Because tools can be constructed in a number of ways, evaluate what your users require of your tool before determining what method of creation you want to use.
If the tool is filling in an existing UI, it does not need to persist configuration between uses. If the tool has configuration settings that persist, but are not displayed to a user, the tool does not need to synchronize data between UI controls and the configuration persistence.
| Plugin UI approach | Tool automatically loads and persists your configuration | Tool automatically synchronizes data between UI controls and configuration persistence |
|---|---|---|
| Using only SetConfiguration and GetConfiguration | No | No |
| Using lifecycle methods with data items | Yes | No |
| Using data items with widgets | Yes | Yes |