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

dinkumoil · Nov 14, 2018, 1:32 PM

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 · Nov 14, 2018, 1:37 PM

@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 · Nov 14, 2018, 2:08 PM

@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 · Nov 14, 2018, 2:20 PM

@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 · Nov 14, 2018, 3:03 PM

@Meta-Chuh

Now it´s all OK!
Thank you for help!

Chris Hult · Nov 20, 2018, 10:12 PM

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 · Nov 29, 2018, 11:46 AM

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 · Nov 29, 2018, 12:17 PM

@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 · Nov 30, 2018, 6:49 PM

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 · Nov 30, 2018, 6:51 PM

@MrSimurq

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

Michael Grohol · Dec 3, 2018, 6:00 AM

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 · Dec 7, 2018, 8:28 PM

@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 · Jan 21, 2019, 1:54 AM

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 · Jan 21, 2019, 9:06 AM

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 · Jan 23, 2019, 6:29 PM

@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 · Jan 23, 2019, 9:04 PM

@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 · Feb 23, 2019, 4:05 PM

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.

Meta Chuh · Feb 23, 2019, 5:03 PM

welcome to the notepad++ community, @George-Rodger

why can’t the same thing be done in the Plugins menu of Notepad++ too?

yes, you are absolutely correct, and there’s a simple reason for that:

if you have a look at your %ProgramFiles%\Notepad++\plugins folder, you will notice, that the alphabetical order you see here is exactly the same order you will see at your plugins menu, albeit some plugin developers used different names as menu item, not matching their plugin folder names … and thats the culprit.

now if you install eg. the snippets plugin, you will notice, that it’s developer has used the hard-coded name “Snippets” at the menu, but renamed it to NppSnippets for it’s files.

so this plugin will be correctly sorted at your folder, but as notepad++ relies on the actual file names for sorting, because it needs to read all plugins sequencially at startup, you will have the snippets plugin somewhere close to other plugins starting with an “n”.

unfortunately those plugins, where the plugin’s developer does not stay with one of his naming conventions, will rely on the author, to fix this and use the same names for files and plugin menu entry, instead of using different, alternating names within the same plugin.

workaround:
if you want to keep those “true name - identity crisis” plugins ;-) you can rename the folders and the dll within this folder, to their matching plugins menu name, and you will see them in a more logical, alphabetic order.
(eg, rename the NppSnippets folder and it’s containing NppSnippets.dll to Snippets and Snippets.dll, as this is the same name it’s aouthor has used for the menu entry)

note: there is one exception at your folder view, compared to your notepad++ plugins menu, if this is of interest to you:
if you have customize toolbar installed, it will be at the bottom of your plugins menu, but on top of your folder listing, due to the preceeding _ underscore character.
this _ character is used by notepad++, to load this plugin as last plugin, as customize toolbar can only customize the toolbar for plugins that are loaded in advance, before customize toolbar itself has been loaded.

George Rodger · Feb 24, 2019, 1:51 AM

@Meta-Chuh : Thanks for your reply, but I remain confused.

@Meta-Chuh said:

if you have a look at your %ProgramFiles%\Notepad++\plugins folder, you will notice, that the alphabetical order you see here is exactly the same order you will see at your plugins menu, albeit some plugin developers used different names as menu item, not matching their plugin folder names … and that’s the culprit.

Well, my %ProgramFiles%\Notepad++\plugins folder contains only three sub-folders, as follows:

“API” which contains 25 files with .xml extension
“config” which contains an empty “Hunspell” sub-folder
“disabled” which is empty

Any further ideas?

George Rodger · Feb 24, 2019, 2:52 AM

@donho

@Meta-Chuh said:

workaround:
… you can rename the folders and the dll within this folder, to their matching plugins menu name, and you will see them in a more logical, alphabetic order.

@Meta-Chuh
Will I have to perform this renaming routine following every version update of the relevant plugins?