The present manual pretends to be of help for those who would like to develop over gvSIG. Because of that, and to be more useful the language would be simple and down to earth.

It is written for developers by developers. That means it is expected the lector is experienced in java programming.

To begin, gvSIG has been programmed with Eclipse. Other development platforms could be used, but all the examples in this manual were done with Eclipse (as well as the entire gvSIG).

Summing up: if you don’t know java or Eclipse it is recommended to begin learning them before you continue with this manual. (Forewarned is forearmed).

Another recommendation: in order to create extensions over an application, it is VERY recommended to know the application at depth. That is way it is very convenient to spend some time becoming familiar with gvSIG from the user’s side. There it is a manual on the web (http://www.gvsig.org) with more than 300 pages (Spanish for now), but that it is better used as a reference manual. There are shorter tutorials showing the most common options. However, when creating an extension consult the reference manual and become familiar with its usage.

The examples and diagrams are based on version 1.1.2 of gvSIG, official to date, although a new version would be available soon. Version 2.0 is being written, in many parts from scratch, so this manual will be discontinued upon the release of that version.