I'm wondering if there is some kind of best practice on how to make your application able to take third party developer's own plugins and how to get started on that. I'd love to have a view in my settings where the user can add or remove the plugins. To me this is completely new so I'm thankful for any hint.
Have a look at the Code Loading Programming Topics section on plug-in archietecture.
This section describes how to architect an application for extensibility through plug-ins. If you want to make your application modular, customizable, and easily extensible, you should read this section to learn about the different ways to build a plug-in architecture.
Related
I have created a webapp using Wix, which relies heavily on the repeater element to display content from a database inside a repeating element. Repeaters do pretty much exactly what I want, but I realize they are built on a pretty sophisticated API, and there's a lot of stuff making this happen in the background.
Ultimately for this project, a native iOS app is the end goal. However, I have no experience in xcode - but willing to learn. Before I get in too deep, is there any kind of functionality I could find to achieve something like this?
Thanks in advance
You can't convert Wix Repeater element to Xcode. But, you can make deep customization to your Wix elements by using Wix Corvid.
If you not familiar with it, it's is a developing platform integrated into the Wix ecosystem that allows users to build advanced sites. Among other things, it’s able to create and manage databases, build dynamic pages, host user-generated content and more.
background
I have designed many tools in the past year or so that is designed to help me program for XPages. These tools include primarily helper java classes, extended logging (making use of OpenLogger and my own stuff), and a few other things that I personally feel I cannot work without. It has been discussed with my employer, and we feel that it might be a good idea to start publishing these items to openNTF. Since these tools are made up of about 3 .nsfs, all designed to use the same java code, key javascript classes, css, and even a custom control or two, I would like to consolidate key items into a plug-in that can be installed at the server and client level. I want to do this consolidation before I even think about publishing any of the work I've done so far. It would just be far too much work to maintain, not just for me, but for potential users. I have not really found any information on how to do such a thing in google searches. I also have to make sure that I am able to make use of the ExtLib libraries, openNTF Domino API, and the Notes API.
my questions
How does one best go about designing such plug-ins? Must a designer
use eclipse, or is this it possible to do this directly in the Notes
Designer?
How does a designer best go about keeping a server and client up to date while designing and updating the plug-in code? Is this why GitHub is often used?
Where is the best place to get material to get started in this direction? I sort of feel lost in the woods, knowing I need to head north, but not having a compass for that first step.
Thank you very much for your input.
In my experience, I found that diving into plug-in development is a huge PITA until you get used to it, but it's definitely worth it overall.
As for whether you can use Designer for plugin development: yes, but you will likely eventually want to not do so. I started out by using Designer for this sort of thing for a while, presumably with the same sentiment as you: why bother installing another instance of Eclipse when I'm already sitting in one all day? However, between Designer's age (it's roughly equivalent to, I think, Eclipse 3.4), oddities when it comes to working sets between the "Applications" and "Project Explorer" views, and, in my case, my desire to use a Mac app, I ended up switching.
There are two major starting points: the XSP Starter Kit (http://www.openntf.org/internal/home.nsf/project.xsp?name=XSP%20Starter%20Kit) and Niklas Heidloff's video on setting up Eclipse for XPages development (http://www.openntf.org/main.nsf/blog.xsp?permaLink=NHEF-8RVB5H). The latter mentions the XPages SDK (http://www.openntf.org/internal/home.nsf/project.xsp?name=XPages%20SDK%20for%20Eclipse%20RCP), which is also useful. In my setup, I found the video largely useful, but some aspects either difficult to find (IBM's downloads are shifting sands) or optional (debugging, which will depend on whether or not you're using Eclipse on Windows).
Those resources should generally get you set up. The main thing to worry about when setting up your Eclipse environment will be making sure your Plug-In Execution Environment is properly done. If you're following the SDK setup instructions, that SHOULD get you where you need to be.
The next thing to know about is the way plugins are structured. Each plugin you want to install in Designer or Domino will also be paired with a feature project (a feature can house several plugins), and potentially an update site - the last one is optional if you just want to import the features into an Update Site NSF. That's how I often do my normal plugin development: export the paired feature to a directory and then import the feature into the server's Update Site NSF and then install in Designer from there using Application -> Install. You can also set things up so that you deploy into the server's plugin/feature directories instead of taking the step of installing into an update site if you'd prefer. GitHub doesn't really come into play for this aspect - it's more about sharing/collaborating with your code and also having a remote storage location for your git repositories (which I highly advise).
And as for the "lost in the woods" feeling: yep, you'll have that for a good while. There are lots of moving parts and esoteric concepts to get a hold of all at once. If you mostly follow the above links and then start with some basics from the XSP Starter Kit (which is itself a plugin project that you can pair with a feature) - say, printing text in the Activator class and making an implicit global variable just to make sure it works - that should help get your feet wet.
