Package Summary
The pluginlib package provides tools for writing and dynamically loading plugins using the ROS build structure. To work, these tools require plugin providers to register their plugins in the manifest of their package. To make this clear, let's consider a small example. First, suppose that a polygon_interface package exists containing a polygon base class. Let's also say that there are two different kinds of polygons supported in the system: a rectangle which lives in the rectangle_plugin package and a traingle that lives in the triangle_plugin package. The implementers of both the rectangle_plugin and triangle_plugin packages would include special export lines in their manifest telling the rosbuild system that they intend to provide plugins for the polygon class in the polygon_interface package. These export lines, in effect, register the plugins with the rosbuild system. This means that someone wishing to see all polygon plugins available in the system can run a simple rospack query which will return a list of available plugins, in this case, rectangle and traingle.
attachment:plugin_model.png
Writing a Plugin
The Plugin Description File
This section will describe, in detail, how to write a new plugin.
Using Plugins
This section will describe, in detail, how to use plugins that are available.
Tutorials
Links to relevant tutorials
[wiki:/Troubleshooting Troubleshooting]
[wiki:/Reviews Review Process]
