.jar and plugins.config

Rasband, Wayne (NIH/NIMH) [E]

2013-06-18 20:02:49 UTC

Post by Eric Barnhill
I am really stumped with creating a .jar in Eclipse that will be
opened in Fiji. What is funny is, until a few weeks ago I simply
exported my package in Eclipse as a .jar into my Fiji plugins folder,
and it showed up in the Plugins menu and ran perfectly. And then one
day, it stopped working. The .jar doesn't appear. If I choose "Install
Plugin" from the menu, I can select my .jar to install and Fiji then
says that it is installed successfully. However, it still doesn't
appear in the
Plugins menu.

The .jar file must have an underscore in its name or the plugin contained in it will not be installed. For example, a plugin in Best_Path.jar will be installed but the one in BestPath.jar will not.

It is not a good idea to use a plugins.config that creates a sub-menu with a single command. For example, this plugins.config entry

Plugins>BestPath, "Best Path Unwrapper", BestPath.Best_Path_Front_End

creates a Plugins>BestPath sub-menu containing just one command ("Best Path Front End").

Use

Plugins, "Best Path Unwrapper", BestPath.Best_Path_Front_End

and the plugin will be installed in the menu corresponding to the folder containing the .jar file. For example, the "Best Path Front End" command will be in the Plugins>3D sub-menu if Best_Path.jar is in the ImageJ/plugins/3D folder.

Jar files containing a single plugin that is not in a named package do not need a plugins.config file.

-wayne

Post by Eric Barnhill
However, the plugin works if I export as a file system -- this places
a folder of .java files inside the Fiji plugins folder. It also works
to go into the workspace src folder, and grab the folder of the same
name full of .class files, and put those into the Fiji plugins folder.
It is only the .jar that does not show up in the menu.
I see that a plugins.config file is stated as a requirement for an
ImageJ .jar, so I have added one to my .jar in the hopes of fixing
this. The .jar still doesn't appear. My .jar is called BestPath.jar
and inside is the plugins.config file, a folder called BestPath and
the META-INF folder. The plugins.config file consists of the one line
Plugins>BestPath, "Best Path Unwrapper", BestPath.Best_Path_Front_End
Which corresponds to the plugin .class file in the BestPath folder
called Best_Path_Front_End.
This is an open source project in which I am implementing a 3D phase
unwrapping algorithm designed by Prof. Miguel Arevalillo of U.
Valencia into a plugin for ImageJ. As I do not believe a 3D phase
unwrapping algorithm is otherwise currently available in ImageJ I hope
it is a useful plugin for the community. The source code is also in
the .zip folder.
For anyone who would be so kind as to help out, you can find the .jar at
http://cognitive-eurhythmics.com/BestPath.jar
and the zipped folder with compiled and source at
http://cognitive-eurhythmics.com/BestPath.zip
Thanks for any help.
- Eric
--
Eric Barnhill
Clinical Research Imaging Centre
The University of Edinburgh
--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html