====== Tutorial: Custom Plugins ======

====Learning Objectives====
  * [[#What does a plugin do?]]
  * [[#Develop custom plugin]]
  * [[#Deploy custom plugin]]
  * [[#Using custom plugin]]


===== What does a plugin do?=====
Plugin extends capability that enables your script to interact with AUT like [[plugins#selenium_plugin|SELENIUM]] plugin and build shared operations to be used on multiple models like [[plugins#random_plugin | RANDOM]] plugin.



===== Develop custom plugin =====
Custom plugins are just java classes.  They can be developed in any java IDE.  We will use Eclipse IDE in this tutorial, you should be able to do the same in other IDEs.

Before we can start building our custom plugin, we need to set up the java development environment:
  * create a java maven project
  * add following maven dependency to pom.xml

    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.github.testoptimal</groupId>
      <artifactId>JavaConnector</artifactId>
      <version>1.0.2</version>
    </dependency>


Now we are ready to build our first custom plugin in Eclipse:
  * create a plugin java package to hold your custom plugin java classes, e.g. com.mine.plugin
  * create your custom plugin java class by inheriting from //com.testoptimal.plugin.PluginAncestor// class
  * add @TO_PLUGIN annotation to your java class
  * implement required methods
  * add your plugin functions - declare them as public functions

Below is an example of the java class:

   package com.mine.plugin;
   import com.testoptimal.plugin.MScriptInterface.IGNORE_INHERITED_METHOD;
   import com.testoptimal.plugin.MScriptInterface.TO_PLUGIN;
   import com.testoptimal.plugin.PluginAncestor;
   @IGNORE_INHERITED_METHOD
   @TO_PLUGIN
   public class MyPlugin extends PluginAncestor {
   
      @Override
      public String getPluginID() {
         return "MYPLUGIN";
      }
   
      @Override
      public String getPluginDesc() {
         return "My Plugin";
      }
   
      @NOT_MSCRIPT_METHOD
      @Override
         public void start() throws Exception {
            System.out.println("My Plugin started");
   
      }
   
      @NOT_MSCRIPT_METHOD
      @Override
      public void close() {
         System.out.println("My Plugin closed");
      }
   
      public String doSomething (String something_p) {
         System.out.println("My plugin: " + something_p);
         return "Done";
      }
   }

By default, all public methods declared as well as inherited are exposed as MScript function.  To exclude certain methods from being exposed as MScript function, add annotation //@NOT_MSCRIPT_METHOD// to the method. Add annotation //@IGNORE_INHERITED_METHOD// to the plugin class to exclude inherited methods from being exposed as MScript functions.

Don't forget to write junit test to test the plugin functions.


===== Deploy Custom Plugin =====
  * Export project as jar file
  * Copy the plugin jar file to /lib folder in //TestOptimal// server
  * Register your plugin package in //config/config.properties//:

   plugin.packages=com.mine.plugin

Above registry tells //TestOptimal// server where to look for your custom plugins.  If you have multiple custom plugins in the same java package, they will all be found automatically.

  * Restart TestOptimal server to make the changes effective.

===== Using Custom Plugin =====
Plugins must be activated before they can be used in the script.  Below is the steps to activate the plugins:

  * Open an existing model or create a new model
  * Select //SCRIP//T tab
  * Click on "P" icon on the upper-right toolbar
  * Check the checkbox for your custom plugin
  * Close Plugin Activation dialog

Press //Ctrl-Space// to open //CodeAssist//.   Your plugin should show up on //CodeAssist// list as //$'pluginID'//