Your own utility script library

Starting with Freeplane preview version 1.3.2_02 all .groovy files in the script classpath directories are automatically compiled when Freeplane starts. The .class files are generated besides their .groovy source files in the classpath directories. Keep in mind that package declarations in the script files determine the location of the class files.

Extract often used functionality

This feature allows to keep your scripts and formulas more concise since you can define functionality that you often use in your scripts in a utility script/class. Let's assume that you want to create a map with a lot of formulas that compute sums over child nodes: <groovy> =node.children.sum(0){ it['total'].num0 } </groovy> and that 50 times in a map as in this map. Put that into a utility script named FP.groovy and put it into the scripts classpath (see below): <groovy name="FP"> def static childAttribSum(parentNode, attributeName) {

   parentNode.children.sum(0){ it[attributeName].num0 }

} </groovy>

Then your formula will look nicer: <groovy> =childAttribSum(node, 'total') </groovy>

Note that for utility functions you should think twice to find good names for functions to make it easier to remember what they do.

Make yourself at home

Let's assume you don't like the groovy way to sum over child node attribute. Let's also assume that you like functions with UPPERCASE LETTERS.

TODO

You can also define constants that you often use. If you define them in one place it will be easier to change them if you like. <groovy name="Const"> final static String company = 'Scripting Geeks Inc.' final static String stdDateFormat = 'yyyy/MM/dd_hhmm' </groovy>

Use it like this: <groovy> node['started'] = format(new Date(), Const.stdDateFormat) </groovy>

Notes

If you forget the static in the function declaration then the simple rule Classname.method(...) won't work since non-static functions need an instance of the class in which they are defined, which is 'FP' in case of FP.groovy. That's how it works: <groovy name="FP"> def nonStatic() {

   'blablabla'

} </groovy> Then you have to create a FP instance first and use that: <groovy>

   def fp = new FP()
   println fp.nonStatic()

</groovy> or more concise: <groovy>

   println new FP().nonStatic()

</groovy>

will print "blablabla".

Enable utility script compilation

Under Tools->Preferences->Plugins->Script classpath enter lib. - Relative paths will be interpreted as starting from the Freeplane user directory. So open that via Tools->Open user directory and create a directory lib in it. Put your scripts into this directory.

You can add multiple directories to the classpath. See the tooltip of the option in the preferences how to do that.

How to name the script files

If you use lowercase names for your script, like fp, then Groovy will not find this class since it "thinks" that you are referring to a variable that it doesn't know and issue an error that it doesn't have matching attribute or method.