Application Plugin: Current Time

This page describes how to create a custom application that is visible as an icon on the start page of the server, with a simple sample called CurrentTimePlugin.

A compiled version of the plugin is made available as application.currenttime.zip. In order to test this plugin, you need to copy the plugin ZIP file into the plugins folder of your installation or upload the plugin using Drag & Drop in the Store application. Afterwards the server needs to be restarted. You can check if the plugin was loaded in the dialog Store application. If there are problems, then check the log file of the server for more details. The module will now be displayed on the start page of the server.

You can also write your own implementation of the interfaces IModule and AngularModuleHandler. This implementation should extend the classes: com.inet.remote.gui.AngularModule and com.inet.remote.gui.angular.AngularModuleHandler, respectively.

In the next step you write your own server plugin. It must implement the interface com.inet.plugin.ServerPlugin and have an empty public constructor for loading. In the method registerExtension you must register both of your classes. This can look like:

public void registerExtension( ServerPluginManager spm ) {
    spm.register( IModule.class, new SampleApplicationModule() );
    spm.register( AngularModuleHandler.class, new SampleApplicationHandler() );
}

Please refer to the sample com.inet.application.currenttime.SampleApplicationServerPlugin to see how this is done there.

The following steps need to be taken if changes are made to the plugin code.

The plugin.properties and server plugin class are preconfigured to be used without modifications. If the sample is the basis for a custom plugin or just needs some adaptions, please refer to the platform programming guide for detailed instructions.

In order to build this plugin the following jar files are required at minimum:

• inetcore.jar (included in the core directory)
• jakarta.servlet-api.jar (included in the core directory)
• jakarta.websocket-api.jar (included in the core directory)
• jakarta.websocket-client-api.jar (included in the core directory)
• remotegui.jar (included in plugins/remotegui.zip )

These files are part of the SDK but will also be loaded from our public maven server when using the packaged build.gradle.

The plugin must be compiled into a jar file that is named like the id of the plugin. In this example it is application.currenttime.jar. It also must contain the compiled sources as well as required language resources and images.

The target plugin is a zip file, named application.currenttime.zip in this example. It contains the compiled jar file and the plugin.properties which configure the custom plugin.

The provided build.gradle in the sample can be used to build the plugin as well as any other build system.

Copy the ZIP file of the plugin into the plugins directory of the server or Drag & Drop the plugin into the Store application of the server for sideloading. Then restart the server. If there are problems, then check the log file of the server for more details. The "Config" logger is used to log plugin registration issues.