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98 lines
3.0 KiB
Plaintext
98 lines
3.0 KiB
Plaintext
A plugin architecture for openlp 2.0
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Why?
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----
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To allow easy development of new "things to display". Examples:
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* Bible passages
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* Video
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* Powerpoint/Openoffice Impress
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* Lyrics :) (with chords, rich text, etc...)
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* Musical score
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* Midi files (hmmm, that's not a thing to display, but feels like it should be
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there...)
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* Audio files, CDs (hmmm again)
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* Collections of pictures
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* Alerts to members of the congregation
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... etc.
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The scope of these plugins is "things for display purposes", so each needs to
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be able to:
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* Render their display (on the projection screen and in a "shrunken form"
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for preview purposes)
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These plugins need to be part of a service. This means they need to
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* Be able to tell the service manager code what to put in the service for their
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"bit"
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* Have a "tab" in the media manager, which they can render on request
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to allow bits to be added to the service (or indeed shown live)
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In addition, some plugins need to be able to show
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* How their multiple screens of data are split (eg verses)
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* be told which screen to display
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Some plugins will also have things to configure, so will need
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* to tell the core app that they need a preferences page
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* and be able to render it and handle those prefs
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Some plugins may need to define
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* Hot keys for their display actions. The core will have to pass these on...
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Other basic things all plugins will need:
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* A name
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* A version number
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* Helpfile?
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Funnily enough, the core lyrics engine fits those requirements, so could
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actually form a plugin...
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Each service entry may be made up of multiple plugins (to do text on video), so
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each plugin that contributes to a service item will need a "layering"
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priority.
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Plugin management
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-----------------
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Plugins will be packages within the plugins/ directory. The plugin manager
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will scan this directory when openlp loads for any class which is based on the
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base Plugin class (or should we call it the DisplayPlugin class to allow for
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other sorts??)
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These plugins are then queried for their capabilities/requirements and
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spaces made in the prefs UI as required, and in the media manager.
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The service manager can find out what plugins it has available (we need to
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report missing plugins when a service is loaded).
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The display manager will get a ref to a/some plugin(s) from the service
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manager when each service item is made live, and can then call on each to
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render their display.
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Each plugin will have basic attributes for
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* name
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* version number
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* capabilities/requirements
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(eg:
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needs a prefs page,
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needs key presses forwarding
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has multiple screensful?
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)
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and a set of API functions for
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* media manager rendering and handling
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* creating service data
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* being told service data
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* set paint context
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* render
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* selecting a screen to display
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* handling preferences
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* shortcut key handling...
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Other things to add:
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Multiple monitors
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Openoffice like plugins - external rendering.
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update hook for rendering?
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Event hook from app
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Event hook to app (MIDI events....)
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