You can extend the capabilities of Source’ by by adding new component models or data processing tools. Some of these "plugin" tools extend Source’s user interface, or add additional steps to the Geographic Wizard. Other plugins, especially those written by third parties, may look and operate differently from the normal user interface.
When installing plugins in Source, you must have administrator access on your computer. Plugins that are installed as part of Source are located in the following plugins folder:
C:\Program Files\eWater\Source\Plugins...
- Choose to open the Plugin manager (Figure 1);
- Click Add and in the plugins folder (usually C:\Program Files\eWater\Source version\Plugins), select the plugin and click Open; and
- Click Close.
Figure 1. Plugin manager
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| : If a plugin is required to run the project, but not loaded, an error appears asking if you want to keep loading the project without loading the plugin first. If the plugin is important to the project, Source might have problems running. The error tells you the name of the plugin that was used. An example of this is shown in Figure 2, indicating that the HargreavesET plugin is missing. |
Figure 2. Error without installed plugin
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For plugins that have been developed externally to Source (such as DERMTools), you must manually unblock them in Windows after downloading. By default, Windows blocks the execution of programs downloaded from the internet (including the .dlls used as Source plugins) in order to reduce the risk of the computer being infected by a virus or some other form of malicious software.
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| The use of the unblock option carries with it risk, in that it removes a key defence against malicious software. You should only use unblock a DLL or EXE when you are confident that the software in question does not contain malicious code. |
Once downloaded, open as follows:
- Right click on the dll file in Explorer and choose Properties (Figure 3);
- At the bottom of this window will be comment along the lines of ‘this file has been downloaded from the internet and has been blocked to protect this computer’. Click Unblock at the bottom of the screen, then OK;
- The plugin can then be loaded as normal in Source.
Figure 3. Unblocking external plugins
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