It's best done in Eclipse. You can debug your code running on the server from there, as well as run it directly from there. The editors are also more up-to-date. You want:
Eclipse for RCP and RAP developers
XPages SDK for Eclipse RCP (from OpenNTF)
XPages Debug Plugin (from OpenNTF - basically allows you to load the plugins to the Domino server dynamically, rather than exporting to an Update Site all the time)
XSP Starter Kit on OpenNTF is a good starting point for a plugin. There are various references to the library id, which has to be unique for your plugin. Basically, references to org.openntf.xsp.starter need changing to whatever you want to call your plugin. You're also best advised to remove what you don't need. I tend to work in a copy of the Starter, remove stuff, build and if there are errors with required classes (Activator.java obviously will be required and some others), then paste them back in from the Starter.
XPages OpenLog Logger is a good cross-reference, that was built from XPages Starter Kit. It's pretty much stripped down and you'll be able to see what had to be changed. A lot of the elements of the XSP Starter Kit correspond to Java classes you'll probably be familiar with from your XPages Java development.
GitHub etc tend to be used as source control, which is useful for working out what's changed from time to time.
I have been deliberating and deliberating. Orchard is clearly powerful and flexible, contains some very sophisticated code. I need to create some specific Wizard/Workflow functionality. I am also using Entity framework instead of NHibernate. It seems to me that it will be better to write this application seperately using simpler code, which I can refactor, and integrate into Orchard via a Wrapper Module, rather than getting caught up in writing a module afresh for the complete Wizard/Workflow. As I say I am learning MVC3 and do not want to overcomplicate my life, just deliver a solution. I will certainly use Orchard for typical CMS website features.
I also still have an unresolved issue of representing Organisations above users, which I have already resolved outside Orchard. This is only needed for the application rather than content management. So in the short term it may be that I keep the authentication seperate.
Does this sound the most pragmatic approach. If there was a good existing module then the decision would be easier. I think they are considering workflow for 1.7, but we are not there yet.
Many thanks,
Ed
It does sound like a safe path, yes.
I have been learning to develop my own plugins and components for joomla! 2.5.
After a couple of months of developing features for my site, I am starting to realise that some of the components I have created could have probably been just as effective if I'd developed them as a plugin for com_content or com_user.
My question is what's the best way to decided if a full component is needed and when is it ok to use one or multiple plugins to give the same functionality.
My feeling at the moment is that plugins are a much nicer way to go due to them being self contained. Maybe I've answered my own question, and components are needed when interaction between elements is more complicated, where as plugins can be used for very modular functions.
Anyone else have a view?
Components and Plugins are completely different types of extensions.
Components are applications/systems that will appear in the content area such as VirtueMart and where the articles are shown. Consider them as software for you computer.
Plugins are there to manipulate Joomla and/or there extensions it's using. They contains functions that are associated with trigger events. So in a nutshell, they are there to extend the functionality of an existing extension.
So so answer your question, have a think about what you are creating and if will be an aplication or something to extend functionality.
Hope this helps
I was wondering if there is an off the shelf tool to help create a 'web application' directory structure with a basic application up and running? The source code would already be pre-written I'm guessing or based on the options some files may/may-not be generated.
I'm not sure what you'd call it but say we have a custom framework* which are to be used for web application development - rather than 'creating' a directory structure all the time we could just create it once and have a console like interface similar to the play framework to generate a basic application or an empty one as per the developer's choice.
We could just give various types of 'zip' files and ask folks to unzip it and import it in their IDE of choice and continue. However, we'd prefer to have an 'installable' to run from the command line (or GUI but no such preference) to have a basic application up and running without everyone wanting to do it all over again.
How does the Play framework do it? What do they use? (I'm guess similar things exist for RoR, Groovy/Grails.)
*It's not custom per se, but similar to having all the spring/hibernate/restlet/freemarker etc files pre-configured, up and running and a directory structure with packages for the various components by convention
I think one of the key points here regarding the Play framework is that it uses the concept of convention over configuration. Your applications are forced to follow the same pattern for the different parts of your application, or it will not work. I personally like this because it makes working on different projects easier, as the rules are always the same, rather the somewhat unwritten rules of best practice.
Java EE on the other hand takes the concept of configuration over convention. Therefore all your files and structures are defined in your relevant XML documents that specify your frameworks, classpaths, etc. There do exist some tools to try to bridge the gap. For example
IDE's will have project creation tools for your chosen framework, so will create a Struts or Spring MVC project structure with a few simple wizard steps. Eclipse does this for sure as one example.
Spring MVC also has Roo. This is a boilerplate code generation tool that creates large parts of your initial project for you.
From your description it seems you have a few different frameworks that you want to have auto-generated, but I don't think any tool currently will serve your purpose. Your concept of a zip file is your best bet here.
If you want a kind of scaffolding in the Java EE world, take a look at Appfuse which provides some archetype with several implementations on the views layer (JSF, Spring MVC, Struts 2...).