Re: Troubleshoot FxGenerator

Subject: Re: Troubleshoot FxGenerator
From: Daniel Walz <email@hidden>
Date: Wed, 3 May 2017 21:31:35 +0100

Hi Darrin,

thanks for the answer. I tried that, removed all symlinks I created of either FxPlug folder in /Library and in ~/Library.

I also started the Wrapper Application from Finder and let it run for a couple of seconds.

But neither pluginkit -m shows anything, nor it is visible in motion.

I also tried to reduce deployment target to 10.11 (but I am on 10.12 though). No change.

Can I look into launchServices database? Is it worth resetting it's cache? Exists there any logging from that service?

Thanks for walking me through.

Daniel

On Wed, May 3, 2017 at 8:51 PM, Darrin Cardani <email@hidden> wrote:

Daniel,

You don’t need to do the linking to /Library/Plug-Ins/FxPlug/ since you’re working with PluginKit. I’d remove the link just to make sure it’s not causing any other issues.

Next, I would find your plug-in’s application in the Finder and double-click on it from the Finder to launch it. We have seen cases where Launch Services doesn’t notice the plug-in the first time it’s launched from Xcode. As such, it doesn’t register with PluginKit. Launching it by hand from the Finder seems to nudge Launch Services to where it recognizes the plug-in. Let me know if that works for you.

Darrin

On May 3, 2017, at 4:28 AM, Daniel Walz <email@hidden> wrote:

Hi everybody,

I try to create a generative plugin with FxPlugin. I am using FxPlug SDK 3.1.1 on OSX 10.12.4

First I create an empty FxPlug project with XCode (8.3.2). Then I change the base class to
@interface FilmstroFxPlugPlugIn : NSObject <FxGenerator>

and adapt the frameSetup removing RenderInfo, that the FxGenerator doesn't have:
- (BOOL)frameSetup:(FxRenderInfo)renderInfo
        hardware:(BOOL *)canRenderHardware
        software:(BOOL *)canRenderSoftware

and also the renderOutput removing the inputImage:
- (BOOL)renderOutput:(FxImage *)outputImage
            withInfo:(FxRenderInfo)renderInfo

For a start I commented everything out and return YES.

The project builds fine, no warnings (except the documentation inside the SDK).

Then I link from products the .fxplug into /Library/Plug-Ins/FxPlug/

But pluginkit doesn't show the plugin. pluginkit -a finishes without a message. But still pluginkit -m doesn't list the plugin.

I can run the Application as well, but it shows only an empty window, as I didn't implement anything there.

How can I troubleshoot, why it is not showing up?

N.B. I had a version showing up, but then I realised, that my changes didn't have any effect, so I removed all traces by hand.
Now I tried to start over, but now I don't even see an empty plugin.
I used XCodes "New FxPlug project", so the GUIDs should be unique.

Thanks for help,
Daniel

--
Daniel Walz | Software Developer
Filmstro | Music that Moves.
www.filmstro.com | twitter/filmstro | vimeo/filmstro

Daniel Walz | Software Developer
Filmstro | Music that Moves.
Sussex Innovation Centre | Science Park Square | Brighton, BN1 9SB
email@hidden | Personal mobile: +44 7491 836 008
www.filmstro.com | twitter/filmstro | vimeo/filmstro

References:
	>Re: Troubleshoot FxGenerator (From: Darrin Cardani <email@hidden>)