The metadata flow

The managed plugin workflow produces, besides the plugin tarballs, also metadata files with info such as name, platform, descriptions and download url. Each build produces a separate metadata file.

The goal for a plugin is to get this metadata into the opencpn catalog. When present here, the plugin is available in the user GUI.

The catalog is maintained in the plugins project. The way to make the plugin be part of the catalog is:

  • Clone the plugins project

  • The cloned plugins project has a subdirectory metadata/.

  • Copy new plugin metadata from the builds to the metadata/ directory

  • Add and commit the new metadata files.

  • Make a pull request against the plugins project.

The flow is supported by the git-based workflow described in the Metadata Push page. The basic idea is that the developer has a clone of the plugins project, and that metadata from the builds is automatically pushed to this clone.