Distributing Multi-File Modules

About modules

A module consists of a root directory which contains a module description file and the following sub-directories:

• icons,
• plug-ins,
• presets,
• scripts,

When creating the module you place your icons in the icons subdirectory, your C++ and Python plug-ins in the plug-ins subdirectory, your presets in the presets subdirectory (same structure as Maya's presets directory) and your MEL and Python scripts in the scripts subdirectory.

You can override any of these directory structures in the module description file by using the following syntax: <folder to override>:<new location for this folder>. See Module folder structure for more information.

In the module's root directory, place a copy of the module description file with the fourth field set to a suggested path. Distribution simply involves providing the user with a copy of the directory tree, possibly in compressed form.

Module description file

The module description file contains a single line of text with four base fields, separated by blanks:

• A plus-sign (+), which indicates that the module is being added to Maya.
• The name of your module (no spaces allowed).
• The version number of your module (no spaces allowed).
• The path to the root directory of the module (spaces allowed).

For example, if version 1.3 of myModule is installed in /opt/MyCompany/myModule, then the module file would contain the following line of text.

+ myModule 1.3 /opt/MyCompany/myModule

Conditions can also be added before the module name, for example:

+ (Conditions ) “moduleName” “moduleVersion” “moduleLocation”

The conditions can be one of the following.

• MAYAVERSION:
• PLATFORM:
• LOCALE:

Installing the module

Individual users wishing to install the module would do the following:

1. Uncompress the distribution, if necessary.
2. Move or copy the module's entire directory tree to wherever they want to keep it.
3. Change the fourth field of the module description file to contain the full path to the module's directory tree.
4. Place a copy of the modified module description file into one of the directories in their MAYA_MODULE_PATH environment variable.

Site administrators wishing to install a common copy of the module for multiple users would follow a similar set of steps:

1. Uncompress the distribution, if necessary.
2. Move or copy the module's entire directory tree to a directory which is accessible to all users, such as a network drive.
3. Change the fourth field of the module description file to contain the full path to the module's directory tree.
4. Place a copy of the modified module description file into a common directory which all users have in their MAYA_MODULE_PATH environment variables.

There are three approaches to doing this which are identical to those discussed for the MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH variable in Distributing individual files.

When Maya starts up, it will read in the module description file and add the module's icons directory to its XBMLANGPATH, add the module's plug-ins directory to its MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH, add the module's presets directory to its MAYA_PRESET_PATH and add the module's scripts directory to its MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH and PYTHON_PATH.

getenv MAYA_MODULE_PATH