Class EditPlugin

java.lang.Object
org.gjt.sp.jedit.EditPlugin
Direct Known Subclasses:
EBPlugin, EditPlugin.Broken, EditPlugin.Deferred
public abstract class EditPlugin extends Object
The abstract base class that every plugin must implement. Alternatively, instead of extending this class, a plugin core class can extend EBPlugin to automatically receive EditBus messages.

Basic plugin information properties

Note that in all cases above where a className is needed, the fully qualified class name, including the package name, if any, must be used.

The following properties are required for jEdit to load the plugin:

  • plugin.className.activate - set this to defer if your plugin only needs to be loaded when it is first invoked; set it to startup if your plugin must be loaded at startup regardless; set it to a whitespace-separated list of property names if your plugin should be loaded if at least one of these properties is set. Note that if this property is not set, the plugin will not work with jEdit 4.3final.
  • plugin.className.name
  • plugin.className.version
  • plugin.className.jars - only needed if your plugin bundles external JAR files. Contains a whitespace-separated list of JAR file names. Without this property, the plugin manager will leave behind the external JAR files when removing the plugin.
  • plugin.className.files - only needed if your plugin bundles external files like libraries which MUST reside in the local filesystem. Contains a whitespace-separated list of file names. Without this property, the plugin manager will leave behind the external files when removing the plugin.
  • plugin.className.description - the short description associated with the plugin. The short description is used by the Plugin Manager and on the list pages on Plugin Central.
The following properties are optional but recommended:
  • plugin.className.author
  • plugin.className.usePluginHome - whether the plugin uses the EditPlugin.getPluginHome API or not. Even if the plugin doesn't store any data, this property should be set so that the plugin manager can tell that there is no data stored.
  • plugin.className.docs - the path to plugin documentation in HTML format.
  • plugin.className.longdescription - the path to the long description in XHTML (no fancy stuff here, please - just proper XHTML subset with the basic tags: html, h1, h2, p, li, ul, ol, a href,b ,i, u, br/ )

    The long description is extracted from the plugin at various times, primarily at plugin packaging time to update the data on the plugin detail pages of Plugin Central.

    If this property is left out, the default will be to look in a file called <description.html>.

For the previous two properties, if a relative path is supplied, it should be both

  1. relative to the location of the .props file (when it is in the source tree)
  2. relative to the root of the JAR (when it is packaged in the JAR file)

Both conditions are easily satisfied if the .props file as well as description.html are both located in the root directory of the plugin, as well as the generated JAR.

Plugin dependency properties

Plugin dependencies are also specified using properties. Each dependency is defined in a property named with plugin.className.depend. followed by a number. Dependencies must be numbered in order, starting from zero. This determines the order that dependent plugins get loaded and activated, so order is very important.

The value of a dependency property has one of the following forms:

  • jdk minimumJavaVersion
  • jedit minimumjEditVersion - note that this must be a version number in the form returned by jEdit.getBuild(), not jEdit.getVersion(). Note that the documentation here describes the jEdit 4.2 plugin API, so this dependency must be set to at least 04.02.99.00 (4.2final).
  • pluginClassName pluginVersion - the fully quailified plugin class name with package must be specified.
  • optional plugin pluginClassName pluginVersion - an optional dependency, indicating that the plugin will work without it, but that the dependency should be loaded before this plugin.

In this example, the ProjectViewer plugin is an optional dependency of the Console, beacause the Console only listens to events from the ProjectViewer. It requires Jedit 4.2 final. 

plugin.console.ConsolePlugin.depend.0=jedit 04.02.99.00
plugin.console.ConsolePlugin.depend.1=jdk 1.5
plugin.console.ConsolePlugin.depend.2=plugin errorlist.ErrorListPlugin 1.4
plugin.console.ConsolePlugin.depend.3=optional plugin projectviewer.ProjectPlugin 2.1.0.92

Plugin menu item properties

To add your plugin to the view's Plugins menu, define one of these two properties:

  • plugin.className.menu-item - if this is defined, the action named by this property is added to the Plugins menu.
  • plugin.className.menu - if this is defined, a sub-menu is added to the Plugins menu whose content is the whitespace-separated list of action names in this property. A separator may be added to the sub-menu by listing - in the property.

If you want the plugin's menu items to be determined at runtime, define a property plugin.className.menu.code to be BeanShell code that evaluates to an implementation of DynamicMenuProvider.

To add your plugin to the file system browser's Plugins menu, define one of these two properties:

  • plugin.className.browser-menu-item - if this is defined, the action named by this property is added to the Plugins menu.
  • plugin.className.browser-menu - if this is defined, a sub-menu is added to the Plugins menu whose content is the whitespace-separated list of action names in this property. A separator may be added to the sub-menu by listing - in the property.

Again, if the browser menu items need to be determined at runtime, define a property plugin.className.browser-menu.code to be BeanShell code that evaluates to an implementation of DynamicMenuProvider.

In all cases, each action's menu item label is taken from the actionName.label property. View actions are defined in an actions.xml file, file system browser actions are defined in a browser.actions.xml file; see ActionSet.

