plugin and skins "rules"

I'm working on a (free) plugin that will add a new webmail interface to DA.

Instead of using hooks to add links to the UI, I'd like to replace the default skin pages that show squirrel and uebi with ones that show the new system as well.

Ideally, I'd like DA to use a similar system as it does for templates with a "custom" folder that will override the standard skin files in order to persist these changes through an upgrade and to avoid messing with the default skins. In the meantime...

Do you think it's okay for a plugin to modify the skins, or should there be an optional script that could be run after the plugin is installed if you wish to modify the skins? Would you rather see the links implemented as hooks? Any other ideas?

Making this optional during the plugin install would probably be the best solution, but the permission and security issues involved make this not worth the effort for a single, one-time script IMHO.

I have avoided modifying skin files in my plugins because the risk is to great of overwriting configurations that a user might have made. It would also limit operational range of the plugin to that skin.

I was just answering a DA user on this. It is very frustrating the way DA currently is. It would be nice to have a plugin or built in feature that can allow Admin/Resellers to show what they want displayed for particular packages/users and also add stuff as well, like Horde I suppose hooks would be the way to go for this. But perhaps a plugin that can be used to control hooks?

I think I know what you want to do. RVSkin for cpanel is masterful at this.

I do wish DirectAdmin had a better system aswell, having nothing hardcoded. This would allow for more seamless integration of plugins. For example replacing webalizer with awstats completely.

Well most of this should not be a problem to do. They just have to go over one item at a time. If they can do it for spam assasin, why can't they do it for everything else?