[ImageJ-devel] external plugins

[Jay Warrick]

Hi All,

I am using the scijava plugin framework, ImageJ2, and its Plugin service. I would like to allow other people to write a plugin for my software. I'm open to suggestions but I'd probably like to enable them to place their java/jar/class plugin file in a folder, and I could look into that folder to load their plugin. I'm thinking along the lines of how how old ImageJ did things. Does anyone have suggestions or example code (e.g., in FIJI somewhere) for loading/compiling such plugin files during runtime. One of the main things I can't quite envision is how to process the annotations of an external .java file at runtime so that I can utilize that information (e.g., in conjunction with the PluginService). If there is an inherent problem in what I'm hoping to do, please let me know :-) (e.g., if I am provided compiled code, I suspect I might need an annotation index to go with it if I need that information).

I figured you guys have tackled this problem thoroughly already and thus would be a good resource. Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Jay