Front-end or UI plugin documentation missing

[Derek Lamb]

http://wiki.helioviewer.org/wiki/Writing_Plug-ins_for_JHelioviewer has the following documentation about writing front-end and UI plugins:

Front end plug-ins
Coming soon (March 2010).
UI Plug-ins
Coming soon (March 2010).

I was thinking of writing (or having a student write) a plugin that would allow one to create custom catalogs or event lists by clicking on images in JHV. Some guidance would be helpful, since I haven't touched Java in 10+ years.

[Stephan Pagel (stephan-pagel)]

Hello Derek,

sorry for the incomplete documentation. Let me give you a short step by step instruction how to create a plug-in instead:

1. You need a Java Development Kit (JDK) and the Eclipse IDE. For further information have a look at http://wiki.helioviewer.org/wiki/JHelioviewer_Development_Information
2. Install Bazaar (http://bazaar.canonical.com/en/)
3. Get the latest jhelioviewer trunk (bzr branch lp:jhelioviewer).
4. Open a terminal and change to the directory %PATH_TO_JHV_SRC%/plugins/
5. Type bzr branch lp:~jhelioviewer-dev/jhelioviewer/plugin-template %NAME_OF_YOUR_PLUGIN% in order to download the plug-in template
6. change to the directory %NAME_OF_YOUR_PLUGIN%/init-plugin
7. type ant default and follow the on screen instructions.
8. Delete the folder “init-plugin”
9. Start Eclipse and select the folder %PATH_TO_JHV_SRC% as your workspace
10. Import (right click within the package explorer) the existing projects: base, basegui, exportColorTables, jhv, viewmodel, viewmodelplugin and %YOUR_PLUGIN_PROJECT%)
11. Within your plug-in directory there are two classes. The one which is called {YOUR_PLUGIN_NAME}.java is the point where to start the coding.
12. If you want to start your plug-in right click on one of the two default classes and select Run as > Java Application
13. Your plug-in will appear under the JHV menu Plug-ins > Manage Plug-ins…

I hope this helps to get it started. If you have any questions or you need more help please let us know.

Good luck.
Regards
Stephan