Using ROBOT Plugins¶

Since version 1.9.5, the ROBOT tool allows to use plugins that provide supplementary commands that are not part of the default command set.

Declaring the plugins to be used¶

Before you can use plugins in a custom workflow, the ODK must be aware of those plugins. There are several ways to do that.

Listing the plugins in the ODK configuration¶

Add a new robot_plugins section to your ODK configuration file (src/ontology/ONT-odk.yaml). That section should contain a single plugins key, which itself should contain the list of the plugins you want to use. Each entry in the list must contain at least a name key, which is the name under which the plugin will be available, and optionally a mirror_from key, pointing to an online location from which the plugin can be downloaded.

For example, to use the Uberon plugin:

robot_plugins:
  plugins:
    - name: uberon
      mirror_from: https://github.com/gouttegd/uberon-robot-plugin/releases/download/uberon-robot-plugin-0.2.0/uberon.jar

If you do not specify a download location with the mirror_from key, a dummy rule ${ROBOT_PLUGINS_DIRECTORY}/uberon.jar will be generated in the standard Makefile. You will need to override that rule in your ontology-specific Makefile:

${ROBOT_PLUGINS_DIRECTORY}/uberon.jar:
    curl -L -o $@ https://github.com/gouttegd/uberon-robot-plugin/releases/download/uberon-robot-plugin-0.2.0/uberon.jar

Using custom rules¶

If for whatever reason you do not want to modify your ODK configuration, you can still set up a plugin by adding a rule such as the one above in the custom Makefile, and listing the plugin in the custom_robot_plugins variable. For example, again with the KGCL lplugin:

${ROBOT_PLUGINS_DIRECTORY}/uberon.jar:
    curl -L -o $@ https://github.com/gouttegd/uberon-robot-plugin/releases/download/uberon-robot-plugin-0.2.0/uberon.jar

custom_robot_plugins: $(ROBOT_PLUGINS_DIRECTORY)/uberon.jar

Putting the plugin file in the top-level `plugins` directory¶

Any Jar file found in the repository’s top-level plugins directory (if such a directory exists) will automatically be found by the ODK, without requiring any change to the ODK configuration or the custom Makefile.

ODK-provided plugins¶

Some plugins are already bundled with the ODK and don’t need to be declared or downloaded from somewhere else. For now, there are only two such plugins:

the SSSOM plugin;
the KGCL plugin.

More default plugins may be added in future ODK versions.

Using a plugin a custom workflow¶

Any Make rule that involves the use of a ROBOT plugin MUST depend on the all_robot_plugins target. This will ensure that all plugins have been properly set up in the runtime ROBOT plugins directory.