Extending the IDE¶

There are several ways to extend the functionality of the OMNeT++ IDE. The Simulation IDE is based on the Eclipse platform but extends it with new editors, views, wizards, and other functionality.

Installing New Features¶

Because the IDE is based on the Eclipse platform, it is possible to add additional features that are available for Eclipse. The installation procedure is exactly the same as with a standard Eclipse distribution. Choose the Help ‣ Install New Software menu item and select an existing Update Site to work with or add a new Site (using the site URL) to the Available Software Sites. After the selection, you can browse and install the packages the site offers.

To learn about installing new software into your IDE, please visit the Updating and installing software topic in the Workbench User Guide. You can find the online help system in the Help ‣ Help Contents menu.

Adding New Wizards¶

The Simulation IDE makes it possible to contribute new wizards to the wizard dialogs under the File ‣ New menu without writing Java code or requiring any knowledge of Eclipse internals. Wizards can create new simulation projects, new simulations, new NED files, or other files by using templates or perform export/import functions. Wizard code is placed under the templates folder of an OMNeT++ project, which makes it easy to distribute wizards with the model. When the user imports and opens a project that contains wizards, the wizards will automatically become available.

Project-Specific Extensions¶

It is possible to install an Eclipse plug-in by creating a plugins folder in an OMNeT++ project and copying the plug-in JAR file to that folder (this mechanism is implemented as part of the Simulation IDE and does not work in generic Eclipse installations or with non-OMNeT++ projects). This extension mechanism allows the distribution of model-specific IDE extensions together with a simulation project without requiring the end user to do extra deployment steps to install the plug-in. Plugins and wizards that are distributed with a project are automatically activated when the host project is opened.

Eclipse plug-in JAR files can be created using the Plug-in Development Environment. The OMNeT++ IDE does not contain the PDE by default; however, it can be easily installed if necessary.