diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d878c448cb1e4d669b8c654fe88d06fb50148579..67b1255496cfbfd52a02dfffdf60197045fa09e1 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -32,7 +32,11 @@ To develop plugins for the interactive viewer, run:
 git clone https://github.com/HumanBrainProject/interactive-viewer
 cd interactive-viewer
 npm i
-PLUGINDEV=true npm run dev-plugin
+npm run dev-plugin
+
+/* or define your own endpoint that returns string of manifests */
+PLUGINDEV=http://mycustom.io/allPluginmanifest npm run dev-server
+
 ```
 
 The contents inside the folder in `./src/plugin_examples` will be automatically fetched by the dev instance of the interactive-viewer on load. 
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 40cd5ffaef30350fbf0be073a085bf8e34f6aac2..44be1d461b6e38fb2c1242c831d49394a496dda2 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@
     "build-aot": "GIT_HASH=`git rev-parse --short HEAD` webpack --config webpack.aot.js",
     "build-min": "webpack --config webpack.prod.js",
     "build": "webpack --config webpack.dev.js",
-    "dev-plugin": "PLUGINDEV=true npm run dev-server & node ./src/plugin_examples/server.js",
+    "dev-plugin": "PLUGINDEV=true npm run dev-server & npm run plugin-server",
+    "plugin-server": "node ./src/plugin_examples/server.js",
     "dev-server": "webpack-dev-server --config webpack.dev.js --mode development",
     "serve-plugins": "node src/plugin_examples/server.js",
     "test": "karma start spec/karma.conf.js"
diff --git a/src/atlasViewer/atlasViewer.dataService.service.ts b/src/atlasViewer/atlasViewer.dataService.service.ts
index bf763c4ee5993336b1499225d9dbf108c9110b60..a2d76416afaac8dd97d0f817b6826760d9d8c239 100644
--- a/src/atlasViewer/atlasViewer.dataService.service.ts
+++ b/src/atlasViewer/atlasViewer.dataService.service.ts
@@ -16,7 +16,9 @@ export class AtlasViewerDataService implements OnDestroy{
   public promiseFetchedPluginManifests : Promise<PluginManifest[]> = new Promise((resolve,reject)=>{
     Promise.all([
       PLUGINDEV
-        ? fetch('http://localhost:10080/allPluginmanifests').then(res=>res.json())
+        ? PLUGINDEV === 'true'
+          ? fetch('http://localhost:10080/allPluginmanifests').then(res=>res.json())
+          : fetch(PLUGINDEV).then(res => res.json())
         : Promise.resolve([]),
       Promise.all(
         BUNDLEDPLUGINS
diff --git a/typings/index.d.ts b/typings/index.d.ts
index aded50e457631fea7598fe6df98c075f5538012f..2b6a130eaa65f75f5575b9f3def49ab2eec59003 100644
--- a/typings/index.d.ts
+++ b/typings/index.d.ts
@@ -8,6 +8,6 @@ declare module '*.css' {
   export = contents
 }
 
-declare var PLUGINDEV : boolean
+declare var PLUGINDEV : string
 declare var BUNDLEDPLUGINS : string[]
 declare var VERSION : string
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/webpack.staticassets.js b/webpack.staticassets.js
index ae3714c2e254fdd64e033a51c1d785218352da19..6b65ef86e2240b4c5f53af53c1281e3849e07dce 100644
--- a/webpack.staticassets.js
+++ b/webpack.staticassets.js
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ module.exports = {
   },
   plugins : [
     new webpack.DefinePlugin({
-      PLUGINDEV : process.env.PLUGINDEV ? true : false,
+      PLUGINDEV : JSON.stringify(process.env.PLUGINDEV),
       BUNDLEDPLUGINS : process.env.BUNDLEDPLUGINS
         ? JSON.stringify(process.env.BUNDLEDPLUGINS.split(','))
         : JSON.stringify([]),