Skip to content

Plugins

The work the Double Agent Connector does when Seeq asks is not built into the connector. It comes from plugins: small Java packages, built against a published interface, installed on the Seeq Agent's host. The connector stays the same; what it does is what its plugins provide.

Why plugins

  • Your logic stays yours. A plugin can be kept in your own source control, built by your team or by Endeavor Engineering for you. Endeavor Engineering ships and licenses the framework; the logic, and the data it uses, stay with you.
  • Only installed work runs. Each plugin provides named actions. A request from Seeq can only select one of them, never supply its own. What can run is decided on the agent's side, by what is installed there.
  • Independent of Seeq versions, by default. The plugin interface has no Seeq types, so a plugin built only on it does not need rebuilding when the connector moves to a newer Seeq software development kit (SDK). A plugin that needs more of Seeq can use the Seeq SDK through the agent, and must then be built for the connector's Seeq version; the connector checks this when it loads the plugin and refuses one that does not match.

How a plugin is installed

  1. The plugin's file (a Java archive, .jar) is copied into the connector's plugin folder on the agent's host.
  2. At its next start, the agent loads it and records each plugin it found, with its name, version, vendor and actions.
  3. Requests from Seeq can then select its actions.

Plugins are replaced with the agent stopped. Each runs inside the agent's process, with a time limit on each request.

Licensing

The license sets how many plugins the connector loads, alongside how many datasources it may use. If more plugins are installed than the license covers, the connector says so and writes a license request for the number installed, the same way it does for datasources. Ask Endeavor Engineering about the terms.

Who builds them

  • Endeavor Engineering, to your requirements, in your environment and your source control if you prefer.
  • Your team, against the published interface. Instructions for developing plugins will be published here with the interface.

A demonstration plugin, which multiplies a signal by a factor, shows the mechanism end to end.