We’ve all used Source, but we’re all specialists – we probably use about 80% of Source, but a different 80%. There are things in that 20% that can help us. Here's some tips and tricks for writing tools and plugins to work with Source.

What: What you can do

How: Quick instructions on how to do it

Who: Who to see for more information

Where: What parts of Source this touches.

What	How	Who	Where
Control Model behaviour from another program	Set Reload on Run, then overwrite the file from your program	Timothy Smith	Parameter Input Sets
Get around the need for a UI for a plugin	Extend Input Sets with a plugin, then set value through input sets.	Timothy Smith	Parameter Input Sets, Plugins
Push time series metadata to Source (like units)	Use res.csv as a data source format - supports metadata, identifiers and custom missing format	Timothy Smith	Data Sources
REPL edit plugin code in Visual Studio	Put a reference to the plugin project in Source.sln, then set a breakpoint in the code. You can use the immediate window and live edit code and xaml! Don't commit the solution!	Timothy Smith	Plugins
Free confidential version control	You can set up a file based Hg or SVN repo on a network drive	Timothy Smith
Set values in a plugin without worrying about Source changing	Use the API, which seldom changes. Better yet, use functions which eWater does backwards compatibility for!	Timothy Smith	Plugins
Run unit tests when Source is built	eWater will often run your unit tests for you (if they're fast enough!)	Timothy Smith	Plugins
Build large complex input sets without code	Create an Excel document with all your variables & what you want to change. Use Functions to assemble each scenario input set line in rows (this means values can reference each other, for example) Make a cell for each row that uses Concatenate functions to turn the row into a string. Then you can copy and paste the cells straight into the scenario input sets editor.	Karina Redpath	Parameter Input Sets
Write a plugin that can handle changes to the active project	ProjectManager.Instance allows subscribing to load, save and close events	Timothy Smith	Plugins

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