How to return a value from a plugin to a macro?

[gabejackson]

I've been searching around for this a bit and can't find anything.

How can i return a value from a plugin to a macro? I've got a lot of analysis plugins and would like to perform various things with the return values in a macro.

thanks in advance

Gabe

[Michael Schmid]

Hi Gabe,

there are several possibilities:

- have a static method of your plugin that returns a String. You can  
access it by the call macro function
- via the Results Table
- by setting pixels in an image created for this putpose (if you want  
to access an array)
- via a file

Michael
________________________________________________________________

On 16 Oct 2009, at 14:20, gabejackson wrote:

> I've been searching around for this a bit and can't find anything.
>
> How can i return a value from a plugin to a macro? I've got a lot of
> analysis plugins and would like to perform various things with the  
> return
> values in a macro.
>
> thanks in advance
>
> Gabe

[Michael Schmid]

Hi Bill, Gabe,

ok, a bit more specific:

For transferring parameters/data *to* a plugin, the usual way is via  
GenericDialog (also recordable in a macro), as almost all built-in  
ImageJ commands do.
Of course, you can also use static methods that set static variables  
for this purpose.

For transferring data *from* a plugin, setting a static variable and  
having a static method to return it is a reasonable choice  
(especially if there are reasons for not using the Results Table).

Of course, static methods are not multithread-safe.

Example:
In your plugin, you have, e.g.:

public class My_Plugin extends ... {
     static double myResult;

     void run(ImageProcessor ip) {
         ...
         myResult = ...;
     }

     static String getResult() {
         return myResult.toString();
     }
}

In the macro
   myResult = parseFloat(call("My_Plugin.getResult"));

Michael
________________________________________________________________

>
> Michael Schmid wrote:
>>
>> Hi Gabe, there are several possibilities: - have a static method  
>> of your plugin that returns a String. You can access it by the  
>> call macro function - via the Results Table - by setting pixels in  
>> an image created for this putpose (if you want to access an array)  
>> - via a file Michael  
>> ________________________________________________________________  
>> On 16 Oct 2009, at 14:20, gabejackson wrote:
>>>
>>> I've been searching around for this a bit and can't find  
>>> anything. How can i return a value from a plugin to a macro? I've  
>>> got a lot of analysis plugins and would like to perform various  
>>> things with the return values in a macro. thanks in advance Gabe

[Joachim Wesner]

Hi Gabe,

there is also another way I use/would suggest, you can either set an ImageJ
property from the plugin
and read it in the macro via (and vice/versa)

call("ij.Prefs.get", "<propname>",  <default>);

or sometimes IMHO it makes more sense that the plugin attaches some
specific properties to the images it processed or created,
this can be read similarly with a simple plugin I once made:

http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/plugins/imp-props.html

I use this in some reader plugins for special file formats that attach
extra properties to the images read so that other plugins or macros can
interpret those

Hope this helps!

Joachim




                                                                           
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Hi Gabe,

there are several possibilities:

- have a static method of your plugin that returns a String. You can
access it by the call macro function
- via the Results Table
- by setting pixels in an image created for this putpose (if you want
to access an array)
- via a file

Michael
________________________________________________________________

On 16 Oct 2009, at 14:20, gabejackson wrote:

> I've been searching around for this a bit and can't find anything.
>
> How can i return a value from a plugin to a macro? I've got a lot of
> analysis plugins and would like to perform various things with the
> return
> values in a macro.
>
> thanks in advance
>
> Gabe

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[gabejackson]

thanks a lot!

[ce01]

Hi Michael,

I read this topic since it is exactly what I need to perform, and I'm trying to implement your method with static variable and call function from the macro.
However, I got the following message error:

cannot load class My_Plugin

Any hints? Should I somehow "import" this class into my macro?

Thank you
Stefano

Here is my plugin code:

import ij.*;
import ij.process.*;
import ij.gui.*;
import java.awt.*;
import ij.plugin.filter.*;
import java.io.*;

public class Filter_CountWhitePoints implements PlugInFilter {
        ImagePlus imp;

        static int myResult;
       
        public int setup(String arg, ImagePlus imp) {
                this.imp = imp;
                return DOES_ALL;
        }

        public void run(ImageProcessor ip) {

                byte[] pixels = (byte[])ip.getPixels();
                int[] pix = new int[pixels.length];
                int counter=0;
               
                for (int i=0; i<(pixels.length); i++){
                pix[i] = pixels[i] & 0xff;
      if (pix[i]==0){
                        counter++;
                }

                }
                myResult = counter;
        }

        static String getResult() {
        return Integer.toString(myResult);
     }
}

and the call from the macro (I run the plugin before asking for the return value):

run("Filter CountWhitePoints");
var white = call("Filter CountWhitePoints.getResult");

Michael Schmid-3 wrote

Hi Bill, Gabe,

ok, a bit more specific:

For transferring parameters/data *to* a plugin, the usual way is via  
GenericDialog (also recordable in a macro), as almost all built-in  
ImageJ commands do.
Of course, you can also use static methods that set static variables  
for this purpose.

For transferring data *from* a plugin, setting a static variable and  
having a static method to return it is a reasonable choice  
(especially if there are reasons for not using the Results Table).

Of course, static methods are not multithread-safe.

Example:
In your plugin, you have, e.g.:

public class My_Plugin extends ... {
     static double myResult;

     void run(ImageProcessor ip) {
         ...
         myResult = ...;
     }

     static String getResult() {
         return myResult.toString();
     }
}

In the macro
   myResult = parseFloat(call("My_Plugin.getResult"));

Michael
________________________________________________________________
>
> Michael Schmid wrote:
>>
>> Hi Gabe, there are several possibilities: - have a static method  
>> of your plugin that returns a String. You can access it by the  
>> call macro function - via the Results Table - by setting pixels in  
>> an image created for this putpose (if you want to access an array)  
>> - via a file Michael  
>> ________________________________________________________________  
>> On 16 Oct 2009, at 14:20, gabejackson wrote:
>>>
>>> I've been searching around for this a bit and can't find  
>>> anything. How can i return a value from a plugin to a macro? I've  
>>> got a lot of analysis plugins and would like to perform various  
>>> things with the return values in a macro. thanks in advance Gabe

[ce01]

I'm sorry, the message error is:

Could not load class "Filter CountWhitePoints"

Friendly,
Stefano


<quote author="ce01">
Hi Michael,

I read this topic since it is exactly what I need to perform, and I'm trying to implement your method with static variable and call function from the macro.
However, I got the following message error:

cannot load class My_Plugin

Any hints? Should I somehow "import" this class into my macro?

Thank you
Stefano