Development Environment

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Development Environment

Required Software

You will need a Java Development Kit. Moneydance 2015 comes with the Java 1.8 runtime and Moneydance 2019 comes with Java 11. TIK updates the version of Java being used with each build, for example build 5064 (Moneydance 2023) comes with the Eclipse Adoptium version 21. If you are developing extensions make sure you match your environment with the version of Moneydance and Java you are using.

You will need something to run your build file such as ANT.

Any IDE will work, though one built for Java will help, for example Eclipse or JetBrains IDEA.

Compiling Your Extension

Extensions are held in a Java zip file with an file extension of .mxt. Basically this is a .jar file with the addition of a signature file. This file is used by Moneydance to verify that an extension has been validated by InfiniteKind. The .mxt file is created along with the signature file by running the Keyadmin application. The provided build.xml has the code to do this:

#!Xml
	    <java newenvironment="true" 
	      classpathref="classpath"
	      classname="com.moneydance.admin.KeyAdmin">
	      <arg value="signextjar"/>
	      <arg value="${privkeyfile}"/>
	      <arg value="${privkeyid}"/>
	      <arg value="loadsectrans"/>
	      <arg line="${dist}/loadsectrans.mxt"/>
	    </java>
	

Before you can compile your code you need to create the keys to be used by Keyadmin. You do this by running the build file with the target genkeys, i.e

#!cmd

ant genkeys

It will ask for a pass phrase and then generate the keys.

Every time you compile your extension you will need to enter the pass phrase. This has the disadvantage that you can not use Eclipse to compile the code. You will need to run this from a command line interface.

1. Set up a short cut from your desktop that starts a Command Line on the src directory for your extensions
2. run

#!cmd

ant extensionname

This will do a normal build of the java code and then run the Keyadmin app to add the signature file. It will ask you for the pass phrase.

Directory Structure

The directory structure for extensions is:

#!cmd

Moneydance
-- src
----priv_key   (generated)
----pub_key   (generated)
----com
------moneydance
--------modules
----------features
------------extensionname
--------------java files (*.java)
----build
------moneydance
--------modules
----------features
------------extensionname
---------------classfiles (*.class)
--lib
----extadmin.jar
----moneydance-dev.jar
--dist
----extensionname.mxt
--bin
----com
------moneydance
--------modules
----------features
------------extensionname
--------------class files (*.class)

The package name of extensions is com.moneydance.modules.features.extensionname

Build File

The supplied build file uses the above structure and places the extension .mxt file in the dist directory.

You will need to change the file to include a target for your extension. It is supplied with the name 'myextension'. Change all instances of 'myextension' to the name of your extension. This name must match the directory name for the source which in turn must match the package name in your source files.

If you want the build file to move the created .mxt file directly to the Moneydance fmodules directory you can amend the build file.

Add the following to the top of the build file after the "optimize" line:

#!xml

  <property name="install" value="C:\Users\Mike\.moneydance\fmodules"/>

Where the value points at your installation of Moneydance.

At the bottom of pair for your extension place the following just before the :

#!xml

	    <delete file="${dist}/extensionname.mxt" verbose="true" failonerror="false" />
	    <move file="./s-extensionname.mxt" tofile="${dist}/extensionname.mxt" 	verbose="true" failonerror="false" />
	    <copy file="${dist}/extensionname.mxt" tofile="${install}/extension.mxt"

Remember to change 'extensionname' to the name of your extension.

Use with Eclipse

Using Eclipse you have a number of features available to you.

1. Eclipse will compile as you go flagging errors and warnings. This can aid you creating clean code
2. You can debug your extension at the source code level (see Debugging)
3. You can interface it with GIT and bitbucket to provide version control

For Moneydance extensions you need to compile with ANT so the signature is added to the .mxt file. Even though Eclipse will compile as you go it does not add the signature and thus Moneydance will complain when it tries to load a unsigned .mxt file. Just before you are ready to test run the ANT build file.

Use with Jetbrain's IDEA

IDEA development environment has the same features as Eclipse plus a good interface to ANT. Add the ANT plugin to your environment (use File/Setttings/Plugins or Ctrl+shft+s) and then add your build.xml to the plugin.

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