New built-in Plugin Admin (Plugin Manager) is ready

dinkumoil

When digging in PowerEditor/src/MISC/PluginsManager/Notepad_plus_msgs.h I became aware that there is a problem with NPPM_GETPLUGINSCONFIGDIR. Its API documentation is very rudimentary. It is not clear if the function can handle paths longer than MAX_PATH (I guess not) and how it handles buffers with insufficient size.

Wouldn’t it be good to review the code of this function and possibly change its implementation in a way that it can handle paths longer than MAX_PATH and that it is possible to query the needed file path buffer size? Before you ask me: I’m not able to do that because I’m not a C++ dev.

dinkumoil

@donho
I’ve seen that you already changed plugin loading behaviour for the next Npp release (commits 7e555b6, e9a489c and 1132125).

I think it would be a good idea if the installer of the upcoming version would warn users that they can not use all old-style plugins anymore if they continue installation. Otherwise I’m afraid that a lot of angry users will flood the support forum with complains á la “New Npp version is destroying my workflows and productivity!”.

dail

@donho

I came up with an easier way than re-releasing etc all my plugins for 64 bit…here is the entries for the 64 bit list I would appreciate if you could test to make sure they work since I’m currently unable to test it. Thanks.

	{
		"folder-name": "BetterMultiSelection",
		"display-name": "BetterMultiSelection",
		"version": "1.3",
		"id": "e030a73278798df62c9f956f493e2baff1bb1ac8816c6a42e53a12c178ba56bc",
		"repository": "https://github.com/dail8859/BetterMultiSelection/releases/download/v1.3/BetterMultiSelection_v1.3_x64_PA.zip",
		"description": "Provides better cursor movements when using multiple selections.",
		"author": "Justin Dailey",
		"homepage": "https://github.com/dail8859/BetterMultiSelection"
	},
	{
		"folder-name": "DoxyIt",
		"display-name": "DoxyIt",
		"version": "0.4.3",
		"id": "8b63b3905b595795f263ed81340cf42bfcb0a42e8dabac78872c1bd72cdf59e8",
		"repository": "https://github.com/dail8859/DoxyIt/releases/download/v0.4.3/DoxyIt_64_PA.zip",
		"description": "Support for creating Doxygen comments.",
		"author": "Justin Dailey",
		"homepage": "https://github.com/dail8859/DoxyIt"
	},
	{
		"folder-name": "ElasticTabstops",
		"display-name": "ElasticTabstops",
		"version": "1.3",
		"id": "c5c9642b0c1b0bb8e59b1922346c3c4f434b29594b2630818eb7b288771e007b",
		"repository": "https://github.com/dail8859/ElasticTabstops/releases/download/v1.3/ElasticTabstops_64_PA.zip",
		"description": "Support for Elastic Tabstops.",
		"author": "Justin Dailey",
		"homepage": "https://github.com/dail8859/ElasticTabstops"
	},
	{
		"folder-name": "LuaScript",
		"display-name": "LuaScript",
		"version": "0.8",
		"id": "96d4eeafe46fa93434b7e4e70140691048c24cb5e40acba93aa1e10a57b19e7e",
		"repository": "https://github.com/dail8859/LuaScript/releases/download/v0.8/LuaScript_v0.8_x64_PA.zip",
		"description": "Adds Lua scripting capabilities. This provides control over all of Scintilla's features and options with a light-weight, fully-functional programming language.",
		"author": "Justin Dailey",
		"homepage": "https://github.com/dail8859/LuaScript"
	},
	{
		"folder-name": "SurroundSelection",
		"display-name": "SurroundSelection",
		"version": "1.1",
		"id": "f31a113cf30fdb286fd4d2dc40d2bfe4e66d0c0567dc5384d84e06635aeb8423",
		"repository": "https://github.com/dail8859/SurroundSelection/releases/download/v1.1/SurroundSelection_64_PA.zip",
		"description": "Automatically surround the selection in quotes/brackets/parenthesis/etc.",
		"author": "Justin Dailey",
		"homepage": "https://github.com/dail8859/SurroundSelection"
	}

donho

@dail
64-bit plugins passed. commited and merged.

dail

@donho said:

64-bit plugins passed. commited and merged.

Thanks! Much appreciated.

donho

@dinkumoil said:

Query full plugin DLL file path by message sent to Npp

How about “Query full plugins home path by message sent to Npp” ?
Since there is only one location of plugin from 7.6 version, the plugins home path\pluginUniqueName\pluginUniqueName.dll is full plugin DLL file path.

dinkumoil

@donho said:

How about “Query full plugins home path by message sent to Npp” ?

