7.3 Plug-Ins

This section describes how to configure the document plug-ins the collection uses. It explains how you specify what plug-ins to use, what parameters to pass to them, and in what order they occur. Under "Design Sections", click "Plug-ins".

Contents
Simple instructions
  Add a plug-in
  Remove a plug-in
  Configure a plug-in
  Change plug-in order
Advanced instructions
  Custom configuration
  Rebuilding the plug-in database
Simple Instructions:

To add a plug-in, use the "Select plug-in to add" pull-down list near the bottom and then click "Add Specified Plug-in". A window appears entitled "Configuring Arguments"; it is described later. Once you have configured the new plug-in, it is added to the end of the "Currently Assigned Plug-Ins" list. Note that a plug-in may only occur once in the list.

To remove a plug-in, select it in the list and click "Remove Selected Plug-in".

Plug-Ins are configured by providing arguments. To alter them, select the plug-in from the list and click "Configure Selected Plug-in" (or double-click the plug-in). A "Configuring Arguments" dialog appears with three parts: a text field for entering custom arguments, an area containing controls for specifying arguments, and two buttons at the bottom.

There are different kinds of controls. Some are checkboxes, and clicking one adds the appropriate option to the plug-in. Others are text strings, with a checkbox and a text field. Click the box to enable the argument, then type appropriate text (regular expression, file path etc) in the box. Others are pull-down menus from which you can select from a given set of values. Still others allow multiple selections from a list. To add a value, select it and click "Add"; to remove it, select it and click "Remove". To learn what an argument does, let the mouse hover over its name for a moment and a description will appear.

When you have changed the configuration, click "OK" to commit the changes and close the dialog, or "Cancel" to close the dialog without changing any plug-in arguments.

The plug-ins in the list are executed in order, and the ordering is sometimes important. Two plug-ins, ArcPlug and RecPlug, are vital to the collection building process, and are fixed in place at the end of the list (with a separator line). To change the ordering, select the plug-in you want to move and click "Move To Top", "Move Up", "Move Down", or "Move To Bottom".