[udig-devel] Udig Start Up and uDig as a RCP plugin

[Harry Bullen]

Hey devs,
I have just been talking to jgarnet about how uDig starts up when it's
a plugin to another RCP.  We decided that it would be better to have a
separate start up hook class that dose all the necessary checks and
start up the ShutdownTaskList.  This would simplify the task of
setting up uDig as a plugin for another RCP and make the
UDIGApplication class simpler.  Anyways I wanted to let people know so
they give us any guidance we might need.

This is the bug link we are using.
http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/UDIG-1390

And an IRC log if you you are interested in reading it.

<hbullen> You said you thought it should be in the udig.ui plugin right?
<jgarnett> right right
<jgarnett> yeah; that is what udig.ui is for
<jgarnett> all the user interface / intergration stuff
<jgarnett> ie that is why UDIGApplication is there; and why the useful
methods of UDIGApplication are static - so others can call them from
their own RCP Application.
<hbullen> Right the only thing was that you would not want to load
this plugin when you are running uDig as an RCP
<hbullen> The idea of this extra plugin was instead of having to call
methods from UDIGApplicaion you would just load this plugin and it
would take care of everything for you.
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<hbullen> jgarnett are you still there?
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<jgarnett> I am; sorry I just had a visitor asking about some
geoserver labeling stuff
<jgarnett> reading...
<jgarnett> I see your point; so you have the startup hooks already eh?
Sounds perfect;
<jgarnett> remember "code it like you mean it"
<jgarnett> if you make loading the plug-in perform the checks
<jgarnett> then we can simplify the UDIGApplication class.
<hbullen> ?
<jgarnett> (the UDIGApplication class is only our best practice; if
you can move the startup code into the plug-in activator we should be
good)
<jgarnett> okay I have not looked at your patch; since I am on trunk...
<jgarnett> my guess is you use a startup hook
<jgarnett> and perform the checks for JAI and GDI+
<hbullen> yes it is a stratup hook
<jgarnett> (is that about right?)
<hbullen> I call UDIGApplication
<hbullen> and I preload stuff
<jgarnett> cool
<hbullen> pretty much I'm just calling init
<jgarnett> so if you pick up that "init" method and move it into your
startup hook class
<hbullen> and setting up the shutdowntask list
<jgarnett> then UDIGApplication can be even more simple.
<jgarnett> yeah; your solution is much better.
<hbullen> okay that is something I could do then
<jgarnett> so let's do it.
<jgarnett> I have a DEV page on UDIGApplication; we will need to
update it to reflect your work.
<jgarnett> so the other thing is to send email saying what we are doing and why.
<jgarnett> Note there is still some resonsiblities of an RCP
application hosting UDIG Plug-ins
<hbullen> yes
<jgarnett> (in terms of menus etc...)
<jgarnett> but I have not found a good way to document this; I have
written a wiki page ... but it would be better captured as code.
<hbullen> Yes I know about that and would like to include that in this
plug in as well
<hbullen> eventually
<jgarnett> understood
<jgarnett> so my question is; can you just add the startup hooks to
net.refractions.udig.ui?
<jgarnett> it already has the responsibiity of being "the stuff needed
for your RCP app"
<hbullen> Yes I belive that would work
<jgarnett> sweet.
<jgarnett> As eclipse grows up
<jgarnett> we need less and less of our own custom hook
<hbullen> I'm make the changes and make a trunk version
<jgarnett> like the UDIGApplication.init method
<jgarnett> got it
<hbullen> I'll proablly also take a bunch of the static methods
<jgarnett> yep
<jgarnett> So remember we got three things to do:
<jgarnett> 1. check with the email list; this close to uDig 1.1.0
release Jesse may ask us to wait for 1.1.x
<jgarnett> 2. update the code on trunk; and/or backport to 1.1.x
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<jgarnett> 3. update the developers guide instructions so people are
not confused when learning
<hbullen> noted
* kartben (n=kartben at pu

-- 
Harry William Bullen IV