[kepler-dev] creating .xml for custom actor

[Matt Jones]

Hi Paul,

Of course you can do so by hand... but I think the easiest way is to
put your component on the classpath and then do 'Instantiate
Component' from the Tools menu, giving it the fully qualified actor
class name.  This will create a copy of the actor on the canvas.  Then
open the context menu for the actor and edit the documentation
(Documentation -> Customize), providing the appropriate overview, port
and parameter definitions, author info, etc.  Then choose 'Save as
KAR...' which will export your file as an external KAR file and
generate the necessary xml files.  You can then open that KAR file
(its just a jar with a different extension) and you'll find the xml
file inside with all of the docs, which you can edit to your heart's
content and you can check into your module.

I haven't done this in quite a while (since the new build system went
in place), so your mileage may vary.  Hopefully it still works.

I recently discussed with Tim the need to streamline this process, as
well as streamlining the LSID generation process. I think (hope) David
Welker may be looking into the latter sometime soon.

Matt

On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 10:28 AM, Paul Allen <pea1 at cornell.edu> wrote:
> How does one create the .xml file that describes a custom actor that one has
> built? I.e., like the ones in src/actors?
>
>
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-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matthew B. Jones
Director of Informatics Research and Development
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
UC Santa Barbara
jones at nceas.ucsb.edu                       Ph: 1-907-523-1960
http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinfo
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~