Slicer3:Loadable Modules

Introduction

This feature allows Slicer3 modules to be detected and loaded at run-time. This enables module binaries to be added to Slicer3 without having to be compiled and linked with the main binary.

Module authors should create their modules based on templates like the GAD Module found in the Slicer3 Modules/ subdirectory. There will be a future version of Slicer3 that allows users to download and use modules from an online module archive.

For information on how to make your module loadable: Slicer3:Loadable_Modules:HOWTO

Loadable modules in Slicer3: Slicer3:Loadable_Modules:Current

Overview

• User experience
  • Run slicer
  • File->Get Modules
    • Web browser http://modules.slicer.org/<version #>
    • Archived of precompiled shared libraries (platform specific)
  • Select modules
  • Modules are downloaded and unpacked into Slicer build tree (install directory)
  • Restart Slicer
  • Can remove modules

• Developer
  • make slicer build tree locally
  • create module from a template (GUI, Logic, MRML) see GAD
  • test locally on their platform
  • create project in NITRC (source forge)
  • submit module to a “build farm”
    • Register svn with slicer.org (Kitware, TBD)
  • Nightly build gets uploaded to slicer.org

• Phase 1: Slicer internals
  • runtime module discovery
  • module template
  • like CommandLineModuleFactory

• Phase 2: web development, deployment
  • prototype on wiki
  • versions, download,
  • upload

References

• Eclipse module architecture
• Mozilla extensions for Firefox