Java Reference
In-Depth Information
Here's a description of what this file needs. Don't worry much about the details
yet—it will make more sense as we get further into the topic.
main-class
Name of the package and class that Java will run to start this plugin
(
package
.
classname
).
name
Name of the plugin—in this case,
HelloWorld
.
author
Name of the author (that's you).
version
Version number of your plugin. Start low, and increment the number
each time you release a new version to the world.
Build and Install with build.sh
The commands you've been typing in your terminal window can also be saved
into a file; that way you can run them over and over again without having to
retype them each time. We call this a
shell script
, and it's another way to
program the computer.
Building a plugin is only a little more complicated than compiling a single
Java file as we did last chapter, but even so, it involves a lot of commands
we don't want to have to type out every time.
To make it easier, I've made a shell script for you named
build.sh
that will do
the three main steps:
1
1.
Use
javac
to compile the
.java
source to
.class
files.
2.
Use
jar
to archive the class files, manifest, and configuration file.
3.
Copy the jar file to the server.
After that, you'll need to stop and restart the server so it can pick up the
changes.
The build script needs to know where your server directory is located. At the
very top of the script, it says this:
MCSERVER=$HOME/Desktop/server
1.
For larger projects, folks use tools like Ant, Maven, or Gradle when the build becomes
more complex and has to manage dependencies among many parts. But that's overkill
for our needs here.