Would be good too and would reduce the parameters to 2 (pointer to buffer and pointer to buffer length), thus no additional struct neccessary. Would be great if you would implement it this way.

donho

@dinkumoil Then it will be:

#define NPPM_GETPLUGINHOMEPATH (NPPMSG + 97)
// BOOL NPPM_GETPLUGINHOMEPATH (size_t strLen, TCHAR *str)
// Get plugin home root path.
// where str is the allocated TCHAR array by user,
//  strLen is the allocated array size by user
// The return value is TRUE when get generic_string operation success
// Otherwise (allocated array size is too small) FALSE

What do you think ?

dinkumoil

@donho

Better would be:

#define NPPM_GETPLUGINHOMEPATH (NPPMSG + 97)
// INT NPPM_GETPLUGINHOMEPATH(size_t strLen, TCHAR *pluginRootPath)
// Get plugin home root path.
// Returns the number of TCHAR copied/to copy.
// Users should call it with pluginRootPath be NULL to get the required
// number of TCHAR (not including the terminating nul character), allocate
// pluginRootPath buffer with the return value + 1, then call it again to
// get the path.

donho

@dinkumoil

Done:
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/pluginListTestTools/

dinkumoil

@donho

Thank you, much appreciated!

chcg

@donho What do you think about plugin entries regarding we know the plugin, but it could currently not be automatically installed and the user need to do it manually. And later one a hint for installed plugins not known to the PA so the user can report them at https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/nppPluginList.

SinghRajenM

@donho,
I have a quick question here.
What if there are more that two users on a PC. Only one Admin user and rest are standard users. How PA will work?

Consider a case:
Admin installed Npp, so will standard or any other user be able to access PA? I feel ‘nppPluginList.dll’ should go to %allusersprofile% instead of %appdata% or can it be kept in %programfiles% itself?

Karl-Heinz Tuchner

Have the following problem:
Where can I find the plugin admin in v. 7.6? In the menu bar, I find no entry plugins

dinkumoil

@Karl-Heinz-Tuchner said:

Where can I find the plugin admin in v. 7.6? In the menu bar.

In the german locale there is in the main menu bar an entry Erweiterungen. In its drop down menu you will find an entry Plugin Admin.

Meta Chuh

@Karl-Heinz-Tuchner

not being able to see plugins or not even the plugin menu normally only happens under the following cases:
you have installed from the installer and selected the installer option “don’t use %APPDATA%” when you installed it
or
you are using the portable release npp.7.6.bin.zip which does not include plugins admin at the moment
or
you have put the portable np++ into the Program Files (x86) folder

could you post your debug info here so we can see how it has been installed ?
(menu bar > ? > debug info > copy debug info to clipboard)

Karl-Heinz Tuchner

@Meta-Chuh

Here the debug info:

Notepad++ v7.6 (64-bit)
Build time : Nov 13 2018 - 00:12:05
Path : C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Admin mode : ON
Local Conf mode : OFF
OS : Windows 10 (64-bit)
Plugins : none

I think I found the mistake.
I used the option “do not use% APPDATA%”.
How can I undo this?

Meta Chuh

@Karl-Heinz-Tuchner

normally it should be enough to reinstall np++ over the current installation without selecting “do not use% APPDATA%”

but i see something strange in your case:
this option just puts an empty DoLocalConf.xml inside the Notepad++ directory which changes the behavior of np++ if it is present.
but in your log it says “Local Conf mode : OFF” which indicates that DoLocalConf.xml is not present.

maybe you’ll have to uninstall notepad++ completely,
then remove %LOCALAPPDATA%\Notepad++ and %PROGRAMFILES%\Notepad++ before reinstalling
(enter %LOCALAPPDATA% in your explorer adress bar and delete the Notepad++ folder, repeat the same in %PROGRAMFILES%)
and then reinstall np++ 7.6 64 bit

hope this helps

Karl-Heinz Tuchner

@Meta-Chuh

Now it´s all OK!
Thank you for help!

Chris Hult

I am also having the problem where I do not see a way to access the Plugin Admin. I do not see any plugin admin in the menu bar. Any help would be much appreciated!

screen print: https://www.screencast.com/t/CBLiIsR7x

Debug Info:
Notepad++ v7.6 (64-bit)
Build time : Nov 13 2018 - 00:12:05
Path : C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : OFF
OS : Windows 10 (64-bit)
Plugins : none