Making plug-ins available to SimplyHTML

Plug-ins need to reside in Java archive (JAR) files. Inside the JAR file a plug-in must be in package com.lightdev.app.shtm.plugin.installed. If a plug-in is accompanied by . properties files for internationalization or dynamic menu creation, the .properties files have to reside in package com.lighdev.app.shtm.plugin.installed too.

Should there be additional classes distributed along with the actual plug-in class (the class implementing interface SHTMLPlugin, that is), these additional classes should be placed into sub-packages such as com.lightdev.app.shtm.plugin.installed.mypluginaddons inside the JAR file.

Any JAR file containing a plug-in must be placed into the application directory of SimplyHTML. The application directory of SimplyHTML is

  1. the directory in the file system, where the JAR file of SimplyHTML is installed or
  2. the root package directory of file PluginManager.class, if SimplyHTML is not operated out of a JAR file

Removing plug-ins

To remove a plug-in from SimplyHTML, remove its JAR file from the application directory and restart SimplyHTML.

Examples for plug-in installation

In the following examples it is assumed that a plug-in is to be added to SimplyHTML from a file MyPlugIn.jar

Example 1

SimplyHTML is operated out of file SimplyHTML.jar and SimplyHTML.jar is in directory C.\Programs\SimplyHTML\

Installation: File MyPlugIn.jar must be placed into directory C:\Programs\SimplyHTML\

Example 2

SimplyHTML is operated as an uncompressed class file not residing in a JAR file, the SimplyHTML package is installed in C:\Programs\SimplyHTML\classes\, i.e. file PluginManager.class is installed in C:\Programs\SimplyHTML\classes\com\lightdev\app\shtm\plugin\

Installation: File MyPlugIn.jar must be placed into directory C:\Programs\SimplyHTML\classes\