Difference between revisions of "MoDisco/DiscoverersManager"

Revision as of 10:19, 15 July 2009

A discoverer is a component that injects an element into a model which represents this element. To allow an easy manipulation of different discoverers and to be independent of the discoverers implementation, we provide a standard contract for discoverers. Through that, we provide a set of common tools:

• a registry of all discoverers available in eclipse platform
• a contextual menu to use discoverers available on a single selected resource
• a launch configuration to run discoverers and encapsulate them in a workflow

Features

Discoverer extension point

A discoverer shall have a name and provide an implementation of Discoverer interface to be managed by DiscoverersManager. For each discoverer, a new entry in MoDisco menu will be added. However, each discoverer should provide a resource filter to adapt menu depending on a single selected element.

Description of informations in contract of discoverer extension point :

• name - Required - information to identify a discoverer in registry, it shall be unique. This name will also be used to populate menu.
• class - Required - A class that implements Discoverer interface to be managed and used by Discoverers manager. When a corresponding element has been selected (filter provided by informations in extension part), a model could usually be retrieved by calling method "discoverElement", and it returns an EMF Resource.
• path - Optional- To allow sub-menu path into root menu provided by Discoverers Manager. For example, if your path is "j2se5/filters", the provided menu will be : <root menu> -> j2se5 -> filters -> Your Discoverer name

See an example in chapter 6.

Discoverers registry

The registry of discoverers references all discoverer extensions installed in current eclipse platform. And DiscoversManager provides an access to this registry. There are two methods, one to retrieve all discoverers and one to retrieve only one discoverer using its name to identify it.

 /**
  * Accessor to all discoverers registered in DiscoverersManager
  * through extensions.
  * 
  * @return the list of discoverers available in registry
  */
 public static List<? extends Discoverer> getDiscoverers()
 
 /**
  * Accessor to one discoverer registered in DiscoverersManager
  * through extensions.
  * 
  * @param discovererName name of a discoverer
  * @return the discoverer with specified name,
  *  or null if there is no discoverer registered with specified name.
  */
 public static Discoverer getDiscoverer(String discovererName)

Dynamic contextual menu

The contextual menu will be completed dynamically when a discoverer is able to manage selected resource. Example, when a java project is selected (instance of IJavaProject):

Example with J2se5 discoverer

Launch configuration framework

The launch configuration framework provides a new type of configuration launch (named MoDisco Discoverers) accessible through menu “Run Configurations …”.

Presentation of discoverer type

And here is an example of a discovery configuration.

Discovery configuration example

Install

You will find a version of this plug-in in SVN repository.

Here are installation instructions :

• Import project in your workspace using a SVN client.
• Use "export" menu to export this project as a plug-in (Deployable plug-ins and fragments) in your Eclipse installation. Don't forget to choose "Package plug-ins as individual jar archives" option.
• Re-start your Eclipse to take this plug-in into account.

Connection parameters to SVN repository: MoDisco/SVN.

User manual

First step: in your plug-in properties (plugin.xml or META-INF/MANIFEST.MF), add a dependency to plug-in “org.eclipse.gmt.modisco.discoverersmanager”.

Dependency to plug-in DiscoverersManager

Second step: create a class in your plug-in that implements Discoverer interface provided by DiscoverersManager plug-in. See javadoc of this interface for details of methods.

Creation of class which implements Discoverer

Third step: in your plug-in properties (plugin.xml or META-INF/MANIFEST.MF), create a “discoverers” extension.

Creation of discoverers extension

Fourth step: in discoverers extension, a discoverer declaration has been created automatically. You will have to fill element details to validate discoverer declaration.

Fill discoverer details

Congratulations, your first discoverer has been successfully defined.

If you want to add several discoverers in your plug-in, first you will have to add a discoverer in your “discoverers” extension.

Add another discoverer declaration in your extension

Then, you will have to fill element details to obtain a second valid discoverer.

Several discoverer declarations in your extension