One common request when people make there own custom application - is making sure their PostGIS (or WFS or whatever) is available and added to the Catalog when the user first starts up.

Add an Eclipse "Startup" extension that adds

Connection Parameters

Preferences
Login

2 Catalog
net.refractions.udig.community.jody.tile (example that adds a custom service on startup)

Add an Eclipse "Startup" extension that adds

Here is the part of the plugin.xml used in the above example:

<extension
         point="org.eclipse.ui.startup">
      <startup class="net.refractions.udig.community.jody.tile.Preload"/>
   </extension>

Implement an IStartup

/**
 * Used to preload some nice datasets (ie worldwind).
 */
public class Preload implements IStartup {
    public void earlyStartup() {
        Map<String,Serializable> params = new HashMap<String,Serializable>();
        params.put( "url", WorldWindTileProtocol.class.getResource("earthimages.xml") );
        
        List<IService> match = CatalogPlugin.getDefault().getServiceFactory().acquire( params );
        if( !match.isEmpty()){
            IService service = match.get(0);
            
            ICatalog local = CatalogPlugin.getDefault().getLocalCatalog();
            local.add( service );
        }         
    }
}

Improvements

This example is pretty simple - to be a bit more correct we should check if the IService is already in the catalog:

IService found = catalog.getById( IService.class, service.getIdentifier(), progressmonitor );
if( found != null ){
   return; // already loaded!
}
ICatalog local = CatalogPlugin.getDefault().getLocalCatalog();
local.add( service );

Normally you also check the service to see if it is working - see the 2 Catalog page for details.

Connection Parameters

There are two good approaches to acquiring connection parameters for these "required" services.

Preferences

Store the connection parameters in preferences; make a preference page so they can change the host / port / etc...

Login

Make a login screen that the user can fill in their credentials.