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

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

MrSimurq

Am I the only one missing the new Plugin Admin menu? Using v7.6 but can’t see any “built-in Plugin Admin” in Notepad++. I’ve checked almost every under menu item but the only plugins I can see are the default ones like spell checker, mime tools, etc.
Do I need to download it separately, as opposed to advertised “built-in” version?
Thanks!

dinkumoil

@MrSimurq

Please provide some additional infos:

Do you use a portable installation or did you use the installer to update Notepad++ to v7.6?
Did you use the option “Don’t use %APPDATA%” during installation?
Do you work normally with a restricted user account and thus you had to install Notepad++ using username & password of an administrative account?

MrSimurq

Thanks, dinkumoil!

Portable 32-bit version downloaded as a 7zip file. But I didn’t see any note on the Plugin Admin page re: installation type.
Nope. I think that’s because I use the portable version.
Admin with no password.

dinkumoil

@MrSimurq

You are unlucky, the portable version currently doesn’t include Plugin Admin, maybe in the future.

Michael Grohol

Just downloaded v7.6. I see the new Plugins Manager is mentioned here: Notepad-plus-plus.org/features/plugin-admin.html. I do not know how to launch it, though, from inside Notepad++ v7.6. Thoughts? I am particularly interested in the plugin NppExport which should allow me to export .v files (Verilog HDL) to a Word doc and preserve the syntax coloring. Thanks for any tips.

dinkumoil

@Michael-Grohol

Please provide some additional informations:

Did you perform a fresh installation of Notepad++ or an update and thus you had been able to use the NppExport plugin in your previous version?
Did you download an installer of v7.6 or a ZIP/7z file to run a portable version of Notepad++?

Şahin Beygu

Sorry if that’s a double entry but I’ve searched the posts and couldn’t find any related entry:

As seen in this Plugins menu screenshot, there exists two menu items (Plugin Manager and Plugin Admin) which is very confusing.
It would be better to include Plugin Manager in “npp core” and avoid this confusion.

Also, after the installation of the new Plugin Manager its “Installed plugins” list does not show the installed plugins and comes empty whereas the old Plugin Admin lists the plugins as it should be. See these old and new lists.

Meta Chuh

welcome to the notepad++ community, @Şahin-Beygu

there exists two menu items (Plugin Manager and Plugin Admin) which is very confusing.

“plugin manager” is not part of notepad++, it is a plugin you have installed in the past and it is not compatible with newer versions 7.6.x of notepad++ and above.
please remove the “plugin manager” plugin, as it will write to and delete from wrong folder locations.
please use the official plugins admin only.
(for a guide on how to delete it on your setup, we will need your debug information. please go to the notepad++ menu ? > debug info > copy debug info into clipboard. and paste the information here)

note: i also recommend to update to 7.6.2 if you are on a version lower than that.

after the installation of the new Plugin Manager its “Installed plugins” list does not show the installed plugins and comes empty whereas the old Plugin Admin lists the plugins as it should be

all plugins that are at the correct location will be shown in plugins admin

note: unfortunately i was not able to open your screenshots, i can only get a 403 Forbidden, nginxerror message when trying to open them.

i hope this information may help you.

PeterJones

@Meta-Chuh said,

“plugin manager” is not part of notepad++, it is a plugin you have installed in the past

Not quite accurate.

The “Plugin Manager” was the plugin which handled installing plugins and was bundled with Notepad++ until v7.4.2; starting in v7.5, it was no longer bundled (see FAQ), but you could still manually install it.

So if @Şahin-Beygu had a previous (pre-7.5) that had been consistently or occasionally updated until it became 7.6 or later, then “plugin manager” would have been inherited from pre-7.5, and thus not a plugin that “you [@Şahin-Beygu] have installed in the past”.

Everything else you said was dead on, but I just wanted to make sure that little bit of misinformation was corrected.

Meta Chuh

@PeterJones

The “Plugin Manager” was the plugin which handled installing plugins and was bundled with Notepad++ until v7.4.2; starting in v7.5, it was no longer bundled (see FAQ), but you could still manually install it.

yes, you are absolutely correct, sorry about that.
my statement “it is a plugin you have installed in the past” is a lesser probability than that it was already there from a version 7.4.2 or below in this case.

thanks for the faq reminder, wow, this specific faq already seemed more than 9 months ago to me, like version 6.x or so … hmmm, and again, dagger to my heart on what i miss ;-)

George Rodger

I am using Notepad++ v7.6.3 (64-bit) on Windows 10 (64-bit).

With reference to the third item in Notepad++ v7.6.3 new enhancements and bug-fixes, viz:

 "3.  List plugins in alphabetical order in Plugins Admin dialog."

which does the job perfectly, why can’t the same thing be done in the Plugins menu of Notepad++ too?

When many plugins are installed, it can be difficult to locate their respective sub-menu items when they are not listed alphabetically under Notepad++'s Plugins menu. I accept that the sub-menu for Plugin Admin might best be treated exceptionally in this regard, and I suggest that its sub-menu be separated out as the first item under the Plgins menu.