[kepler-dev] Adding jar files (and java classes) to kar files

[Chad Berkley]

Nice job, Dan!  This sounds great.  I'll give it a try here shortly. 
Have you seen any changes in performance while using this?  Have you 
changed any other actors besides ImageJ?

chad

Dan Higgins wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
>    Currently, Kepler uses a concept called a 'kar' file for 
> encapsulating actor information. In the $KEPLER/src/actors/ directory 
> there are subdirectories for each actor. These subdirectories contain a 
> MANIFEST file and a MoML (XML) file. This MoML file contains standard 
> Ptolemy information (such as the java class names) plus some additional 
> info about semantic types for characterizing the actor and actor ports 
> (and Kepler actor help info is also stored in this MoML file). The ant 
> task 'ant buildkarlib' zips the information in these directories into 
> 'kar' files, one for each actor.
>    Now, the kar files are examined at Kepler startup and information 
> from the kar file is saved in the Kepler cache and also used build the 
> Kepler actor tree on the left of the main window. Up to now only the 
> information in the contained MoML file was cached. [Recently the startup 
> code was changed to NOT pass the MoML file to the MomlParser until the 
> actor is dragged to the work area and dropped, thus deferring the 
> loading of java actor classes.]
>    The information in the MoML file is all that is needed for 
> composites, pure MoML actors, and extension actors like those built by 
> customizing the RExpression actor. Importing a kar file for these types 
> of actors works fine because the underlying Java classes are already in 
> the Kepler classpath. For new Java based actors, however, there is a big 
> problem - the java classes are not known to Kepler!
>    Well, the original idea for the kar file was to include other 
> information. Stubs for a number of types of information was included in 
> the KARCacheObject class when it was originally written. We originally 
> discussed a custom ClassLoader that would allow classes to be loaded, 
> unloaded, and versioned. Implementing this turned out to a major task 
> and was postponed. But recently a means for dynamically adding a class 
> to the standard classpath was discovered and this allows one to at least 
> add new classes by including the compiled java classes in the kar file!
>    Take a look at the $KEPLER/src/actors/ImageJ/ directory for an 
> example. Two jar files are included in addition to the usual MANIFEST 
> and MoML xml file. ImageJ.jar contains the Kepler actor java classes. 
> ij.jar is a library used by the actor. The MANIFEST has been modified to 
> list these two jars; i.e.
> 
> Manifest-Version: 1.4.2
> KAR-Version: 1.0
> lsid: urn:lsid:kepler-project.org:kar:154:1
> 
> Name: ImageJ.xml
> lsid: urn:lsid:kepler-project.org:actor:251:1
> type: actorMetadata
> 
> Name: ImageJ.jar
> lsid: urn:lsid:kepler-project.org:jar:251:1
> type: jar
> 
> Name: ij.jar
> lsid: urn:lsid:kepler-project.org:jar:252:1
> type: jar
> 
>    At startup, when the KAR files are scanned (in the KARCacheObject 
> class), the entries of type 'jar' will be pulled out of the kar and 
> copied to the $KEPLER/lib/jar/ directory. [Any jars in this directory 
> are automatically added the classpath the next time Kepler is started.] 
> The jars will also be dynamically added to the classpath when thay are 
> copied. This means that IF ALL THE JAVA CLASSES NEEDED BY AN ACTOR ARE 
> INCLUDED IN THE KAR FILE (in jars), THEN THE KAR FILE IS SELF-CONTAINED! 
> One simply needs to import a KAR file to add a new java-based actor to 
> Kepler!
> 
> NOTE: Currently, the ij.jar and ImageJ.jar classes are already in CVS. 
> If you are using ant, remove build/classes/util/ImageJActor.class and  
> lib/jar/ij.jar to test this dynamic loading. (You will also need to 
> delete the .kepler directory to force rebuilding the cache.
> 
> As always, comments are appreciated.
> 
> Dan
> 
>