ParaView had a lot of work done to it for the 5.7 release. This involved lots of changes to the CMake Plugin API that ParaView provides to make it easier to build plugins. This document covers the major changes that need to be done in order to migrate to the new API. Specifics of the new CMake API is describled in the Plugin HowTo document.
Metadata is now stored in a paraview.plugin file rather than a plugin.cmake file. Instead of being actual CMake code, these files are basically the arguments to a CMake function. Not being CMake code itself allows the new build system to ensure that no extra CMake logic is going on behind its back when it's trying to gather information about the available plugins. Note that this is a default that is supported by the paraview_plugin_scan function. It does not need to be used and the actual files can be named anything as long as the format is valid.
The major change is that instead of hiding the pv_plugin call with a CMake conditional, one may be written in the CONDITION argument which will be used to "hide" the plugin if necessary.
Plugins required by the plugin may be listed in the REQUIRES_MODULES list so that the module system can ensure that all of them are provided.
The old add_paraview_plugin function has been replaced by paraview_add_plugin. The name change is because the API has been refined. It more consistently uses keyword arguments (e.g., VERSION 1.0 rather than a hard-coded 1.0 second argument). It is also stricter in its argument parsing so that unrecognized arguments are properly called out. Major changes:
DESCRIPTION has been removed in preference for the paraview.plugin entry to remove the duplication it presented.SERVER_MANAGER_SOURCES argument) must be in a VTK module. These may be added by simply telling the plugin to build some modules using the MODULE_FILES and MODULES arguments.GUI_INTERFACES is renamed to UI_INTERFACES since not all of them are actually graphical in nature.GUI_RESOURCES is renamed to UI_RESOURCES for the same reason.GUI_SOURCES is renamed to SOURCES since whether they are UI-related or not is immaterial.UI_FILES is provided for Qt's .ui interface files.moc, uic, and rcc) rather than the qt5_wrap_* functions. It will be enabled for the sources generated by the plugin macro automatically, but any other sources using these should set the associated variables (CMAKE_AUTOMOC, CMAKE_AUTOUIC, and CMAKE_AUTORCC) to ensure it is performed.FORCE_STATIC is provided to force a plugin to be built static or not.All of the add_paraview_* functions which created interfaces for use in the old add_paraview_plugin(GUI_INTERFACES) argument have been changed. Generally, names have changed from add_paraview_X to paraview_plugin_add_X.
THe positional arguments for the list of interfaces and sources have been replaced with keyword arguments (INTERFACES and SOURCES respectively). The new functions also all strictly check their arguments.
A full list of the new interface functions:
Modules are now required to have plugin-local classes wrapped for use in Server Manager XML files. This replaces the old SERVER_MANAGER_SOURCES argument. Plugin-local modules are installed right beside the plugin library so that they can be moved as a single unit.
Building plugins now follows a similar pattern as the new VTK module system. Plugins must first be scanned using paraview_plugin_scan to gather all of the metadata and then built using paraview_plugin_build.
Enable/disable defaults are no longer controlled by the pv_plugin function, but instead by the building project. Setting the _paraview_plugin_default_<PLUGIN_NAME> variable will select a default enable state for the given plugin.
Plugins are installed by paraview_add_plugin using information passed from paraview_plugin_build, namely the INSTALL_EXPORT, CMAKE_DESTINATION, PLUGINS_COMPONENT, TARGET_COMPONENT, INSTALL_HEADERS, the various _DESTINATION, and ADD_INSTALL_RPATHS arguments. Sets of plugins may be made using paraview_plugin_build now create an interface target (named according to the TARGET argument) which may be used by clients to use the plugins in the plugin set.
When building a ParaView client, plugin targets made by paraview_plugin_build may be passed to the paraview_add_client function's PLUGINS_TARGETS argument. The client will initialize any static plugins in the set and load plugins marked for auto-loading (via the paraview_plugin_build function's AUTOLOAD argument). The plugin target knows where its associated plugin xml file is located and it will be used by the client.
1.8.13 on Thu Mar 28 2024