[kepler-dev] Custom actors + kar file + xml description

[Daniel Crawl]

Hi Matt, Michal,


Matt Jones wrote:
> You should be able to create kar files programatically.  We have not
> provided a utility to do so, but I think it would be a useful feature.
>  The 'Export KAR...' action in Kepler creates a KAR file
> programatically from an actor in a workflow.  The code used for this
> could be refactored and leveraged in a utility to loop over the files
> ina directory, instantiate the actors, and then export the resulting
> actors as kar files.  Of course, you'd need a mechanism to document
> them as well, as one of the main reasons to have KAR files is to
> package up the various things that go along with an actor, such as
> documentation and external resources.  But this could be done.  If you
> were to write a utility like this, it would be a welcome contribution
> to Kepler and I'm sure many people would benefit from it.  If you
> can't get to it, I will put it on our long list of TODO's.
>   

I wrote a utility to help create KAR files last year. Here's an example
of how to use it (kepler-trunk only):

ant run-only -Dargs="-createkar $PTII/ptolemy/actor/lib/Ramp.java"

In general, you point it at one or more actor java files. The created
KARs have the actors' ports, parameters, etc., and docs. However,
you'll need to set the LSIDs and semantic annotations before the new
actors show up in the actor tree in the Kepler GUI.

This utility is somewhat experimental, so any contributions would be
welcome...

  --dan