetadataSourcePlugin`. Legacy support will be removed
-in **beets v3.0.0**.
+Older metadata plugins that extend |BeetsPlugin| should be migrated to
+:py:class:`MetadataSourcePlugin`. Legacy support will be removed in **beets
+v3.0.0**.
 
 .. seealso::
 

docs/dev/plugins/index.rst

@@ -40,8 +40,8 @@ or your plugin subpackage
     anymore.
 
 The meat of your plugin goes in ``myawesomeplugin.py``. Every plugin has to
-extend the :class:`beets.plugins.BeetsPlugin` abstract base class [2]_ . For
-instance, a minimal plugin without any functionality would look like this:
+extend the |BeetsPlugin| abstract base class [2]_ . For instance, a minimal
+plugin without any functionality would look like this:
 
 .. code-block:: python
 
@@ -52,6 +52,12 @@ instance, a minimal plugin without any functionality would look like this:
     class MyAwesomePlugin(BeetsPlugin):
         pass
 
+.. attention::
+
+    If your plugin is composed of intermediate |BeetsPlugin| subclasses, make
+    sure that your plugin is defined *last* in the namespace. We only load the
+    last subclass of |BeetsPlugin| we find in your plugin namespace.
+
 To use your new plugin, you need to package [3]_ your plugin and install it into
 your ``beets`` (virtual) environment. To enable your plugin, add it it to the
 beets configuration

docs/reference/config.rst

@@ -77,10 +77,10 @@ pluginpath
 ~~~~~~~~~~
 
 Directories to search for plugins. Each Python file or directory in a plugin
-path represents a plugin and should define a subclass of :class:`BeetsPlugin`. A
-plugin can then be loaded by adding the filename to the ``plugins``
-configuration. The plugin path can either be a single string or a list of
-strings---so, if you have multiple paths, format them as a YAML list like so:
+path represents a plugin and should define a subclass of |BeetsPlugin|. A plugin
+can then be loaded by adding the plugin name to the ``plugins`` configuration.
+The plugin path can either be a single string or a list of strings---so, if you
+have multiple paths, format them as a YAML list like so:
 
 ::