The plugin task is to some extent an internal magic task. During initilization of a magic project definition, any plugins declared under a <plugins> element are automatically loaded and installed using the plugin task. However - the plugin task can be used outside of the formal project structural definition.
The plugin task locates plugin meta-data, and from that data, creates a classloader, loads the pluging from the repository, and declares to ant any tasks that the plugin declares. In addition, any listeners declared by the plugin meta are registered with the current project.
<x:plugin artifact="plugin:avalon/meta/avalon-meta-tools#1.4.0"/>
plugin: [plugin] Install "plugin:avalon/meta/avalon-meta-tools" [plugin] Task "plugin:avalon/meta/avalon-meta-tools:meta"
The plugin meta data read by the plugin task is described under the declare task.
