Adding a new Bean

JMV communicates information between the menu and the molecule window through Java Beans. Here is how to add your own Bean to the JMV code.

Starting with the code in JMV, make the following changes to add/modify a bean: You can add a new Bean, or change sizes, positions, etc. The files are located in the JMV_files directory. In the examples, replace ``NewBean'', ``NewHookup'', etc with names corresponding to the beans you've created.

• In directory JMV_files:
  
  1. Create a new Hookup class. It should be just like the others, but with a new name.

     	...
     	public class NewHookup implements java.beans.PropertyChangeListener...	
     	...
     

• To JMV_files/JMVMenus.java:
  
  1. You'll need to modify buildMenus() to add your new Bean to the menu. Add a new JMVMenuItem as a function parameter, and add it to the main menu.

     public void buildMenus(...
     JMVMenuItem newBeanMenuItem,
     ...)
     {
     JMenu newBeanMenu;
     ...
     newBeanMenu = new JMenu("Title");
     menuBar.add(newBeanMenu);
     newBeanMenuItem.initMenu(newBeanMenu); If you want to add a bean to an already existing menu, replace ``newBeanMenu'' with the name of the menu.

• To the JMV.java file:
  
  1. Add new bean object:
     private NewBean newBean1;

  2. Add new hookup:
     private NewHookup hookupX;

  3. Modify writeObject(); add new object to data[]. (data is an array containing each bean in the applet, plus the applet name, so set its size to the number of beans in the applet+1. Add the new bean(s) to the end of it.):
     Object data[] = new Object[(# of beans)];
     data[i] = newBean1;
  4. Modify readObject():
     newBean1 = (NewBean) data[i];
     ...
     acquire(newBean1, null);
  5. Modify addConnections():
     hookupX = new NewHookup();
     hookupX.setTarget(newBean1);
     newBean1.addPropertyChangeListener(hookupX);

  6. Modify init():
     newBean1 = (NewBean) Beans.instantiate(myLoader, "NewBean");

  7. Also in init(), modify the call to JMVMenus.buildMenus() to include a JMVMenuItem from the Bean:
     new JMVMenus().buildMenus(...
     (JMVMenuItem)newBean1,
     ...);
  8. Modify getMinimumSize() (if adding new bean changes dimensions of applet):
     return new Dimension(width, height);
• To JMV_files/Makefile:
  
  1. Add hookup to HOOKUPS:
     HOOKUPS = NewHookup.class
• To /src/Makefile:
  

  For the bean to be found, you must add the class file to the allbeans.jar file in the src/ directory in JMV.

  1. Add new bean class to CLASSPATH:
     CLASSFILES= NewBean.class

  2. Add new bean class to allbeans option:
     allbeans: ($CLASSFILES)
     @echo ``Building allbeans.jar...''
     @jar cf $(ALLBEANSJARFILE) NewBean.class
  3. Create the new jar file with ``make src-build applet-dist''
• To JMV.html:
  
  1. Change HEIGHT and WIDTH parameters in the applet if necessary

For use on webpages, both jmv-.jar must be signed. See
http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/qow/archive/99/index.html
for more information on signing applets.