| // |
| // Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one |
| // or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file |
| // distributed with this work for additional information |
| // regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file |
| // to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the |
| // "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance |
| // with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at |
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| // http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 |
| // |
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| // software distributed under the License is distributed on an |
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| |
| = DevFaqModulesLayerFile |
| :jbake-type: wiki |
| :jbake-tags: wiki, devfaq, needsreview |
| :jbake-status: published |
| |
| === What is a layer file, or "module layer"? |
| |
| Layer files are small XML files provided by modules, which define a virtual filesystem (link:DevFaqFileSystem.html[DevFaqFileSystem]). |
| The layer file defines folders and files that will be merged into the system filesystem (link:DevFaqSystemFilesystem.html[DevFaqSystemFilesystem]) |
| that makes up the runtime configuration information NetBeans and its modules use. |
| |
| Layer files help to make it possible for modules to be dynamically installed. |
| If you've read about `FileObject`s (link:DevFaqFileObject.html[DevFaqFileObject]) |
| and `FileSystem`s (link:DevFaqFileSystem.html[DevFaqFileSystem]), |
| you know that you can listen for changes in folders and files in a filesystem. |
| That's exactly what the components of NetBeans whose content is composed from folders in the system filesystem do. |
| So if a module is added at runtime, the system filesystem fires changes; |
| the UI notices that the contents of the folder has |
| changed and updates the UI to reflect the changes. |
| |
| If you created your module using the IDE, you may already have an XML layer in your |
| module, and you can expand the node for it under *Important Files* in your module project to see and modify its contents. |
| The way it is declared is simple: |
| |
| * In your JAR, provide the layer file - e.g. `com/foo/mymodule/resources/layer.xml` |
| * In your module's manifest, include the following line somewhere in the top section: |
| [source,java] |
| ---- |
| |
| OpenIDE-Module-Layer: com/foo/mymodule/resources/layer.xml |
| ---- |
| |
| Some Java source code annotations generate layer entries for you (you do not need to have a `layer.xml` in your module's source tree). |
| |
| <hr/> |
| Applies to: NetBeans 6.7 and later |
| |
| === Apache Migration Information |
| |
| The content in this page was kindly donated by Oracle Corp. to the |
| Apache Software Foundation. |
| |
| This page was exported from link:http://wiki.netbeans.org/DevFaqModulesLayerFile[http://wiki.netbeans.org/DevFaqModulesLayerFile] , |
| that was last modified by NetBeans user Jglick |
| on 2010-06-14T22:16:01Z. |
| |
| |
| *NOTE:* This document was automatically converted to the AsciiDoc format on 2018-01-10, and needs to be reviewed. |