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During PicApport startup

• When PicApport starts it checks the .picapport/plugins directory for existing .zip files.
• For each .zip file a hidden directory with the same name will be created an the content
  of the .zip file will be copied to this directory. This directory is called plugin-directory.

• Then for each .jar file in the plugin-directory the Manifest.mf file will be check for a valid PicApport-Plugin: entry

• The init() method of the plug-in will be called (only one time during server startup)
  The following information is passed to the init() method:
  

  • File pluginDirectory
    The path to the directory where this plug-in was loaded from. This Information
    may be used by the plug-in to load more configuration data.
    A plug-in should not be dependent on information outside this directory

  • Properties props
    If a .properties file with the same name as the plug-in exists, it will be loaded by PicApport and passed to the init() method.
    Also make sure that props is passed to the constructor method of the OtherFormatsDescriptor created during the init phase.
    The plug-in may use this file to store additional configuration data. See our PicApportPdfPlugin-src.zip plug-in how this can be used.
    Example PicApportPdfPlugin.properties:

    # if resolution is not set the default will be 96 pdf.resolution=96   menudownload.text=Show PDF menudownload.text.en=Show PDF menudownload.text.de=PDF anzeigen   keywords=$nonjpg

    The menudownload.text[.iso language] may be used to set the download text of the original file in the PicApport slideshow.
    If a text for the current language does not exist the default text(menudownload.text) will be used. (Should be English)

  • IPicApportPlugInLogger logger
    The logger should be saved in a private member of the plug-in and should be used for debug output if required.

• The init() method should return at least one OtherFormatsDescriptor instance element in the  List<OtherFormatsDescriptor> returned.

  Create the descriptor

  return  Arrays.asList(              new OtherFormatsDescriptor[] {                  new OtherFormatsDescriptor(".gif",          // One of the file extensions this plugin will be called                      "image/gif",                            // Mime type of the original file                      true,                                   // If true, substitute files will be hidden                      "PicApport GIF plugin",                 // Name of the plug-in                      "(c) 2014 Contecon Software GmbH",      // Copyright                      "1.0",                                  // Version                      props),                                 // always use props passed to the init() method                                          new OtherFormatsDescriptor(".png",                      "image/png",                      true,                      "PicApport PNG plugin",                      "(c) 2014 Contecon Software GmbH",                      "1.0",                      props),                 });

During scanning of the photo directories

• When PicApport scans the photo directory’s it checks all non-jpg files if a plug-in has been registered.
• If a plug-in has been registered:
  • PicApport checks if the substitute file exists
    A substitute file is the jpg representation of the original file. PicApport adds .$.jpg to the original file to get the substitute filename.
    If the substitute file does not exist or is older than the original file the createJpegFile() method of the plugin will be called to create the substitute file.
    The following information is passed to the createJpegFile() method:

    • File otherFormatFile
      Path to the original File

    • File jpegFileToCreate
      Path to the substitute file that should be created

    • CcXMPMetaData metaDataIn
      Optional meta-data added to the substitute jpg file. If no meta-data is available createJpegFile() method should return null.
      If meta-data is available it should be added to metaDataIn and  metaDataIn should be returned instead of null.
      see: Javadoc on http://picapport.de/plugins/javadoc/ for more details of CcXMPMetaData .