PlugInDevelopment_V8

Development and deployment of plug-ins for the AutomationML Editor as of version 6.4

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Prerequisites

• You need AutomationML Editor version 6.4 or higher to use the plug-ins with the editor. For development and testing the sandbox project is sufficient.
• You need at least Visual Studio 2019 as your development platform. The projects in this repository were created using Visual Studio 2022.
• Install the .NET 8 SDK

What's new for Version 6.4

• The Target Framework has changed to .NET 8.
• The editor uses the .NET AssemblyLoadContext. PlugIns don't need to use the Microsoft Extensibility Framework (MEF) to export the contract implementations.
• The content of the NuGet Packages has been adapted to be used by the AssemblyLoadContext.

Examples

The examples show different aspects of plug-in development. The plug-in contract provides specific interface classes for individual aspects. These can be implemented in a plug-in individually or in combination. The examples use different docking modes for the embedding of the views in the editor's UI layout.

• Aml.Editor.Plugin.Theming This example shows how a plugin can use the light or dark display mode currently selected in the editor. The Theme selection aspect is included in all other plugin examples, too. The implemented contract is:

  • ISupportsThemes

• Aml.Editor.Plugin.WithToolbar This example shows how a plugin can add a toolbar defining Plugin commands to the Editor's main toolbar. The implemented contracts are:

  • ISupportsThemes

  • IToolBarIntegration

• Aml.Editor.Plugin.MultiView In this example, a plugin is developed that defines multiple views that are all embedded in the current layout by the editor's docking system. The implemented contracts are:

  • ISupportsThemes

  • IAMLEditorViewCollection,

  • INotifyViewActivation

• Aml.Editor.Plugin.CallCommand This example shows how a plugin can activate user methods of the editor like opening an AutomationML file. The implemented contracts are:

  • ISupportsThemes

  • IEditorCommanding

• Aml.Editor.Plugin.Window This plugin creates a separate main window that is not integrated into the UI layout of the editor. This window reacts to the UI scaling of the editor. The implemented contracts are:

  • ISupportsThemes

  • ISupportsUIZoom

• Aml.Editor.Plugin.Collada This example shows how a plugin processes the selection of an object that references an external COLLADA file. This plugin das dependencies to other packages which are effected by the <EnableDynamicLoading>true</EnableDynamicLoading> element. The implemented contracts are:

  • ISupportsThemes

  • ISupportsUIZoom

  • IAMLEditorExternalsPlugin

  • Aml.Editor.API is used

    

The 3D Viewer is created using the HelixToolkit.SharpDX. The used 3D COLLADA Robot models are provided by COLLADA 1.5 robot repository.

Publishing

If you want to share the created plug-in for third party use you need to create a package. In between the <PropertyGroup> tags of the project file, the <EnableDynamicLoading>true</EnableDynamicLoading> element has to be added. It prepares the project so that it can be used as a plugin. Among other things, this will copy all of its dependencies to the output of the project.

Packages referenced by the AutomationML Editor should have the <ExcludeAssets>runtime</ExcludeAssets> element added to the Package reference tag. This will not include the shared packages into the package.

The Tag AMLEditorPlugin.NET has to be added to the package tag names instead of AMLEditorPlugin.Core as in the previous version. This ensures, that the Package Manager can find the plugin in a provided package repository and can offer it to other users.

The PackageName of the Plugin shall be unique.