Console Plugin System

Installation

To get maplab into a state with all core plugins (VIMap file system integration, BA, LC, etc.), run

catkin build maplab

The package maplab is a metapackage containing the maplab console and all non-experimental plugins to ease the installation of a functioning console. You can type help in the console to get a list of all installed plugins.

If a plugin doesn't show up in a console, you may need to recompile it with rerunning cmake (as this will create the entry in the plugin file list):

catkin build --no-deps --force-cmake <missing_plugin_name>

How it works

Each plugin adds an entry with the path to the library *.so to $CATKIN_WS/devel/share/console-plugins.txt ("plugin list") during compilation. This list is then opened by the maplab console application. The application tries to dynamically load the library referred in the console-plugins.txt file.

Uninstalling a plugin

Delete the library .so: Delete the file under $CATKIN_WS/devel/lib/lib<PACKAGE_NAME>.so. Maplab will still try to load the library, but detect that the file is missing and delete the entry from the list.

Note: to readd the plugin to the console, it's not sufficient to only recompile the package. You also need to make sure that cmake is rerun by running catkin with the --force-cmake argument.

Adding a new plugin

• Derive your plugin class from common::ConsolePluginBaseWithPlotter or common::ConsolePluginBase. bar-plugin.h:

  #ifndef FOO_BAR_PLUGIN_H_
  #define FOO_BAR_PLUGIN_H_
  
  #include <string>
  
  #include <console-common/console-plugin-base-with-plotter.h>
  #include <console-common/console.h>
  
  namespace foo {
  
  class BarPlugin : public common::ConsolePluginBaseWithPlotter {
   public:
    BarPlugin(common::Console* console,
              visualization::ViwlsGraphRvizPlotter* plotter);
  
    virtual std::string getPluginId() const override {
      return "foo_bar_plugin";
    }
  };
  
  }  // namespace foo
  
  #endif  // FOO_BAR_PLUGIN_H_

• Implement your own console commands. bar-plugin.cc:

  #include "foo/bar-plugin.h"
  
  #include <console-common/console.h>
  #include <gflags/gflags.h>
  #include <map-manager/map-manager.h>
  #include <vi-map/vi-map.h>
  #include <visualization/viwls-graph-plotter.h>
  
  namespace foo {
  
  BarPlugin::BarPlugin(common::Console* console, visualization::ViwlsGraphRvizPlotter* plotter)
      : common::ConsolePluginBaseWithPlotter(console, plotter) {
    addCommand(
     {"foo_bar"},
     [this]() -> int {
       // Get write access to map.
       vi_map::VIMapManager map_manager;
       vi_map::VIMapManager::MapWriteAccess vi_map =
           map_manager.getMapWriteAccess(selected_map_key);
  
       // Run awesome algorithm.
       run_algorithm(vi_map.get())
  
       return common::kSuccess;
       // or   return common::kStupidUserError (soft fail - won't kill the console)
       // or   return common::kUnknownError    (hard fail - will kill the console)
     },
     "This command will run an awesome algorithm.",
     common::Processing::Sync);
  }
  
  }  // namespace foo
  
  MAPLAB_CREATE_CONSOLE_PLUGIN_WITH_PLOTTER(foo::BarPlugin);

• Add the following macro to your CMakeLists.txt

  cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.3)
  project(foo_bar_plugin)
  
  find_package(catkin_simple REQUIRED)
  
  catkin_simple(ALL_DEPS_REQUIRED)
  
  add_definitions(-fPIC -shared)
  
  #############
  # LIBRARIES #
  #############
  cs_add_library(${PROJECT_NAME} src/bar-plugin.cc)
  create_console_plugin(${PROJECT_NAME})
  
  ##########
  # EXPORT #
  ##########
  cs_install()
  cs_export()