Re: Looking for info on creating Plugins/Modules
Re: Looking for info on creating Plugins/Modules
- Subject: Re: Looking for info on creating Plugins/Modules
- From: glenn andreas <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:19:59 -0600
On Dec 12, 2008, at 11:01 AM, Jean-Daniel Dupas wrote:
Le 12 déc. 08 à 17:19, glenn andreas a écrit :
On Dec 12, 2008, at 9:37 AM, Sherm Pendley wrote:
On Dec 12, 2008, at 4:05 AM, Chris Hanson wrote:
- Your plug-ins should have a document type and UTI declared in
your app's Info.plist so they can be recognized as file packages
rather than folders by the Finder and get a nice icon.
Another nice effect of this is the same behavior you get from the
System Preferences app with respect to .prefPane bundles. When you
double click on a plug-in, the app to which it belongs can open it
and ask if you wish to install it, and if so whether to do so for
all users (/Library/Application Support) or just for yourself (~/
Library/Application Support).
This is a very nice end user experience IMHO. It saves them the
trouble of having to navigate through folders they're likely to be
unfamiliar with in order to "install" the plug-in.
sherm--
OTOH, if your plugin has the suffix "plugin" (and live in the
appropriate directory in your app) your user will be able to manage
plugins directly from the Finder. So if you take an application
that does this, and do a "get info" on it in the finder, one of the
panels in the info window will be "Plug Ins", listing all the
plugins in the application, with checkboxes next to them (so you
can deactivate them), and a "+" and "-" button that will allow you
to add/remove other plugins (this works just like being able to add/
remove language localizations for an app).
It's really quite slick, but rarely used. Its just unfortunate
that it has to have the generic "plugin" suffix...
My app's plug-ins have a different extension (than "plugin") and
appears correctly in the "Get Info" panel of the Finder. I think
that as long as you put them in the Bundle PlugIns directory (the
one returns by the NSBundle method) the Finder is able to find them
and to manage them.
Does the "+" button (to install a new plugin) work correctly? In pre-
UTI days, there was no way to tell Finder/LaunchServices that
".myAppPlugin" was actually a plugin (as opposed to just a document) -
does setting the UTI's "conform to" to include com.apple.plugin do the
trick? That could definitely be the best of both worlds (even better
would be automatic support of an Application Support folder so the
user doesn't need write access to the app)...
(Ironically, if you click the "+" button, the finder shows a file
navigation dialog that allows you to navigate inside other
applications, allowing you to access everywhere _except_ their PlugIns
folder, which, of course, is one of the most likely place to find
plugins (say you're updating to a new version of an app and want to
use the plugins from the old version)).
Glenn Andreas email@hidden
<http://www.gandreas.com/> wicked fun!
quadrium2 | build, mutate, evolve, animate | images, textures,
fractals, art
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