Ticket #15 (closed feature: fixed)

The idea of a "plugin" in ImageJ currently is well defined, though very general. Often, a suite of plugins go hand in hand and are bundled together; for example, the "LOCI Tools" plugins include the Bio-Formats Importer and Exporter plugins, Data Browser, Stack Colorizer, Stack Slicer, configuration and various other tools. Currently, ImageJ provides a mechanism to bundle multiple plugins into a single JAR file with a "plugins.config" file defining the relevant functionality. However, the scope of functionality possible with each plugin is limited, with each one generally relegated to a spot on the Plugins menu or submenu thereof.

We would like for such suites of functionality, tentatively called "add-ons" to ImageJ, to be more flexible in their presentation and integration with the core of ImageJ as well as its main user interface: I/O plugins automatically used as appropriate when image data is opened, and new GUI elements registered and added dynamically where appropriate, etc.

For example, LOCI could create an add-on to ImageJ for working with combined spectral-lifetime data, linking multiple views of different types (intensity images, lifetime decay histograms, spectral breakdowns, etc.) and responding to user interaction in each type differently. A tool like TrakEM2 could perhaps be packaged as an add-on as well.

One way to achieve this level of modularity may be with a dependency injection scheme such as  Guice, though it may also work well to provide a simple interface-driven design utilizing a robust event model.