Package ca.corbett.extensions

Class AppExtension

java.lang.Object
ca.corbett.extensions.AppExtension
public abstract class AppExtension extends Object
Provides a generic starting point for application extensions. Some basic hooks are provided here, but the intention is that application-specific implementations will add their own hooks to be invoked by the application in question.

Refer to the swing-extras documentation for more information.

Since:
2023-11-11
Author:
scorbo2

  • Field Details

    • configProperties

      protected List<AbstractProperty> configProperties
      List of configuration properties for this extension. ExtensionManager will automatically populate this list for you, by invoking your implementation of createConfigProperties() when the extension is first instantiated.

  • Constructor Details

    • AppExtension

      public AppExtension()

  • Method Details

    • getInfo

      public abstract AppExtensionInfo getInfo()
      Should return an AppExtensionInfo object that describes this extension.
      Returns:
      AppExtensionInfo

    • getConfigProperties

      public final List<AbstractProperty> getConfigProperties()
      Return a list of configuration properties for this extension. This list may be empty if the extension has no config properties. This method is final to prevent extensions from overriding its behaviour. The intention is to force extensions to implement createConfigProperties() to create the list. The createConfigProperties() method is guaranteed to only be invoked by the ExtensionManager once, whereas getConfigProperties() can be invoked any number of times. It's therefore best if extensions refrain from creating their config property list in the getConfigProperties() method.
      Returns:
      A List of 0 or more configuration properties for this extension. Guaranteed not to be null.

    • onActivate

      public void onActivate()
      Hook invoked either as the application is starting up, or when the extension is enabled within the application. Implementations should ideally avoid doing costly operations here if possible.

    • onDeactivate

      public void onDeactivate()
      Hook invoked either as the application is shutting down, or when the extension is disabled within the application. Implementations can't stop the shutdown, but they can respond to it by doing whatever cleanup is needed.

    • createConfigProperties

      protected abstract List<AbstractProperty> createConfigProperties()
      Extensions must implement this method to create and return a list of AbstractProperty instances representing the config for this extension. It's fine to return null or an empty list if your extension does not require any configuration.
      Returns:
      A List of AbstractProperty instance. May be null or empty.

    • loadJarResources

      protected abstract void loadJarResources()
      This method is invoked exactly once when an extension is dynamically loaded from a jar file. If the extension has resources (images, sound effects, icons, text files, config files, or any other resource type) that it wishes to load from its jar file via class.getResource() or class.getResourceAsStream(), it MUST do it either in its constructor or in this method. Attempting to load jar resources anywhere else in the extension will fail, because the URLClassLoader that loads the extension is closed by ExtensionManager immediately after the extension is instantiated. No default implementation is provided so that extensions are forced to implement this method (even if empty, in the case of an extension with no resources to load).