Overviews

In general there are two ways to customize CustusX to suit your own needs: Creating plugins and creating a new application.

Creating a new plugin

The Plugin Framework is the tool to use for developers wanting to extend the system with their own features. By creating a plugin that implements some of the extension point services, the feature will be automatically added to the build system.

A new plugin in the CX/source/plugins folder will be automatically detected and added to the build system.

The Extension Points are used to insert features into the existing system. The simplest and most generic is the cx::GUIExtenderService, which enables you to add widgets to the cx::MainWindow.

The example plugin

In the CX/CX/source/plugins/org.custusx.example folder, you can see the example plugin. This code is a good starting point for a plugin. To build it you must add it to the list of plugins in the file CX/CX/source/plugins/CMakeLists.txt:

org.custusx.example:ON

An entry in this list is only needed for the internal plugins in CustusX. You also need to delete the file:

CX/build_Release/CMakeCache.txt

to make sure that CMake is reconfigured so that the plugin will be built. Then rerun the build script. Now you should see an Example widget in the Window - Widgets list, and you can see that the plugin is running in the Window - Widgets - Plugin Framework.

To create your own plugin, you can simply copy the example folder and replace all instances of example with a name of your own. To remove the example plugin from your build, you must remove the entry in the CMakeLists file, delete the CMakeCache file and delete the built lib in the build folder.

Adding your plugin as a component

When writing a plugin you might want to keep it in a repository of your own. To download your repo and build your plugin as a part of the build script, add entries in:

CX/CX/install/cx/build/cxComponents.py
CX/CX/install/cx/build/cxComponentAssembly.py

Creating a new application

The cx::MainWindow is the standard frontend for CustusX. However, it is possible create another frontend and rather use CustusX as a toolkit.

New applications can be added by creating a new application under source/apps.

Start out by copying the code in source/apps/CustusX and adapt it to your own needs. The system assumes that cx::LogicManager is initialized/shutdown normally. Override the GUI by inserting a cx::ApplicationComponent into the cx::LogicManager, as the CustusX application does.

The default application for the install can also be changed, by setting the two cmake variables

CX_SYSTEM_BASE_NAME
CX_SYSTEM_DEFAULT_APPLICATION

Alternatively, set the variable

cxInstallData.py/Common/system_base_name

in the superbuild script.

Things to remember

Adding more libraries: If a new library is needed, remember that is must be available under the LGPL, BSD or similar license, and must run on all platforms. It should also be easy to install on all platforms, or be Cmake-compatible.
Use the Code Style when adding your own code.