Publishing an AlliGator Python Plugin

Writing a plugin for AlliGator should be fairly simple based on the provided examples. Using it with your installation of AlliGator is as simple as copying it in the Python Plugins folder and resetting the Python session in the Settings:Plugins panel.

To make your plugin available to others, it is recommended to publish it on GitHub (or any other publicly accessible repository) using the template provided at https://github.com/smXplorer/AlliGator-Plugin-Template.

If possible, name your repository “AlliGator-Plugin-my-plugin-name” in order for it to be easily searchable on GitHub (or found by search engines).

An AlliGator Python Plugin repository should contain at least 3 mandatory files:

• A Python script (*.py file) containing the function(s) to be called by AlliGator. This script/function(s) should comply with the API as described in AlliGator’s AlliGator Python Plugin manual page.

• A license.txt file (the default license is BSD 3-Clause) with the correct copyright holder name and date

• A Readme.md file modified to be relevant to your plugin (in particular, the content of the template Readme.md file should be removed and replaced by your own content). The role of the Readme.md file is to provide basic information on the plugin and preferably enough information on how to use it. Instructions on how to use the plugin, or links to a website/URL providing these instructions would belong to the Readme file. A simple guide to the markup language used in *.md file can be found at https://www.markdownguide.org/basic-syntax/.

If possible, provide files to test the plugin in a data folder within the repository [1], and if appropriate, results from the analysis (e.g. screenshot of outputs, AlliGator notebook, plot files, etc.) in a results folder.

It is recommended to store images used to illustrate the Readme file in an images folder in the repository.

An example of such a repository with these different elements can be found at https://github.com/smXplorer/AlliGator-Plugin-IntensityOverThresholdMask.

Footnotes

[1]

Do not modify the alligator.py script distributed in the Python Plugins folder, as this will be overwritten with the next AlliGator installation and will break compatibility with other plugins. If you need additional functionalities not currently supported, create an Issue on Github at https://github.com/smXplorer/AlliGator/issues.