kdelibs/plasma/pluginloader.h

/*
 *   Copyright 2010 by Ryan Rix <ry@n.rix.si>
 *
 *   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 *   it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License as
 *   published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or
 *   (at your option) any later version.
 *
 *   This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 *   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 *   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 *   GNU General Public License for more details
 *
 *   You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public
 *   License along with this program; if not, write to the
 *   Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
 *   51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.
 */

#ifndef PLUGIN_LOADER_H
#define PLUGIN_LOADER_H

#include <plasma/plasma.h>
#include <kplugininfo.h>

namespace Plasma {

class Applet;
class DataEngine;
class AbstractRunner;

//TODO:
// * add support for ContainmentActions plugins
// * add KPluginInfo listing support for Containments (already loaded via the applet loading code)

/**
 * This is an abstract base class which defines an interface to which Plasma's 
 * Applet Loading logic can communicate with a parent application. The plugin loader
 * must be set before any plugins are loaded, otherwise (for safety reasons), the
 * default PluginLoader implementation will be used. The reimplemented version should
 * not do more than simply returning a loaded plugin. It should not init() it, and it should not
 * hang on to it. The associated methods will be called only when a component of Plasma
 * needs to load a _new_ plugin. (e.g. DataEngine does its own caching).
 *
 * @author Ryan Rix <ry@n.rix.si>
 * @since 4.6
 **/
class PLASMA_EXPORT PluginLoader
{
public: 
    /**
     * Load an Applet plugin.
     *
     * @param name the plugin name, as returned by KPluginInfo::pluginName()
     * @param appletId unique ID to assign the applet, or zero to have one
     *        assigned automatically.
     * @param args to send the applet extra arguments
     * @return a pointer to the loaded applet, or 0 on load failure
     **/
    static Applet *loadApplet(const QString &name, uint appletId = 0,
                              const QVariantList &args = QVariantList());

    /**
     * Load a DataEngine plugin.
     *
     * @param name the name of the engine
     * @return the DataEngine that was loaded, or the NullEngine on failure.
     **/
    static DataEngine *loadDataEngine(const QString &name);

    /**
     * Load a Runner plugin
     *
     * @return the Runner that was loaded, or 0 on failure.
     */
    static AbstractRunner *loadRunner(const QString &name);

    /**
     * Returns a list of all known applets.
     * This may skip applets based on security settings and ExcludeCategories in the application's config.
     *
     * @param category Only applets matchin this category will be returned.
     *                 Useful in conjunction with knownCategories.
     *                 If "Misc" is passed in, then applets without a
     *                 Categories= entry are also returned.
     *                 If an empty string is passed in, all applets are
     *                 returned.
     * @param parentApp the application to filter applets on. Uses the
     *                  X-KDE-ParentApp entry (if any) in the plugin info.
     *                  The default value of QString() will result in a
     *                  list containing only applets not specifically
     *                  registered to an application.
     * @return list of applets
     **/
    static KPluginInfo::List listAppletInfo(const QString &category, const QString &parentApp = QString());

    /**
     * Returns a list of all known DataEngines.
     *
     * @param parentApp the application to filter applets on. Uses the
     *                  X-KDE-ParentApp entry (if any) in the plugin info.
     *                  The default value of QString() will result in a
     *                  list containing only applets not specifically
     *                  registered to an application.
     * @return list of DataEngines
     **/
    static KPluginInfo::List listDataEngineInfo(const QString &parentApp = QString());

    /**
     * Returns a list of all known Runner implementations
     *
     * @param parentApp the application to filter applets on. Uses the
     *                  X-KDE-ParentApp entry (if any) in the plugin info.
     *                  The default value of QString() will result in a
     *                  list containing only applets not specifically
     *                  registered to an application.
     * @return list of AbstractRunners
     **/
    static KPluginInfo::List listRunnerInfo(const QString &parentApp = QString());
};

}

#endif