PluginDevelopment
This guide is for 1.8 Version of Rapla. Rapla 2.0 will have a new plugin api. Started an experimental documentation for 2.0 here.
Rapla joins the plugin hype. Version 1.0 comes with its own plugin API. At the moment of writing there are 11 standard plugins in the Rapla-distribution and we've developed some more specific for our university.
We introduced the plugin concept into Rapla, so that other developers can extend Rapla for their needs and have the possibility to share their extensions with other users without breaking too much of the Rapla framework.
Most of the concept is "borrowed" from the Eclipse project, they invested a lot in plugin research.
But lets get started in writing a Rapla plugin in Eclipse.
- See BuildingRaplaWithEclipse and follow step 1-3
- https://github.com/rapla/myrapla
- See CheckingOutRapla for instructions to checkout Rapla. Go to the repository view and checkout the plugins/demo_plugin/trunk folder.
- Rightclick on
org.rapla.bootstrap.RaplaStandaloneLoaderand select Run to Rapla without plugin and to create a run entry - Now close Rapla right click again and select Run As/Run
- Click on the classpath tab than add the demo_plugin project to the User Entries
- Click run to start Rapla with demo_plugin on the classpath
- go to file/adminstrator/preferences/plugins
- Enable My Rapla plugin and restart Rapla (file/adminstrator/restart rapla)
- Now the Plugin is active it adds 3 extensions to Rapla
- It adds an import functionality in the file menu
- It adds an info dialog in the help menu
- It adds an option dialog in the user preferences
The entry point for the Plugin is org.rapla.plugin.demo.MyPlugin.
Rapla will discover and start the Plugin if its defined
in the file generated-src/META-INF/rapla-plugin.list
This file is automaticaly created by the build file in the demo_plugin project.
The Plugin class must implement the PluginDescriptor Interface
When the Rapla system start it calls all provideService methods of all Plugin Descriptors.
So this is the place where you tell Rapla what extension the plugin provides. Lets take a look at MyPlugin.java
public static final boolean ENABLE_BY_DEFAULT = false;
public static final TypedComponentRole<I18nBundle> RESOURCE_FILE = new TypedComponentRole<I18nBundle>(MyPlugin.class.getPackage().getName() + ".MyPluginResources");
public void provideServices(ClientServiceContainer container, Configuration config) {
if ( !config.getAttributeAsBoolean("enabled", ENABLE_BY_DEFAULT) )
return;
container.addContainerProvidedComponent( RESOURCE_FILE, I18nBundleImpl.class,I18nBundleImpl.createConfig( RESOURCE_FILE.getId() ) );
container.addContainerProvidedComponent( RaplaClientExtensionPoints.USER_OPTION_PANEL_EXTENSION, MyOption.class);
container.addContainerProvidedComponent( RaplaClientExtensionPoints.EXPORT_MENU_EXTENSION_POINT, MyExportMenuExtension.class);
container.addContainerProvidedComponent( RaplaClientExtensionPoints.HELP_MENU_EXTENSION_POINT, MyHelpMenuExtension.class);
}
The if condition at the beginning of the provide Service method only adds the extensions if the plugin is enabled.
The first extension is a resource bundle extension, it adds translations for the demo plugin to the rapla system.
The second extension will add an option panel to the user preferences. The MyOption class will only be instanciated when the option dialog is called.
We also add the two menu entries: The help menu and the import menu. Both will be initialized when the menubar is initalized.
That's it, basically.
Now we want to develop our own view-extension. For a more extensions see