But for the life of me, I can't figure out how to get Joomla's "discover" function to recognize my plugin. I've added my unpacked, unzipped files to the appropriate folder — in this case, */plugins/community/ — to no avail.
As for my code, I'm just starting with the basic "example" code listed in the tutorial above.
Is there something I'm missing? Surely there's a simple way to do this, yes?
you need install it first, here is the method to install it
1 . install via file, Zip the files inside plugins/community/example/ and name it plg_example.zip, then install it like you install common Joomla extenstions
2. Install via folder, go to Joomla installation page, and then on tab folder you put plugin location there "./plugins/community/example/" click install then