Molecular modelers often face a common challenge: integrating their domain-specific algorithms into user-friendly visual platforms that others can easily access and use. Whether it’s a new force field, simulation algorithm, or structural editor, turning a script or prototype into a shareable, interactive tool can be time-consuming and complex.
If you’ve been looking for a way to streamline this process, SAMSON, the integrative molecular design platform, offers a solution through its extensibility via SAMSON Extensions. In this post, we focus specifically on developing your own extensions using the SAMSON SDK.
Why develop a SAMSON Extension?
SAMSON Extensions are the modules that power SAMSON’s applications. They include apps, editors, visual models, parsers, exporters, force fields, simulation methods, and much more—all built to work natively within the platform. If you have a computational method, visualization strategy, or interaction model you want to share or commercialize, creating a SAMSON Extension is a practical path forward.
What is the SAMSON SDK?
The SAMSON SDK (Software Development Kit) is a toolkit allowing you to build high-performance, cross-platform modules. Whether you want to wrap C++ code you’ve written before or start fresh, the SDK provides powerful abstractions, visual integration support, and useful templates to help you get started.
With the SDK, you can create:
- Apps – Connect to external tools or build a graphical interface for existing code.
- Editors – Add interactive functionality like structural editing or model creation tools.
- Visual Models – Design visualizations for new simulation results or molecular descriptors.
- Interaction Models – Implement custom physics or force fields.
- State Updaters – Integrate your simulation algorithms (e.g., Monte Carlo, molecular dynamics).
Getting started
To start developing your own extension, simply sign in to SAMSON Connect and head to the Download page to install the SDK. The documentation provides detailed guides and templates to help you build and deploy extensions as quickly as possible.
Once your extension is developed, you can test it locally and share it with broader audiences via SAMSON Connect, SAMSON’s extension marketplace. The platform supports both free distribution and subscription-based models.
Distribute with flexibility
Through integration with Stripe, SAMSON lets you offer your extension under different subscription tiers. For example, you can target academic institutions with lower-cost plans and still provide industrial access at commercial rates. Everything is managed through SAMSON Connect, providing an easy path to commercialization.
This model benefits individual developers, researchers, and commercial research groups alike—whether you are releasing tools for community use or developing specialized extensions for clients or collaborators.
Learn more
If you’d like to see more details, from templates to distribution guidelines, take a look at the official documentation here: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/extending-samson/.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.