[Paraview] File Series Reader as a Plugin

[Sean Ziegeler]

I haven't tried adding it to readers.xml.  I want to distribute this to 
other users, and it would be best if they didn't have to recompile - 
just use the plugin.

The good news is that the reader isn't mine; it already exists.  It is 
the UNC Meta Image reader (vtkMetaImageReader).  It reads .mha & .mhd 
files.  I'm simply trying to extend it to read time series.  I've 
attached the .xml file that I've written.

It appears to select the original reader rather than the file series 
reader for these files.  I _think_ I've set all of the properties 
correctly.  I wonder if I need to tell it to override the file 
extensions somehow?

Thanks,
Sean

Quoting Berk Geveci <berk.geveci at kitware.com>:

> Hmmm. It should work. Are you saying that it works if you add it to
> readers.xml but not as a plugin? Can you share your xml and maybe the
> reader code with the guts taken out?
>
> -berk
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 5:13 PM, Sean Ziegeler
> <sean.ziegeler at nrlssc.navy.mil> wrote:
>> I'd like my new FileSeriesReaderProxy to be a run-time loaded plugin.
>> I've created the necessary XML tags as per the discussion below, and put
>> it in a .xml file.  It loads fine with the Plugin Manager, but the files
>> still aren't recognized as a series.
>>
>> Is this because run-time loading of a FileSeriesReaderProxy isn't
>> supported?  Has anyone else tried it this way (as opposed to adding it
>> to the readers.xml file and recompiling)?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Sean
>>
>> Sean Ziegeler wrote:
>>>
>>> Ken,
>>> Yes, that's correct.  The "Meta" (.mha, .mhd) reader exists in ParaView
>>> (actually in VTK) and I want to load in a file series.  And that answers my
>>> question, i.e., ParaView will load files of the same extension 
>>> using the new
>>> plugin reader instead of the original one.
>>>
>>> The reason I asked was that I seem to recall earlier versions of ParaView
>>> always using the _first_ reader for a given file extension if the extension
>>> conflicted with another reader.  I assume that has been changed recently.
>>>  Anyway, thanks for the answer.  I didn't want to spend time on this if
>>> there was no hope of it working.
>>>
>>> -Sean
>>>
>>> Moreland, Kenneth wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Sean,
>>>>
>>>> I am a little confused.  Are you saying that there exists a reader in
>>>> ParaView that you want to use to load in a file series?  And the issue is
>>>> that because the reader already exists in ParaView in the "sources" group
>>>> and you cannot move it to "internal_sources" or some other naming 
>>>> conflict?
>>>>
>>>> If this is the case, I don't think there is anything special you have to
>>>> do.  Just make a new <FileSeriesReaderProxy> tag in the "sources" group.
>>>>  The Reader subproxy can be in any group; it does not mater if it 
>>>> also came
>>>> from "sources".  The FileSeriesReaderProxy can also co-exist with 
>>>> the single
>>>> file reader so long as they have unique names.  You can also make your
>>>> reader read files with the same file extension; ParaView will use 
>>>> the plugin
>>>> reader instead of the one defined in ParaView.
>>>>
>>>> -Ken
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 1/8/09 12:19 PM, "Sean Ziegeler" <sean.ziegeler at nrlssc.navy.mil>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>    I'd like to write a plugin that makes the Meta format time-aware.
>>>>  I've
>>>>    looked at: http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/Animating_legacy_VTK_file_series .
>>>>
>>>>     From that, I see that I can modify
>>>>    VTK/Servers/ServerManager/Resources/reader.xml, but I'd prefer it to
>>>> be
>>>>    plugin that I can send to someone else with requiring a complete
>>>> rebuild
>>>>    of Paraview/VTK.  It should be possible to write a .xml file that gets
>>>>    loaded as a plugin and that wraps the Meta reader in a
>>>>    vtkFileSeriesReader.
>>>>
>>>>    However, if I do it without modifying readers.xml, the original Meta
>>>>    reader does not get moved to a different ProxyGroup.  Does that mean
>>>> my
>>>>    new Meta Series reader won't ever be used?  Is there some other way to
>>>>    do it that doesn't require a rebuild of Paraview?
>>>>
>>>>    Thanks,
>>>>    Sean
>>>>
>>>>    _______________________________________________
>>>>    ParaView mailing list
>>>>    ParaView at paraview.org
>>>>    http://www.paraview.org/mailman/listinfo/paraview
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>   ****      Kenneth Moreland
>>>>    ***      Sandia National Laboratories
>>>> ***********  *** *** ***  email: kmorel at sandia.gov
>>>> **  ***  **  phone: (505) 844-8919
>>>>    ***      web:   http://www.cs.unm.edu/~kmorel
>>>>
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