Documentation/Nightly/Developers/Tutorials/Contribute Extension Description File

For the latest Slicer documentation, visit the read-the-docs.

Overview

Extensions can be fully described with an extension description file (*.s4ext). This file is automatically generated in the build tree of your extension.

1. For extension source code associated with git repository, for Slicer revision < r22231, the automatic generation will extract the read/write url.(i.e git@github.com:jcfr/MyExtension.git) whereas the read-only one is expected (i.e git://github.com/jcfr/MyExtension.git). For details see issue 2032 and 2395

To make your extension available for download to Slicer user, this file need to be added to the ExtensionsIndex repository.

You can think of the ExtensionsIndex as a repository containing a list of extension description files (*.s4ext) used by the Slicer extensions build system to build, test, package and upload extensions on an extensions server.

Prerequisites

• Extension belongs to Category 1 or Category 2 as described in Slicer requirements
• Extension has been built, tested and installed on at least one platform (Linux, MacOSX or Windows)

Contributing a new extension

Extensions build against Slicer trunk

The following instruction describes how to contribute extension description file for an extension being built against slicer trunk.

1. Fork the ExtensionsIndex: http://github.com/Slicer/ExtensionsIndex. Click here for forking instructions.

2. Clone your fork, then create a topic named add-<ExtensionName>

git clone git@github.com:USER/ExtensionsIndex SlicerExtensionsIndex
cd SlicerExtensionsIndex
git checkout -b add-YourExtensionName

3. Commit your description file. Commit title should be Add YourExtensionName extension and the content should provide details about the extension.

4. Push the topic to your fork

git push origin add-YourExtensionName

5. On your github fork, click on "Pull Request". Slicer folks will be automatically notified.

6. That's it !

• See instructions on github
• Consider also reading Extension description file format

Extensions build against Slicer 4.10

• Follow instruction reported in section Extensions built against Slicer trunk and select 4.10 branch when creating the pull request.

Requesting an extension update

Extensions build against Slicer trunk

The following instruction describes how to contribute extension description file updates for an extension being built against slicer trunk.

1. Update the master branch of both your local clone and your online ExtensionsIndex fork

git remote add upstream git://github.com/Slicer/ExtensionsIndex   # Add reference to the authoritative ExtensionsIndex
git fetch upstream                                                # Fetch change of the authoritative ExtensionsIndex
git checkout master                                               # Checkout master
git reset --hard upstream/master                                  # Reset your local master branch using the authoritative master 
git push origin master                                            # Update the master branch of your online fork

2. If needed, create branch named update-YourExtensionName

git checkout -B update-YourExtensionName master                   # Create branch update-YourExtensionName or ensure the existing one starts of updated master

3. Regenerate the YourExtensionName.s4ext file by configuring your extension with CMake

• See https://github.com/Slicer/ExtensionsIndex#build-your-own-set-of-extensions-against-slicer-trunk-build-tree
• If the svn server needs a username and a password, edit the newly generated YourExtensionName.s4ext file to add this information

4. Commit the YourExtensionName.s4ext file to your cloned ExtensionIndex repository (provide a meaningful commit comment)

5. Push modifications to your ExtensionIndex fork on github

git push origin update-YourExtensionName                         # Publish the updated branch on your fork

6. Create a pull request:

• Visiting your fork on http://github.com/USER/ExtensionsIndex and, if available, clicking on the Pull request link as explained here.

or

• Using a link similar to the following: https://github.com/USER/ExtensionsIndex/pull/new/update-YourExtensionName

Note: If you are using github for hosting your extension source code, make sure to associated a Compare View link showing the differences in the source code of your extension (NOT ExtensionIndex!!!) between the previous and current revisions. Compare link is very helpful to summarize the changes.

You can build the compare view URL manually with the following format: 

https://github.com/USER/REPO/compare/[USER:]GIT-REF…[USER:]GIT-REF

USER is your GitHub username, REPO is your GitHub repository, and GIT-REF can be a tag, branch, or commit SHA1. 

Source: http://jbuckley.ca/2011/09/githubs-compare-view/

As a concrete example, in this commit the version of the LongitudinalPETCT extension was changed from 9b6d4b8 to d033772. The extension repository is located here: https://github.com/paulcm/LongitudinalPETCT/, and therefore the compare link is https://github.com/paulcm/LongitudinalPETCT/compare/9b6d4b8...d033772.

Extensions build against Slicer 4.10

The following instruction describes how to contribute extension description file updates for an extension being built against slicer 4.10.

1. Update the 4.10 branch of both your local clone and your online ExtensionsIndex fork

git remote add upstream git://github.com/Slicer/ExtensionsIndex   # Add reference to the authoritative ExtensionsIndex
git fetch upstream                                                # Fetch change of the authoritative ExtensionsIndex
git checkout 4.3                                                  # Checkout 4.3
git reset --hard upstream/4.3                                     # Reset your local 4.3 branch using the authoritative 4.3
git push origin 4.3                                               # Update the 4.3 branch of your online fork

2. If needed, create branch named update-YourExtensionName-4.3

git checkout -B update-YourExtensionName-4.3 4.3                  # Create branch update-YourExtensionName-4.3 or ensure the existing one starts of updated 4.3 branch.




3. Regenerate the YourExtensionName.s4ext file by configuring your extension with CMake

• See https://github.com/Slicer/ExtensionsIndex#build-your-own-set-of-extensions-against-slicer-trunk-build-tree.
• If the svn server needs a username and a password, edit the newly generated YourExtensionName.s4ext file to add this information.

4. Commit the YourExtensionName.s4ext file to your cloned ExtensionIndex repository providing a meaningful commit comment.

5. Push modifications to your ExtensionIndex fork on github

git push origin update-YourExtensionName-4.3                     # Publish the updated branch on your fork

6. Create a pull request:

• Visiting your fork on http://github.com/USER/ExtensionsIndex and, if available, clicking on the Pull request link as explained here.

or

• Using a link similar to the following: https://github.com/USER/ExtensionsIndex/pull/new/update-YourExtensionName-4.3

Note: If you are using github for hosting your extension source code, make sure to associated a Compare View link. This is very helpful to summarize the changes.

You can build the compare view URL manually with the following format: 

https://github.com/USER/REPO/compare/[USER:]GIT-REF…[USER:]GIT-REF

USER is your GitHub username, REPO is your GitHub repository, and GIT-REF can be a tag, branch, or commit SHA1. 

Source: http://jbuckley.ca/2011/09/githubs-compare-view/

As a concrete example, in this commit the version of the LongitudinalPETCT extension was changed from 9b6d4b8 to d033772. The extension repository is located here: https://github.com/paulcm/LongitudinalPETCT/, and therefore the compare link is https://github.com/paulcm/LongitudinalPETCT/compare/9b6d4b8...d033772.