Plugin option pane properties

To add your plugin to the Plugin Options dialog box, define one of these two properties:

  • plugin.className.option-pane=paneName - if this is defined, a single option pane with this name is added to the Plugin Options menu.
  • plugin.className.option-group=paneName1 [paneName2 paneName3 ...] - if this is defined, a branch node is added to the Plugin Options dialog box whose content is the whitespace-separated list of paneNames in this property.
Then for each option paneName, define these two properties:
  • options.paneName.label - the label to show for the pane in the dialog box.
  • options.paneName.code - BeanShell code that evaluates to an instance of the OptionPane class.

Example

Here is an example set of plugin properties: 
# jEdit only needs to load the plugin the first time the user accesses it
# the presence of this property also tells jEdit the plugin is using the new API
plugin.QuickNotepadPlugin.activate=defer
plugin.QuickNotepadPlugin.name=QuickNotepad
plugin.QuickNotepadPlugin.author=John Gellene
plugin.QuickNotepadPlugin.usePluginHome=true
plugin.QuickNotepadPlugin.version=4.5
plugin.QuickNotepadPlugin.docs=index.html
# see jEdit.getBuild() to understand jEdit's version convention:
plugin.QuickNotepadPlugin.depend.0=jedit 04.05.99.00
plugin.QuickNotepadPlugin.depend.1=jdk 1.7
plugin.QuickNotepadPlugin.description=This plugin provides a dockable "scratch pad" for writing and displaying notes, to do lists or similar items as unformatted text.
# plugin menu
plugin.QuickNotepadPlugin.menu=quicknotepad \
        - \
        quicknotepad.choose-file \
        quicknotepad.save-file \
        quicknotepad.copy-to-buffer

quicknotepad.label=QuickNotepad
plugin.QuickNotepadPlugin.option-pane=quicknotepad
options.quicknotepad.code=new QuickNotepadOptionPane();
options.quicknotepad.label=QuickNotepad
Note that action and option pane labels are not shown in the above example.
Since:
jEdit 2.1pre1
Author:
Slava Pestov, John Gellene (API documentation), Alan Ezust (API documentation)
See Also:

  • Constructor Details

    • EditPlugin

      public EditPlugin()

  • Method Details

    • start

      public void start()
      jEdit calls this method when the plugin is being activated, either during startup or at any other time. A plugin can get activated for a number of reasons:
      • The plugin is written for jEdit 4.1 or older, in which case it will always be loaded at startup.
      • The plugin has its activate property set to startup, in which case it will always be loaded at startup.
      • One of the properties listed in the plugin's activate property is set to true, in which case it will always be loaded at startup.
      • One of the plugin's classes is being accessed by another plugin, a macro, or a BeanShell snippet in a plugin API XML file.
      Note that this method is always called from the event dispatch thread, even if the activation resulted from a class being loaded from another thread. A side effect of this is that some of your plugin's code might get executed before this method finishes running.

      When this method is being called for plugins written for jEdit 4.1 and below, no views or buffers are open. However, this is not the case for plugins using the new API. For example, if your plugin adds tool bars to views, make sure you correctly handle the case where views are already open when the plugin is loaded.

      If your plugin must be loaded on startup, take care to have this method return as quickly as possible.

      The default implementation of this method does nothing.

      Since:
      jEdit 2.1pre1

    • stop

      public void stop()
      jEdit calls this method when the plugin is being unloaded. This can be when the program is exiting, or at any other time.

      If a plugin uses state information or other persistent data that should be stored in a special format, this would be a good place to write the data to storage. If the plugin uses jEdit's properties API to hold settings, no special processing is needed for them on exit, since they will be saved automatically.

      With plugins written for jEdit 4.1 and below, this method is only called when the program is exiting. However, this is not the case for plugins using the new API. For example, if your plugin adds tool bars to views, make sure you correctly handle the case where views are still open when the plugin is unloaded.

      To avoid memory leaks, this method should ensure that no references to any objects created by this plugin remain in the heap. In the case of actions, dockable windows and services, jEdit ensures this automatically. For other objects, your plugin must clean up maually.

      The default implementation of this method does nothing.

      Since:
      jEdit 2.1pre1

    • getPluginHome

      @Nullable public File getPluginHome()
      Returns the home of your plugin.
      Returns:
      the plugin home. It can be null if there is no settings directory
      Since:
      4.3pre10
      See Also:

    • getPluginHome

      @Nullable public static File getPluginHome(Class<? extends EditPlugin> clazz)

      Returns the home of the specified plugin.

      Since the first parameter is a reference to the Class instance for the plugin, this method requires the plugin to be activated.

      See getPluginHome(EditPlugin) method, as an alternate, for when the plugin doesn't need to be activated, or when you do not have the Class instance available.

      Parameters:
      clazz - the class of the plugin
      Returns:
      the plugin home. It can be null if there is no settings directory
      Since:
      4.3pre10
      See Also:

    • getPluginHome

      @Nullable public static File getPluginHome(EditPlugin plugin)

      Returns the home of the specified plugin.

      This method doesn't need the plugin to be activated. You can pass an EditPlugin.Deferred instance that you get from jEdit.getPlugin(String) or jEdit.getPlugins() if the plugin in question is not activated yet and this method doesn't cause the plugin to get activated. If you have a reference to the plugins Class instance available, consider using the Class method.

