org.youscope.template.tool

Class TemplateToolFactory

java.lang.Object

org.youscope.addon.tool.ToolAddonFactoryAdapter

org.youscope.template.tool.TemplateToolFactory

All Implemented Interfaces:

ToolAddonFactory

public class TemplateToolFactory
extends ToolAddonFactoryAdapter

A tool addon factory represents the interface between YouScope and your tool. It allows YouScope to gather basic information about your tool, like it's name or an icon reprenting the tool, to automatically incorporate the possibility to open your tool into the respective menus of YouScope. Additionally, the factory provides a way to actually create an instance of your tool, which is done when the user request that the tool should be opened by clicking on corresponding menu items in YouScope. Importantly, a factory does not implement any user interface nor accesses the microscope directly. Instead, this is done in the tool created by the factory. Each tool factory has to implement ToolAddonFactory, which provides the needed functionality for the interface with YouScope. However, implementing this interface directly is rather complex and tedious. To simplify the creation of tool addon factories, it is therefore more convenient to extend ToolAddonFactoryAdapter instead of implementing ToolAddonFactory. The abstract adapter class takes over implementing most of the boilerplate functions for you, such that you can concentrate on developing your tool. Only seldom, your tool is "so special" that extending the adapter is not appropriate since the tool has to be constructed differently to all other tools already available; in these seldom cases, it is still possible to implement ToolAddonFactory directly. Note: if you change the name or the package path of this class, you have to adjust the content of the file META-INF/services/org.youscope.addon.tool.ToolAddonFactory accordingly for YouScope to be able to find the factory in the plugin jar file.

Author:

Moritz Lang

Constructor Summary

Constructors

Constructor and Description
TemplateToolFactory() Constructor.

Method Summary

Methods inherited from class org.youscope.addon.tool.ToolAddonFactoryAdapter

addAddon, createToolUI, getSupportedTypeIdentifiers, getToolMetadata, isSupportingTypeIdentifier

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

TemplateToolFactory

public TemplateToolFactory()

Constructor. Calling the superclass constructor ToolAddonFactoryAdapter.ToolAddonFactoryAdapter(Class, org.youscope.addon.tool.ToolMetadata) the adapter provides YouScope with the metadata of your tool (like its name), which is an instance of the interface ToolMetadata. Furthermore, the superclass constructor specifies the class of which an instance should be constructed when the user chooses to use your tool, e.g. the class of your tool itself. We also do not have to bother to implement the functions of ToolMetadata ourselves. Instead, we call the function TemplateTool.getMetadata().