Extending i-WAT

With i-WAT, you can define an extended part to create a new currency. The following is a list of such currencies defined by extending i-WAT.

• Barter Yen ... A barter currency referring to Japanese Yen
• Barter Dollar ... A barter currency referring to US Dollar
• WIDE Hours ... A barter currency based on laboring hours

These currencies are distributed with our distribution of i-WAT.

• >> Extend easily
• >> Extend by a wija plugin

>> Extend easily

You can define your own new currencies other than above easily, and distribute them.

The following is the instruction of how to do it using Barter Yen as an example.

1. Locate the iwat folder in the plugins folder of wija.
2. Create a new folder (in case of Barter Yen, "yen" folder) inside the iwat folder, containing the following files.
   • An XML file to define the currency (in case of Barter Yen, "yen.xml").
   • A banner image to express the currency graphically (in case of Barter Yen, "images/yen-banner.png").
3. After restarting wija, you will be able to use the new currency.

How to write an XML file to define a currency

The following is the content of the XML file to define Barter Yen.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<iwat-plugin>
<name lang="ja">バーター円</name>
<name lang="en" default="yes">Barter Yen</name>
<ns default="yes" variance="yes">http://www.media-art-online.org/yen/</ns>
<unit>yen</unit>
<statements lang="ja">バーター円:
発券人は、本券持参人の提示によって清算請求される場合、
提示者と合意しうる財ないし役務をもって清算することを約束します。

この通貨は、日本円を価値の参照基準として参照しています。
</statements>
<statements lang="en" default="yes">Barter Yen:
The drawer promises to pay by a commodity or service that is agreed with the
user, when a user claims for repayment by presenting this ticket.

Refer to Japanese yen for the value of this currency.
</statements>
<default-value>100</default-value>
<min-value>10</min-value>
<max-value>2000</max-value>
<tick-spacing>10</tick-spacing>
<banner>images/yen-banner.png</banner>
</iwat-plugin>

<name/>

• The name of the currency to be displayed.
• You can specify the language by lang attribute.

<ns/>

• The name space to distinguish the currency from others (it must be unique).
• Specified by a URL.
• You can specify whether the currency can have the variance-over-time feature by variance attribute.

<unit/>

• The unit of the currency.

<statements/>

• The policy statements for the currency.
• You can specify the language by lang attribute.

<default-value/>

• The default value when drawing.

<min-value>

• The minimum value when drawing.

<max-value>

• The maximum value when drawing.

<tick-spacing/>

• The minimum unit of the value when drawing.

<banner/>

• The relative path name for the banner image.

The format of the banner image

We recommend that a 72 x 313px PNG image is used.

>> Extend by a wija plugin

If you have a copy of JDK (Java Development Kit) for Java 2 Standard Edition and knowledge of programming in Java language, you can extend i-WAT in more elaborate ways by developing a plugin for wija.

We are preparing for releasing the programming interfaces and the instructions for how to use them to extend i-WAT. Please let us know if you intend to extend i-WAT by a wija plugin, so that we can work together.