Introduction to Plugins

Plugins are extensions to OBO-Edit that aren't part of the standard OBO-Edit package. Plugins add new functionality to the standard OBO-Edit capabilities.

There are two kinds of plugins: standard plugins and pluggable data adapters.

Standard plugins are new user-interface-based components that add new controls and user-accessible capabilities to OBO-Edit. Standard plugins are accessible from the main Plugins menu, and can be integrated into the main OBO-Edit panel (see Customizing the Interface for details).

Pluggable data adapters are additional data adapters that give OBO-Edit access to new data formats.

Using Plugins

Standard plugins are always accessible from the "Plugins" menu. If a plugin is grayed out, that plugin has been integrated into the main display, and can be accessed there. When a plugin is selected, it appears in a new window.

Pluggable data adapters are automatically available when a load or save is attempted.

Built-In Standard Plugins

There are several standard plugins that are packaged with every release of OBO-Edit. They are:

Third-Party Plugins

At present, there are no known third-party plugins for OBO-Edit. But someday there will be, so here is how they work.

Third-party plugins are packaged inside a .jar file (for example, "goplugins.jar"). This .jar file may contain any number of standard plugins and/or pluggable data adapters. These .jar files are called Plugin Bundles.

To install a plugin bundle, move the plugin bundle to the extensions/ sub-directory of the OBO-Edit installation directory and restart OBO-Edit. The plugins will be installed automatically.s