We present a workflow and associated toolkit to automate the creation of graphical user interfaces (GUI) for executables run from command line interfaces (CLI). The workflow consists of three phases, namely (Step 1) the plugin design, (Step 2) the formal (platform independent) specification of the GUI, and (Step 3) the plugin code generation for the targeted platforms. Our architecture is aligned with the Model--View--Presenter (MVP) pattern: steps one and two build the Model and View descriptions, while step three implements the Presenter layer that binds inputs, invokes the CLI, and updates outputs. Once Step one has been (manually) completed, steps two and three are fully automated. The decoupled MVP design and platform-specific generator modules enable reuse of logic, portability across ecosystems, and significant reductions in engineering effort for complex interactive applications. We primarily use our workflow to generate GUI in structural bioinformatics for CLI executables from the Structural Bioinformatics Library (SBL), targeting three platforms, namely VMD, Pymol and Web servers. The workflow can be used as a guideline, while its implementation available in the package Plugin_manager from the SBL, see https://sbl.inria.fr/doc/Plugin_manager-user-manual.html.

翻译：本文提出了一种工作流程及配套工具包，用于为命令行界面（CLI）运行的可执行程序自动创建图形用户界面（GUI）。该工作流程包含三个阶段：（步骤一）插件设计，（步骤二）图形用户界面的形式化（平台无关）规范定义，以及（步骤三）针对目标平台的插件代码生成。我们的架构遵循模型-视图-展示者（MVP）模式：步骤一与步骤二构建模型与视图描述，而步骤三则实现展示者层，负责绑定输入参数、调用命令行接口并更新输出结果。在（手动）完成步骤一后，步骤二与步骤三可实现全自动化。解耦的MVP设计与平台特定的生成器模块支持逻辑复用、跨生态系统移植，并能显著降低复杂交互应用的开发工作量。我们主要将该工作流程应用于结构生物信息学领域，为结构生物信息学库（SBL）中的命令行可执行程序生成图形用户界面，目标平台包括VMD、Pymol及网络服务器。该工作流程可作为开发指导原则，其具体实现已集成于SBL的Plugin_manager软件包中，详见https://sbl.inria.fr/doc/Plugin_manager-user-manual.html。