Most of the entries look like

\t\t\t{
\t\t\t"folder-name": "Linter++",
\t\t\t"display-name": "Linter++",
\t\t\t"version": "1.0.3.0",
\t\t\t"npp-compatible-versions": "[8.7.5,]",
\t\t\t"id": "F56573351010B62BFC75039725496C8687D53E82A3F47074F1F1B629A37A92C1",
\t\t\t"repository": "https://github.com/ThosRTanner/notepad-pp-linter/releases/download/1.0.3/plugin_dll_ARM64.zip",
\t\t\t"description": "Allows realtime code check against any checkstyle-compatible linter: jshint, eslint, jscs, phpcs, csslint, and many others.",
\t\t\t"author": "Tom Tanner",
\t\t\t"homepage": "https://github.com/thosrtanner/notepad-pp-linter"
\t\t\t},

So I thought i could do my updater in python, just load up the json file, modify my entry, and dump it back, then commit

One entry (just one) uses spaces instead of tabs.

So my question is is there an official layout for these files? Is any valid json permissible (all on one line for instance), or is it expected to be formatted as 1 line per key and indented with tabs?

Would converting those spaces to tabs as part of my PR be frowned upon, or should I just read the file and modify the lines appropriately?

It would also be wonderful to have another column Description that just gives the first line of the longer description that is displayed in the lower box when you click on a plugin.

Let me know if that procedure is able to work for debugging.

Yes, it works. Thank you.

I didn’t bother to examine the code to find out how it works, but apparently using a debug version of Notepad++ automatically uses the .json plugin list instead of the .dll, so the test proceeds just fine. Just to be sure, I tried changing my plugin’s hash value in the list and it flagged the mismatch, so it is validating the hash.

I don’t think that’s an unreasonably difficult procedure for plugin authors to follow (relative to the work to actually write and debug a plugin!). It’s not a big deal if updating those fixed-URL debug builds is inconvenient. It would just be good to have the procedure documented, either in the manual or in the plugin list readme (to which the manual could refer — personally, I think it makes more sense in the plug list readme).

Ideally, @donho should be updating the files at those four static URLs every time there’s a new release, because otherwise, with every release, the UserManual would have to edit those links to the new location for the debug builds.

Alternately, the User Manual could be modified to explain the procedure to find the newest debug builds of N++ and WinGup. Unfortunately, the “debug” builds don’t get put in https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/releases/latest – if they did, that would be the easy. And the Npp/WinGup releases don’t include any built files… and I don’t know if the gup4win/wingup releases (which do have the zip) are compatible with N++ plugin testing or not.

As a procedure for finding debug builds, I think this will work:

1. Go to https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/releases/latest
2. Click on the commit that goes with that release (the 7-hex-digit)
   • Example:
3. Click on the Green Checkmark on the Commit message, which will show a dropdown window
4. Scroll down to the appropriate “debug” build and click Details for Win32 (32-bit), x64 (64-bit), or ARM64 (for 64-bit ARM processors)
   • 
   • It’s actually not important which of the Details you click on – because the Summary link in the next step takes you to the same page for all the builds in this dropdown
5. On the Details page, click on the Summary
   • 
6. If it hasn’t been too long and GitHub hasn’t cleaned up the artifacts, then you can scroll to the bottom of the Summary page, and find the right Debug build for Win32, x64, or ARM64 entry in the Artifacts list and download that Artifact:
   • Notepad++.MSVC.Win32.Debug
   • Notepad++.MSVC.x64.Debug
   • Notepad++.MSVC.ARM64.Debug
7. That downloaded Artifact is, I believe, the most recent equivalent of the N++ links in the User Manual.

Let me know if that procedure, combined with grabbing the gup4win/wingup release, is able to work for debugging. If not, then @donho or someone more familiar with the plugin-testing procedure will need to chime in.

update: given how old the gup4win/wingup is, that’s probably not a good idea. Since the UM link to the assets hierarchy for wingup.release.x64.zip calls it the release rather than debug, I am wondering if it’s safe to just use the gup.exe distributed with N++ v8.6.8 when using the v8.6.8-debug notepad++.exe – I’d recommend that as your first experiment.

