Slicer3:Loadable Modules:Status

Slicer3:Loadable_Modules:Status_2009-01-20

Status - updated 2009-03-30

Overview

This page describes the Slicer3 Extensions mechanism:

• Implementation
  • Run slicer
  • View->Module Search
    • Archived of precompiled extensions which can be:
      • shared libraries of C++ code (vtk, itk, teem, etc) that link to slicer but have no GUI
      • loadable modules that provide C++ code and have hooks to create a slicer GUI
      • executables (Command Line Modules) written in any language that will run on the target machine (tcl, python, java...)
      • tcl or python scripted modules
    • Extensions can depend on other extensions and/or on specific modules in Slicer3 (to resolve compile and run time library dependencies)
    • Wizard searches http://ext.slicer.org/ext/... using information contained in lib/Slicer3/Slicer3Version.txt
      • Subdirectories define which version of slicer they contents are built against.
        • first level named based on svn directory of Slicer3 (i.e. trunk/ branches/Slicer-3-2 ...)
        • next level contains svn revision number and build platform
        • Module names encode cvs/svn version, build date, and platform:
          • e.g. BubbleMaker-cvs2009-03-30-2009-03-30-darwin-x86.zip (cvs version from March 30, 2009 built on March 30, 2009 for darwin x86)
          • ExampleLoadableGuiLessModule-svn31-2009-03-30-darwin-x86.zip (svn version 31 built on March 30, 2009 for darwin x86)
  • Select modules
    • TODO: wizard checks for newer versions of existing modules (later: give user option of always checking during slicer boot)
    • TODO: wizard grabs .s3ext file (uploaded by the extend script)
    • TODO: make home page hot linked
  • Modules are downloaded and unpacked into user-specific Slicer install cache directory
  • Restart Slicer
  • Can remove modules

• Developer
  • make slicer build tree locally
  • create module from a template (GUI, Logic, MRML) see NITRC example modules
  • test locally on their platform
  • create .s3ext file and test with slicer's extend script
    • specify: svn/cvs repository, dependencies, homepage...
    • Commit .s3ext file or ask a slicer developer to do so
  • Nightly build gets uploaded to ext.slicer.org

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

• Phase 2: (in process) web development, deployment
  • prototype on wiki
  • versions, download,
  • upload