de.infoasset.platform.documentation
Class PluginsDoc

java.lang.Object
  de.infoasset.platform.documentation.PluginsDoc

public class PluginsDoc
extends java.lang.Object

Tricia Plugins

Tricia is built in a modular way, and can be extended by the means of plugins.

All plugins are in the workspace folder /plugins. The name of the plugin folder is the name of the plugin.

A plugin can use functionality from other plugins. This forms a depends relationship, which is defined through the Eclipse project dependency. The following picture shows the dependency graph of existing Tricia plugins.

The basic Tricia plugin is called toro and defines the basic infrastructure used by all plugins.

Code and Style Plugins

There are two different kinds of plugins: code plugins and style plugins. As the name implies, code plugins define behavior, whereas style plugins merely define look and feel.

The toro plugin in the dependency graph above is a code plugin and depends on the two style plugins jakob and jakobMenu.

The following class diagram shows the Java classes, which realize the plugin concept.

For each code plugin, there is a specific subclass of Plugin, which defines all extensions specified by the plugin (see Extension). This class has to be implemented as a singleton.

Plugin Structure

All Tricia plugins are organized the same way. This enables the use of conventions, also known as convention over configuration. This document gives a list of these conventions.

The following conventions apply to both style and code plugins:

• There is an Eclipse project description for all Tricia plugins, so plugins can be easily imported into the Eclipse IDE. The Eclipse project name is the same as the folder name.
• Templates (see Template) are at /templates. At the next level, there are themes (see ThemesDoc).

The following conventions apply to code plugins:

• The Java code files start at /src/classes.
• Java code is in the package de.infoasset.%PLUGIN_NAME%.*
• The main plugin singleton is defined in a class de.infoasset.%PLUGIN_NAME%.%PLUGIN_NAME_IN_CAMEL_CASE%Plugin.java . The file plugin as shown in the dependency graph above has a singleton class specified in de.infoasset.file.FilePlugin
• External libraries are at /lib. If available, there should be the source could too, and it should be linked in the Eclipse project.
• All Handler of a project are in the package de.infoasset.%PLUGIN_NAME%.handler
• All Assets of a project are in the package de.infoasset.%PLUGIN_NAME%.assets
• The configuration files are in the folder /config (see RunTriciaDoc).

Further Reading

Plugins have impact on the following topics:

• Template identification (see TemplateFinder)
• Extension points (see Extension)
• ClassLoader hierarchy

Constructor Summary

PluginsDoc()

Method Summary

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

PluginsDoc

public PluginsDoc()