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How Do I Define Custom Kind
Zet Universe

[This is preliminary documentation and is subject to change.]

You use custom Kinds, Relationships, and Properties to create your own types or extend existing types in Zet Universe. This section describes how to create a custom Kind.

Define and Register Your Custom Kind

  1. Declare new AppEntityKindDefinition

  2. Set it's AppId to your plugin's Id

  3. Set it's AppTitle to your plugin's Title

  4. Define it's Plural and Singular Display Names in lower case

  5. Define Full-Text aliases that will be used to identify your Kind in search (e.g., "Picture Image Photo" for "Picture" kind)

  6. Define the Namespace Name for your new Kind

  7. Set the Parent Kind for your new Kind. If in doubt, use ZU.Constants.Kinds.Kind as the parent Kind.

  8. Decide if the Entities of your new Kind will participate in the Visual Clusters (and in the Topographic Clusters Visualization), or not.

  9. Advanced (Optional): set custom WPF Data Template for your Kind, if you find it required. Otherwise, the default template (FileBackingEntity) will be used.

  10. Provide Zet Universe with the default Thumbnail used to visually represent your Kind.

  11. Register your Kind using IAppManager.RegisterKind() API. Note that you will need to provide a callback for opening Entities with your new Kind.

Example
Copy
using ZU.Core.Apps;

private void RegisterKinds()
{
    // 1. Declare new AppEntityKindDefinition
    AppEntityKindDefinition commercialOrganization = new AppEntityKindDefinition();

    // 2. Set it's AppId to your plugin's Id
    commercialOrganization.AppId = this.Id;

    // 3. Set it's AppTitle to your Plugin's Title
    commercialOrganization.AppTitle = this.Title;

    // 4. Define it's Plural and Singular Display Names in lower case
    commercialOrganization.DisplayNamePlural = "commercial organizations";
    commercialOrganization.DisplayNameSingular = "commercial organization";

    // 5. Define Full-Text aliases that will be used to identify your Kind in search
    commercialOrganization.FullTextAliases = "Commercial Organization Organizations Business Org";

    // 6. Define the Namespace Name for your new Kind
    commercialOrganization.Kind = "OrganizationStructureAnalyzer.Kinds.Organizations.CommercialOrganization";

    // 7. Set the Parent Kind for your new Kind. If in doubt, use ZU.Constants.Kinds.Kind.
    commercialOrganization.ParentKind = ZU.Constants.Kinds.Organization;

    // 8. Decide if the Entities of your new Kind will participate in the Visual Clusters (and in the Topographic Clusters Visualization), or not. 
    commercialOrganization.CanBePartOfVisualCluster = true;
    commercialOrganization.CanParticipateInTopographicClusterVisualization = true;

    // 9. Advanced (Optional): set custom WPF Data Template for your Kind, 
    // if you find it required. Otherwise, the default template (FileBackingEntity) 
    // will be used.
    //commercialOrganization.Template = dt;

    // 10. Provide Zet Universe with the default Thumbnail used to visually represent 
    // your Kind.
    commercialOrganization.DefaultThumbnail = new BitmapImage(new Uri(@"pack://application:,,,/OrganizationStructureAnalyzer.ZApp;component/Images/CommercialOrganization.png"));

    // 11. Register your Kind using IAppManager.RegisterKind() API. Note that you will need 
    // to provide a callback for opening Entities with your new Kind.
    _appManager.RegisterKind(OpenCommercialOrganizationEntity, commercialOrganization);
}
See Also