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The `Plugin` Interface

The plug-in facility defines a local Slice interface that all plug-ins must implement:

module Ice 
{
    local interface Plugin 
    {
        void initialize();
        void destroy();
    }
}

The lifecycle of an Ice plug-in is structured to accommodate dependencies between plug-ins, such as when a logger plug-in needs to use IceSSL for its logging activities. Consequently, a plug-in object's lifecycle consists of four phases:

Construction
The Ice run time uses a language-specific factory API for instantiating plug-ins. During construction, a plug-in can acquire resources but must not spawn new threads or perform activities that depend on other plug-ins.

Initialization
After all plug-ins have been constructed, the Ice run time invokes initialize on each plug-in. The order in which plug-ins are initialized is undefined by default but can be customized using a configuration property. If a plug-in has a dependency on another plug-in, you must configure the Ice run time so that initialization occurs in the proper order. In this phase it is safe for a plug-in to spawn new threads; it is also safe for a plug-in to interact with other plug-ins and use their services, as long as those plug-ins have already been initialized. If initialize raises an exception, the Ice run time invokes destroy on all plug-ins that were successfully initialized (in the reverse order of initialization) and raises the original exception to the application.

Active
The active phase spans the time between initialization and destruction. Plug-ins must be designed to operate safely in the context of multiple threads.

Destruction
The Ice run time invokes destroy on each plug-in in the reverse order of initialization.
A plug-in's destroy implementation must not make remote invocations.

This lifecycle is repeated for each new communicator that an application creates and destroys.

C++ Plug-in Factory

In C++, a plug-in factory is a function with C linkage and the following signature:

extern "C"
{
    Ice::Plugin* functionName(const std::shared_ptr<Ice::Communicator>& communicator,
                              const std::string& name,
                              const Ice::StringSeq& args)
    {
       ...
    }
}

extern "C"
{
    Ice::Plugin* functionName(const Ice::CommunicatorPtr& communicator,
                              const std::string& name,
                              const Ice::StringSeq& args)
    {
       ...
    }
}

You can choose any name for the factory function.

Since the function uses C linkage, it must return the plug-in object as a regular C++ pointer and not as a smart pointer. Furthermore, the function must not raise C++ exceptions; if an error occurs, the function must return zero. The arguments to the function consist of the communicator that is in the process of being initialized, the name assigned to the plug-in, and any arguments that were specified in the plug-in's configuration.

If your plug-in and the associated factory function are packaged in a shared library or DLL loaded at run time, you need to export this function from the shared library or DLL. We provide the macro ICE_DECLSPEC_EXPORT for this purpose:

#if defined(_MSC_VER)
#   define ICE_DECLSPEC_EXPORT __declspec(dllexport)
...
#elif defined(__GNUC__) || defined(__clang__)
#   define ICE_DECLSPEC_EXPORT __attribute__((visibility ("default")))
...

Simply add ICE_DECLSPEC_EXPORT to the definition of your plug-in factory:

extern "C"
{
    ICE_DECLSPEC_EXPORT Ice::Plugin* functionName(const std::shared_ptr<Ice::Communicator>& communicator,
                                                  const std::string& name,
                                                  const Ice::StringSeq& args)
    {
       ...
    }
}

extern "C"
{
    ICE_DECLSPEC_EXPORT Ice::Plugin* functionName(const Ice::CommunicatorPtr& communicator,
                                                  const std::string& name,
                                                  const Ice::StringSeq& args)
    {
       ...
    }
}

If you don't want to rely on the dynamic loading of your plug-in shared library or DLL at run time, or if your plug-in is packaged in a static library, you can also link the plug-in into your application and call Ice::registerPluginFactory in your main application's code to register the plug-in before you initialize Ice communicators. For example:

MyApp::MyApp()
{
   // Load/link the "IceSSL" plug-in before communicator initialization

   Ice::registerPluginFactory("IceSSL", createIceSSL, false);
}

The registerPluginFactory function registers the plug-in's factory function with the Ice run time. It returns void, and accepts the following parameters:

const string&
The name of the plug-in.
PLUGIN_FACTORY
A pointer to the plug-in factory function.
bool
When true, the plug-in is always loaded (created) during communicator initialization, even if Ice.Plugin.name is not set. When false, the plug-in is loaded (created) during communication initialization only if Ice.Plugin.name is set to a non-empty value (e.g.: Ice.Plugin.IceSSL=1).

Java Plug-in Factory

In Java, a plug-in factory must implement the PluginFactory interface:

package com.zeroc.Ice;
 
public interface PluginFactory 
{
    Plugin create(Communicator communicator, String name, String[] args);
}

package Ice;
 
public interface PluginFactory 
{
    Plugin create(Communicator communicator, String name, String[] args);
}

The arguments to the create method consist of the communicator that is in the process of being initialized, the name assigned to the plug-in, and any arguments that were specified in the plug-in's configuration.

The create method can return null to indicate that a general error occurred, or it can raise PluginInitializationException to provide more detailed information. If any other exception is raised, the Ice run time wraps it inside an instance of PluginInitializationException.

C# Plug-in Factory

In .NET, a plug-in factory must implement the Ice.PluginFactory interface:

namespace Ice 
{
    public interface PluginFactory
    {
        Plugin create(Communicator communicator, string name, string[] args);
    }
}