Extensions Guide

NetLogo allows users to write new commands and reporters in Java and other languages and use them in their models. This section of the User Manual introduces this facility and shows how to use an extension in your model once you have obtained or made one.

Extensions created by members of the NetLogo community are available from https://github.com/NetLogo/NetLogo/wiki/Extensions.

For information on creating your own extensions, go here.

Using Extensions

To use an extension in a model, add the extensions keyword at the beginning of the Code tab, before declaring any breeds or variables.

After extensions comes a list of extension names in square brackets. For example:

extensions [sound speech]

Using extensions tells NetLogo to find and open the specified extension and makes the custom commands and reporters found in the extension available to the current model. You can use these commands and reporters just as if they were built-in NetLogo primitives.

Where extensions are located

NetLogo will look for extensions in several places:

1. In the folder of the current model.
2. The extensions folder located with the NetLogo installation. For typical NetLogo installations:
   • On Mac OS X: /Applications/NetLogo 6.0.4/extensions
   • On 64-bit Windows with 64-bit NetLogo or 32-bit Windows with 32-bit NetLogo: C:\Program Files\NetLogo 6.0.4\app\extensions
   • On 64-bit Windows with 32-bit NetLogo: C:\Program Files (x86)\NetLogo 6.0.4\app\extensions
   • On Linux: the app/extensions subdirectory of the NetLogo directory extracted from the installation .tgz

Each NetLogo extension consists of a folder with the same name as the extension, entirely in lower case. This folder must contain a JAR file with the same name as the folder. For example, the sound extension is stored in a folder called sound with a file inside called sound.jar.

To install a NetLogo extension for use by any model, put the extension’s folder in the NetLogo extensions directory. Or, you can just keep the extension’s folder in the same folder as the model that uses it.

Some extensions depend on additional files. These files will be in the extension’s folder along with the JAR file. The folder may also contain other files such as documentation and example models.