Test your plugins locally

That section gives links to x86 and x64 debug copies of Notepad++ version 7.8.1. The WinGup versions are 5.1.1 (current is 5.2.9). When I put them in a copy of a current (8.6.8) portable folder and try to launch, they ask if I want to download an update and when I say no, nothing launches at all.

I know I tested when I first added Columns++ to the plugins list; I think I gave up on the documented procedure and instead compiled a version of Notepad++ that I modified somehow to make it use the xml plugins list instead of the dll. So, whatever I did, it wasn’t the “right” way to do it, and I no longer remember exactly what I did.

Since then I’ve just made changes, pasted the new hashes and assumed I didn’t make any mistakes, but I thought I’d test my last update this time to be sure, and… here I am, looking a documented test procedure that doesn’t work.

The point of all this being: can the manual be updated to reflect the actual, current recommended procedure for testing, whatever that is?

(My impression was that the GitHub actions on pull requests for nppPluginList only test whether the XML is valid, not whether the new plugin’s URL is accessible and whether the content passes the hash check. Is that correct?)

If you’re stuck with 8.5.7 or something older, you can also get it directly from GitHub.

The plugin NppQrCode (v0.0.0.1) can not be installed (on x64 atleast). It gives the following error:

Also, the homepage URL in the description for the plugin is dead (I’m not allowed to post actual links, but it’s
github(dot)com/vladk1973/NppQrCode)

is causing NPP 8.4.8 to not display the menu icons.

Can you be more specific as to what “menu icons” you are talking about?

Also, how does TextFX2 get onto the Plugins Admin list of plugins? Is there something @rainman74 needs to do?

Yes. it is up to the author/maintainer of a plugin to decide whether or not to add it to Plugins Admin.

Wondering if someone might update the Plugins List to show the original is no longer compatible and add an entry for the TextFX2 and link to repo, etc. ?

Is that the responsibly of the plugin developer to add and what about the deprecation ?

I’d submit a PR, but have no idea what the appropriate notations would be.

So you’re probably doing the default build of the DEBUG version of Notepad++?

If so, that’s looking for the .json version of the the plugins list in order to determine if it should show Plugins Admin; see HERE.

As I said, since you apparently have the power, you can set a breakpoint and look at code there and see how it is looking for what/where.

I just cloned the latest notepad-plus-plus source code from git and built it successfully in VS2022

don’t have the Plugins Admin option in the Plugins menu

You didn’t ask for the smart-ass answer, but here it is: Step thru the code (in the relevant section, of course) and you should be able to see why it isn’t appearing. :-)

It seems to me like nppPluginList.dll feeds into the Plugins Admin dialog once it’s already enabled, but my issue is that I have nothing to click on to open that in the first place.

bin64/plugins

The correct path is bin64/plugins/Config/nppPluginList.dll

(For other readers of this topic who haven’t been following all conversations in the forum: this is related to a separate topic by the same user)

I’ve cloned the nppPluginList code and built it, but I’m not sure what I’m now supposed to do with the output to get the menu item to appear in notepad++. I’ve taken the nppPluginList.dll and placed it under the bin64/plugins folder for the notepad-plus-plus project but that doesn’t seem to do anything.

I think, I have managed to create a pull request to the master. Admin please evaluate whether my plugin is good enough to be inside the official Notepad++ plugins.

• you have to fork the repository (tutorial https://help.github.com/en/github/getting-started-with-github/fork-a-repo )
• add your plugin in your own forked repository, in the file src/pl.x86.json and src/pl.x68.json.
  commit and push this modification to your own forked repository
• submit this commit to the original repository aka doing a pull request (tutorial https://help.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-issues-and-pull-requests/creating-a-pull-request-from-a-fork )

“remote: Permission to notepad-plus-plus/nppPluginList.git denied to ahmoylaw.
fatal: unable to access ‘https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/nppPluginList.git/’: Failure when receiving data from the peer”

To be frank, i’m not that familiar with GitHub. What is the correct procedure to update the plugin list?

Thanks

i apologise for your inconvenience.

many thanks for your patience and best regards.

Thank you for the wonderfully bug-free and well-explained update process :-(