# Plugins.init()?

**URL:** <https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/plugins-init/334>\
**Category:** CloverDX Platform\
**Created:** [June 6, 2008, 12:00am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/plugins-init/334 "2008-06-06T00:00:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![crazybird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@crazybird](https://forum.cloverdx.com/u/crazybird)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 12:00am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/plugins-init/334/1 "2008-06-06T00:00:00Z")

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Hi!

What for is the _Plugins.init()_ - method?  
I know it’s to set the plugins- directory.

But what is the benefit of it? To use, for example, the DelimitedDataReader, I still have to import the specific .jar - File to use it with my development environment.

Stefan

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**Author:** ![jurban](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cc9497/32.png) [@jurban](https://forum.cloverdx.com/u/jurban)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 3:28pm UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/plugins-init/334/2 "2008-06-06T15:28:18Z")

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Hi,  
Clover engine is extensible by plugins and it automatically loads them from the directory specified in Plugins.init(). The plugins contain the code of components, connections etc, but also a mapping from their “names” to their classes (i.e. DATA\_READER → org.jetel.component.DataReader).

So if you create Clover graphs purely from Java code and create all elements of the graph manually (i.e. new SimpleCopy(…)), then you only need the plugins’ classes in the classpath and you don’t really need to set the plugin path. If you want to create graphs from XML or via factories (i.e. ComponentFactory class) then you must specify the plugin path.

Jaro