Writing plugins

With this example, we will create a plugin that displays a message on the program startup. To create the plugin, you need to write a plugin descriptor.

Step #1: Create your plugin folder in a plugins folder

Create a myplugin folder in the plugins folder in the installation directory of the modeling tool.

Step #2: Write a plugin code

The plugin must contain at least one class derived from the com.nomagic.magicdraw.plugins.Plugin class.

package myplugin;
import com.nomagic.magicdraw.plugins.Plugin;
import javax.swing.*;
public class MyPlugin extends Plugin
{
@Override
public void init()
{
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "My Plugin init");
}
@Override
public boolean close()
{
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog( null, "My Plugin close");
return true;
}
@Override
public boolean isSupported()
{
//plugin can check here for specific conditions
//if false is returned plugin is not loaded.
return true;
}
}

This plugin shows the one message when it is initialized, and another message when it is closed.

Step #3: Compile and pack the plugin to a .jar file

For more information on the classpath specification details, see Classpath.

The compiled code must be packed to a .jar file.

To create a .jar file, use a jar command in the plugins directory:

 jar -cf myplugin\myplugin.jar myplugin*.class

Step #4: Write a plugin descriptor

The plugin descriptor is a file named plugin.xml. This file should be placed in the myplugin folder.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<plugin id="my.first.plugin" name="My First Plugin" version="1.0" provider-name="Coder" class="myplugin.MyPlugin">
<requires>
<api version="1.0"/>
</requires>
<runtime>
<library name="myplugin.jar"/>
</runtime>
</plugin>

For detailed information about the plugin descriptor, see Plugin descriptor.