[chimera-dev] Query about writing extensions in Chimera

[Eric Pettersen]

On Aug 24, 2010, at 6:57 AM, Arun Prasad Pandurangan wrote:

> Dear Chimera Developers Team,
>
> Would like to know whether its possible to develop a custom  
> application
> that can be added as a plug-in inside Chimera (For example like the
> recent program Ringer)? If so, is there any expert advice or tutorials
> available to develop such a custom application that depends on  
> Chimera?

Dear Arun,
	Definitely it is possible -- one of our design goals was to allow  
people to do this, and here are some examples of "outside" extensions  
(developed by others and distributed separately):

http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/plugins/plugins.html

	As Darren mentioned in his reply, there is a Chimera Programmer's  
Guide:

http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ProgrammersGuide/index.html

The two most pertinent examples there are "Working with the Chimera  
Extension Manager" and "Adding Command-line Commands".  Basically, you  
organize your extension as a Python module (a folder/directory-based  
module, not a single file).  In the module you need to have a special  
Python file named ChimeraExtension.py, which Chimera will read at  
startup and from which you can add your extension as an entry in the  
Tools menu, a button in the Model Panel, and/or as command-line  
commands.  Almost all the entries in the tools menu are organized this  
way, so if you look in your Chimera installation* there are many, many  
ChimeraExtension.py files to use as examples (Aniso/ 
ChimeraExtension.py is one that adds a Tools menu entry and a command- 
line command in a relatively straightforward fashion; you would still  
need to look at the basic programmer's examples to know what was going  
on in that file though).
	Also, you don't have to put your extension in the Chimera  
installation itself (which is handy when you upgrade to a new  
release).  You can use Favorites->Add to Favorites/Toolbar... to  
specify additional directories for Chimera to look in for plugins at  
startup.

* on Windows, look in <your Chimera app>\share; on Linux in <your  
Chimera app>/share; on Mac in <Chimera.app>/Contents/Resources/share  
[use Terminal.app to get there or right-click on Chimera.app in the  
Finder and choose "Show Package Contents"]

--Eric

                         Eric Pettersen
                         UCSF Computer Graphics Lab
                         http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu


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