AddonExtensions

Extend VANTED

Adding new Algorithms, Views, and Visual Graph Components

To extend the functionality of VANTED you can create Add-ons that provide new

• algorithms (Graphical, Computational, etc.)
• views (graphical display of graph or other information)
• Buttons
• Menu-items
• Side-Tabs
• custom visual components for graph drawing (Attribute Components)
• tools
• file formats

The following image highlights areas, that support custom extension provided by the add-on:

All those extensions extend certain interfaces / classes to guarantee support of certain methods.

To extend the functionality, you add the extension to the provided array fields, that are present in the main entry class of the Add-on. (see Project Structure for details. This entry class must extend de.ipk_gatersleben.ag_nw.graffiti.plugins.addons.AddonAdapter to have the necessary fields.

If you take the example add-on class, it will look like this. This add-on makes use of every possible extension possibility in VANTED.

public class MyAddon extends AddonAdapter {
	
	/**
	 * This class will automatically start all implemented Algorithms, views and
	 * other extensions written in your Add-on. 
	 */
	@Override
	protected void initializeAddon() {
		// registers user interface tabs in the sidepanel, on which you may add
		// any Jcomponent you want to
		this.tabs = new InspectorTab[] { 
			new MyTab() 
		};
		
		// registers a number of algorithms which can manipulate graphs (and
		// views, if they are editoralgorithms)
		this.algorithms = new Algorithm[] {
			new MyAlgorithm()
		};
		
		// registers a number of views, which can be created from code or via
		// File->New View (you can also decide not to register, but just to create
		// such views from code.
		this.views = new String[] { 
			MyFirstView.class.toString() 
		};
		
		// registers a new Button in the Toolbar
		this.guiComponents = new GraffitiComponent[] {
				new ToolbarButton("defaultToolbar", WindowOrder.HORIZONTAL),
				new ToolbarButton("defaultToolbar", WindowOrder.VERTICAL),
				new ToolbarButton("defaultToolbar", WindowOrder.QUADRATIC) };
		
		// registers a new Attribute
		this.attributes = new Class[1];
		this.attributes[0] = StarAttribute.class;
		
		// registers this attribute as a special string attribute
		StringAttribute.putAttributeType(StarAttribute.name, StarAttribute.class);
		
		// registers, that the attribute with a certain name is instance of a
		// class and how it will be displayed in the AttributeEditor
		// note that "Stars: Stars" will lead to clustering all attributes
		// starting with
		// "Stars:" together. The attributename "starsize" may also be given with
		// the complete
		// name, e.g. ".graphics.stars"
		this.attributeDescriptions = new AttributeDescription[] {
				new AttributeDescription(StarAttribute.name,
						StarAttribute.class, "Stars: Stars", true, false, null), };
		
		// as an alternative to using attributedescriptions, one may also specify
		// a nice attribute description with this command:
		// AttributeHelper.setNiceId("starsize", "Stars: Size");
		
		// registers an editor for the star-Attribute
		valueEditComponents.put(StarAttribute.class, StarAttributeEditor.class);
		
		// registers a component for the attribute, to visualise the star
		attributeComponents.put(StarAttribute.class, StarAttributeComponent.class);
		
		// registers deleteable attributes, just hover over the name and click
		AttributeHelper.setDeleteableAttribute("." + StarAttribute.path + ".", StarAttribute.path);
		
		// this attribute will not serialized (saved in the gml file)
		// AttributeManager.getInstance().addUnwrittenAttribute("." + StarAttribute.path + "." + StarAttribute.name);
		
		// registers a serializer to write a graph-file to any format
		// inputserializers should extend AbstractInputSerializer
		outputSerializers = new OutputSerializer[] {
				new TestWriter()
		};
		
	}
	...
}

The following chapters will give an introduction on each add-on extension.

Adding new tabs to appear in the list of tabs

This example shows, how a new 'MyTab'-tab is added to the list of new tabs.

		this.tabs = new InspectorTab[] { 
			new MyTab() 
		};

For how to implement a new Tab read this.

Adding new Algorithms

You can simply add a number of new algorithms by adding new algorithm objects to the this.algorithms array

		this.algorithms = new Algorithm[] {
			new MyAlgorithm()
		};

For how to implement a new algorithm, you could read here.