Create a directory on your computer where you want to store your plug-in project. This directory is the pluginname/ directory in the listing below. You should also create some subdirectories:

The bin/ directory is empty to start with. It will contain the compiled code. In the lib/ directory you should put BASE2Core.jar and other library files your plug-in depends on. The src/ directory contains your source code. In this directory you should create subdirectories corresponding to the package name of your plug-in class(es). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_package for information about conventions for naming packages. The META-INF directory contains metadata about the plug-in and are needed for best functionality.

In the root of your directory, create the build file: build.xml. Here is an example that will compile your plug-in and put it in a JAR file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project 
   name="MyPlugin" 
   default="build.plugin" 
   basedir="."
   >

   <!-- variables used -->
   <property name="plugin.name" value="MyPlugin" />
   <property name="src" value="src" />
   <property name="bin" value="bin" />

   <!-- set up classpath for compiling -->
   <path id="classpath">
      <fileset dir="lib">
         <include name="**/*.jar"/>
      </fileset>
   </path>

    
   <!-- main target -->
   <target 
      name="build.plugin"  
      description="Compiles the plug-in and put in jar"
      >
      <javac 
         encoding="ISO-8859-1"
         srcdir="${src}"
         destdir="${bin}"
         classpathref="classpath">
      </javac>
      <jar 
         jarfile="${plugin.name}.jar" 
         basedir="bin"
         manifest="META-INF/MANIFEST.MF"
         >
         <!--Include this to add required files for auto registration wizard-->
         <metainf file="META-INF/base-plugins.xml"></metainf>
         <metainf file="META-INF/base-configurations.xml"></metainf>      	
      </jar>

    </target>
</project> 

If your plug-in depends on other JAR files than the BASE2Core.jar you must create a file called MANIFEST.MF in the project META-INF directory. List the other JAR files as in the following example. If your plug-in does not depend on other JAR files, you may remove the manifest attribute of the <jar> tag.

Manifest-Version: 1.0
Class-Path: OtherJar.jar ASecondJar.jar

See also Section 26.8, “How BASE load plug-in classes” for more information regarding class loading when a plug-in depends on a external JAR files.

If your plug-in should support registration with the auto-installation wizard it is a good idea to add the metainf tags. This will add the two files META-INF/base-plugins.xml and META-INF/base-configurations.xml to the META-INF directory in the JAR file. The two files contains information about your plug-in and BASE can automatically find and extract information from those. See Section 26.1.3, “Make the plug-in compatible with the auto-installation wizard” for get more information about this feature.

Compile the plug-in simply by typing ant in the console window. If all went well the MyPlugin.jar will be created in the same directory.

To install the plug-in copy the JAR file to the server including the dependent JAR files (if any). Place all files together in the same directory. For more information read Section 22.1, “Installing plug-ins”.