      Parameters:
      plugin - the plugin
      Returns:
      the plugin home. It can be null if there is no settings directory
      Since:
      4.3pre10
      See Also:

    • getResourceAsStream

      public static InputStream getResourceAsStream(Class<? extends EditPlugin> clazz, String path)

      Returns an input stream to the specified resource, or null if none is found.

      Since the first parameter is a reference to the Class instance for the plugin, this method requires the plugin to be activated.

      See getResourceAsStream(EditPlugin,String) method, as an alternate, for when the plugin doesn't need to be activated, or when you do not have the Class instance available.

      Parameters:
      clazz - the plugin class
      path - The path to the resource to be returned, relative to the plugin's resource path.
      Returns:
      An input stream for the resource, or null.
      Since:
      4.3pre10
      See Also:

    • getResourceAsStream

      public static InputStream getResourceAsStream(EditPlugin plugin, String path)

      Returns an input stream to the specified resource, or null if none is found.

      This method doesn't need the plugin to be activated. You can pass an EditPlugin.Deferred instance that you get from jEdit.getPlugin(String) or jEdit.getPlugins() if the plugin in question is not activated yet and this method doesn't cause the plugin to get activated. If you have a reference to the plugins Class instance available, consider using the Class method.

      Parameters:
      plugin - the plugin
      path - The path to the resource to be returned, relative to the plugin's resource path.
      Returns:
      An input stream for the resource, or null.
      Since:
      4.3pre10
      See Also:

    • getResourceAsOutputStream

      public static OutputStream getResourceAsOutputStream(Class<? extends EditPlugin> clazz, String path)

      Returns an output stream to the specified resource, or null if access to that resource is denied.

      Since the first parameter is a reference to the Class instance for the plugin, this method requires the plugin to be activated.

      See getResourceAsOutputStream(EditPlugin,String) method, as an alternate, for when the plugin doesn't need to be activated, or when you do not have the Class instance available.

      Parameters:
      clazz - the plugin class
      path - The path to the resource to be returned, relative to the plugin's resource path.
      Returns:
      An output stream for the resource, or null.
      Since:
      4.3pre10
      See Also:

    • getResourceAsOutputStream

      public static OutputStream getResourceAsOutputStream(EditPlugin plugin, String path)

      Returns an output stream to the specified resource, or null if access to that resource is denied.

      This method doesn't need the plugin to be activated. You can pass an EditPlugin.Deferred instance that you get from jEdit.getPlugin(String) or jEdit.getPlugins() if the plugin in question is not activated yet and this method doesn't cause the plugin to get activated. If you have a reference to the plugins Class instance available, consider using the Class method.

      Parameters:
      plugin - the plugin
      path - The path to the resource to be returned, relative to the plugin's resource path.
      Returns:
      An output stream for the resource, or null.
      Since:
      4.3pre10
      See Also:

    • getResourcePath

      public static File getResourcePath(Class<? extends EditPlugin> clazz, String path)

      Returns the full path of the specified plugin resource.

      Since the first parameter is a reference to the Class instance for the plugin, this method requires the plugin to be activated.

      See getResourcePath(EditPlugin,String) method, as an alternate, for when the plugin doesn't need to be activated, or when you do not have the Class instance available.

      Parameters:
      clazz - the plugin class
      path - The relative path to the resource from the plugin's resource path.
      Returns:
      The absolute path to the resource or null if there is no plugin home.
      Since:
      4.3pre10
      See Also:

    • getResourcePath

      public static File getResourcePath(EditPlugin plugin, String path)

      Returns the full path of the specified plugin resource.

      This method doesn't need the plugin to be activated. You can pass an EditPlugin.Deferred instance that you get from jEdit.getPlugin(String) or jEdit.getPlugins() if the plugin in question is not activated yet and this method doesn't cause the plugin to get activated. If you have a reference to the plugins Class instance available, consider using the Class method.

      Parameters:
      plugin - the plugin
      path - The relative path to the resource from the plugin's resource path.
      Returns:
      The absolute path to the resource or null if there is no plugin home.
      Since:
      4.3pre10
      See Also:

    • getClassName

      public String getClassName()
      Returns:
      the plugin's class name. This might not be the same as the class of the actual EditPlugin instance, for example if the plugin is not loaded yet.
      Since:
      jEdit 2.5pre3

    • getPluginJAR

      public PluginJAR getPluginJAR()
      Returns:
      the JAR file containing this plugin.
      Since:
      jEdit 4.2pre1

    • createMenuItems

      public final JMenuItem createMenuItems()
      Called by the view when constructing its Plugins menu. See the description of this class for details about how the menu items are constructed from plugin properties.
      Returns:
      the menu item
      Since:
      jEdit 4.2pre1

    • createBrowserMenuItems

      public final JMenuItem createBrowserMenuItems()
      Called by the filesystem browser when constructing its Plugins menu. See the description of this class for details about how the menu items are constructed from plugin properties.
      Returns:
      the menu item
      Since:
      jEdit 4.2pre1