Install and Execute a Plugin
Plugins are modular software components built on top of the SAInt application programming interface (API) to support common workflows such as data translation and analytical processing.
Users can develop their own plugin or get one from the category "Plugins" on the community Forum among the plugins provided by encoord or other SAInt users.
We describe here how to install and execute a plugin. For more details on plugins check the section "Plugin Form" or the tutorial "Beginner Tutorial on Plugins Development".
1. Install a plugin
A plugin in SAInt comes in the form of a compressed folder containing at least two files: the executable program called "main.exe" (i.e., the actual plugin) and a "form.yaml" describing the graphical interface of the plugin. Other files may be present as, for example, documentation files or templates for data input.
To install a new plugin "New_Plugin.zip", simply uncompress the archive somewhere in your file system, where the user has write and execution rights. SAInt needs to be able to access, read, and execute the content of the new folder "New_Plugin".
We recommand to use the folder .\SAInt-v3\Plugins in the user .\Documents\encoord directory.
To uninstall a plugin, just delete the folder of the plugin.
2. Execute a plugin
Once a pluing is installed, it is time to use it. The execution of a plugin from the SAInt-GUI is a two-step procedure:
- First step
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From the "Tools" tab, click on the button Select. In the "Select Folder" window, navigate to and select the plugin folder you are interested to run (e.g., it would be the folder "New_Plugin" in
.\SAInt-v3\Plugins). See Figure 1 for the location of the button Select. Note that the button Execute is not active if there is not selected plugin.Once a plugin is selected, SAInt performs a validation of the file "form.yaml", and, if successful, the plugin can be executed.
- Second step
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To execute a validated plugin, simply click on the button Execute. A new window will open starting the specific plugin wizard.
