My First Bazaar Package

Introduction

In this tutorial you will create a "Hello, World" Screen and package it as a Bazaar Package (.epm).

Requirements

You will need a working EPrints installation on which you have an administrator account. You will need to have access to the command line to create the files for the package.

Step 1 - Develop your package contents

You will need to be in the root directory of your EPrints installation (typically /opt/eprints3).

gedit is the Gnome Text editor but you can use any editor that is capable of creating text files.

Hello.pm

Create the directory to contain the Screen plugin you're going to package:

$ mkdir -p lib/plugins/EPrints/Plugin/Screen/

Create the screen plugin using your preferred text editor and add the sample content below:

$ gedit lib/plugins/EPrints/Plugin/Screen/Hello.pm

package EPrints::Plugin::Screen::Hello;

@ISA = ( 'EPrints::Plugin::Screen' );

use strict;
# Make the plug-in
sub new
{
   my( $class, %params ) = @_;

   my $self = $class->SUPER::new(%params);

   # Where the button to access the screen appears if anywhere, and what priority
   $self->{appears} = [
      {
          place => "admin_actions",
          position => 1247,
      },
   ];

   return $self;
}

# Anyone can see this screen
sub can_be_viewed { 1 }

# What to display
sub render
{
   my( $self ) = @_;

   my $frag = $self->{repository}->xml->create_text_node( "Hello, World!" );

   return $frag;
}

1;

hello_world.pl

Create the package directory that will contain the package's configuration file:

$ mkdir -p lib/epm/hello_world/cfg/cfg.d

Create a configuration file that enables the plugin - this file is copied into the repository when the package is enabled:

$ gedit lib/epm/hello_world/cfg/cfg.d/hello_world.pl

$c->{plugins}{"Screen::Hello"}{params}{disable} = 0;

Step 2 - Add an Icon

Create an Icon, using the icon builder at http://bazaar.eprints.org

OR

Download the hello_world icon from http://bazaar.eprints.org/images/hello_world.png

Once you have this icon, name it hello_world.png and move it into the lib/static/images/epms/ directory.

Step 3 - Create a blank package

In Admin → System Tools → EPrints Bazaar, select the Developer Tools tab.

At the bottom of this screen is a form to create a new EPM. Enter the name (without quotes) "hello_world" and click Create.

You can fill out the metadata if you wish but at this stage you are only required to have a version, which defaults to "1.0.0".

At the bottom of the screen (the Files selector) you need to add the two files you created above:

• epm/hello_world/cfg/cfg.d/hello_world.pl
• plugins/EPrints/Plugin/Screen/Hello.pm
• static/images/epm/hello_world.png

Click Save and Return to return to the EPrints Bazaar screen.

If you make a mistake you can click Edit on the Developer Tools tab to re-edit the package.

Step 4 - Enable and test the package

On the EPrints Bazaar Installed tab click Enable for the hello_world package. After a short time you should see a repository configuration reloaded message.

In Admin → System Tools → Misc. Tools you should now a button-link to your plugin (although with a missing phrase).

You can now use Uninstall to completely remove the package and the source files created. A copy of the package will be saved in var/cache/epm/hello_world-1.0.0.epm.

For some hints on loading and manipulating EPrints see Manipulating eprints in 3.2.