(r1) JMCS < Jmmc/Software

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!JMCS (Java Mariotti Common Software) is a collection of APIs and jar files shared by all JMMC Java GUI applications (SearchCal, [[JmmcModelFitting][ModelFitting]], ...).
Its goal is to centralize all shared functionalities (e.g menubar handling, about box window, ...) in order to provide our final users with more consistent, feature-reach, desktop-class applications across all 3 main execution platforms that are Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.

Its [[http://mariotti.ujf-grenoble.fr/MCS/DEVELOPMENT/doc/jmcs/index.html][DOXYGEN documentation]] is also available for implementation details.

This page lists and describes each !JMCS main functionalities:
%TOC%

---++ App : the main class from which !JMCS-based applications all derive
This class aim is to handle applications life cycle, normalized in 3 steps : intialization, execution and destruction.

For your application to benefit from !JMCS, your main class shall derive from the App class, and thus implement each of its abstract methods : =init()= and =execute()= :
   * Your =init()= method shall contain all your application initialization code, like specific command-line option parsing, MVC objects allocation and initialization, GUI setup, ...
   * Your =exec()= method shall contain no code at all in fact, as long as your application GUI fully implement the reflex approach (e.g Observer/Observable and MVC patterns, ...) and has already been initialized in =init()=.
   * Furthermore, you can also provide your own =finnish()= [[http://mariotti.ujf-grenoble.fr/MCS/DEVELOPMENT/doc/jmcs/api/html/classfr_1_1jmmc_1_1mcs_1_1gui_1_1App.html#60c4fae561f0b99609a287a9f77972de][method]] to appropriately handle your application life cycle end.

When instantiated at execution in your main() method, your App-derived class will automatically bring your application to life by:
   1 Initializing App internal mecanisms (!ApplicationData.xml file parsing, shared logger setup, command line option parsing, shared functionalities setup) when calling =super(...)=.
   1 Displaying a Splash screen (for at least 2 seconds), in order to let the end user know which application is about to start.
   1 Calling your =init()= method to fully setup your application GUI.
   1 Discarding the Splash screen, in order to let your GUI as the frontmost window.
   1 Calling your =exec()= method at last.

Here is a minimal !JMCS-compliant application template
<verbatim>
import fr.jmmc.mcs.gui.*;
public class Main extends App {
    public Main(String[] args) {
        super(args);
    }

    protected void init(String[] args) {
        // Add your application initialization code here...
    }

    protected void execute() {
        // Add your application execution code here...
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new Main(args);
    }
}
</verbatim>

---++ Application data : how they are stored and used

---++ Splash screen : the window automatically shown while applications launch

---++ About box : the window giving application detailled information to end user

---++ Menu bar : default handled menu items and how to provide application specific ones

---++ Preferences : standardized preference file location and version handling

---++ Help : how to harness the shared LATEX-based help browser

---++ Feedback report : how bug and user remarks are routed bak to the JMMC team

---++ Logging facilities : how you should handle execution traces in your application
Here is the code you should add to each of your classes to use [[http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/util/logging/Logger.html][standard java logging facilities]].
<verbatim>
import java.util.logging.*;
public class Complex {
    /** Logger */
    private static final Logger _logger = Logger.getLogger(Complex.class.getName());
    ...
}
</verbatim>

---++ Relase notes : how they are automatically generated

---++ Acknowledgement : how to provide a specific one for each application

---++ Application website : where are applications main webpage and FAQ

---++ Shared libraries : list of available third party toolkits



-- Main.SylvainLafrasse - 30 Oct 2008
Topic revision: r1 - 2008-10-30 - SylvainLafrasse