Developing a J661 extension

A J661 extension is a Java jar file with specific Manifest properties which define how the behavior of the Server or Client is extended.

Manifest properties

See J661 extension manifest properties.

Use Cases

Adding new widgets only for the Client

Contrary to the Server, the Client does not have Java implementations for the widget definitions. Widgets definitions ar entirely specified in the XML meta-definition. It is therefore only necessary to specify the Widgets XML path to change the ARINC 661 definition.

For example:

      Widgets: path/to/package/myWidgets.xml

Adding new widgets for the Client and the Server

In the general case, we would like the new widgets to be usable in the Client, the Server and also th Editor. In that case, defining only the Widgets property is not anough. We have to define the additional following properties:

• The ServerWidgets property, to define the Classpath of the Server widgets implementations
• The ServerWidgetsUI property, to define the Classpath of the Server widgets renderers implementations

      Widgets: path/to/package/myWidgets.xml
      ServerWidgets: path/to/package/myServerWidgets.xml
      ServerWidgetsUI: path/to/package/myServerRenderers.xml

Alternatively, the following specification has the same result:

      Widgets: path/to/package/myWidgets.xml
      ServerWidgets: path/to/package/myServerWidgets.xml
      ServerWidgetsImpl: path/to/package/myServerWidgets.xml;path/to/package/myServerRenderers.xml

Note that these properties will allow to use these widgets in the Server and the Editor. However, if you want to customize the default characteristics of the new widgets when creating them in the Editor, you should also specify this property:

• The EditorDefaults property, to define the Classpath of the Server widgets renderers implementations. See editor widgets defaults for the format of this XML file

For example:

      Widgets: path/to/package/myWidgets.xml
      ServerWidgets: path/to/package/myServerWidgets.xml
      ServerWidgetsUI: path/to/package/myServerRenderers.xml
      EditorDefaults: path/to/package/myEditorDefaults.xml

To learn how to develop the widget classes, see Developing a Server widget.

Example