Plugins not installing

Ilia Ternovich

Hello,

I’m trying to install plugins to the lastest version of Npp. Npp itself uses default installation options. Unfortunatelly after clicking install Npp asks for newstart and nothing happens. Plugins are not installed.

I have tried 86 and 64bit version -> no effect

Please advise

Keith Collyer

I am seeing the same - almost. Instead of notepad++ restarting, the notepad++ installation folder opens. Also tried both x86 and 64-bit versions.
After the cock-up with not automatically migrating trusted plugins to the new structure, now this, thinking about moving to a new editor.

pnedev

@Ilia-Ternovich ,

How do you try installing plugins? Via Notepad 7.6.6 Plugins Admin?

If so, when you agree to restart Notepad there is no indication of something happening - Notepad closes and you need to wait for it to start again. If the plugins are not installed then I guess there is some issue with your Internet connection meaning that the Notepad updater can’t reach the plugin download link. You are either behind a proxy or some firewall blocks connection …

@Keith-Collyer ,

Try completely removing Notepad++ and then making clean reinstall of the latest version (7.6.6).

Ilia Ternovich

Yes, I’m behind pac proxy. Is there any possibility to use system proxy settings?

Meta Chuh

@Ilia-Ternovich

unfortunately you have to set your proxy manually in notepad++.

first open notepad++ as administrator:
right click on your notepad++ desktop icon and choose ‘run as administrator’.
note: if you don’t have a desktop icon in windows 10, click on the windows icon, to open up the start menu, then find and right click on your notepad++ icon and select more > run as administrator.
go to the notepad++ menu ? > set updater proxy as seen at the screenshots below.

Imgur

enter your proxy ip and port, press ok. then close and re-open notepad++ for the changes to take effect.

Imgur

note: if you are behind a corporate url filter too, make sure that your firewall allows direct downloads from the urls listed >>> here <<< (mainly github and sourceforge).

best regards.

Alan Kilborn

@Meta-Chuh

Is there a way, without installing any plugins or updating N++, to test that Notepad++ has these proxy settings correct and can do something with them in the future, after you set them up? Maybe a dumb question…

Meta Chuh

@Alan-Kilborn

this is a good and important question, thanks.

yes, you can test your proxy settings:
to test the proxy settings, go to the notepad++ menu ? > update notepad++.
if the proxy settings do not work, you will get a curl error message alert window, like failed to connect to [proxy ip] port [proxy port]: timed out.

Alan Kilborn

@Meta-Chuh

if the proxy settings do not work, you will get a curl error message alert window, like failed to connect to [proxy ip] port [proxy port]: timed out

Or perhaps one like this:

Imgur

Meta Chuh

@Alan-Kilborn

yes.
this would be the worst error message, as 407 means, that the proxy requires authentication.

unfortunately proxy authentication is not supported in notepad++.

many thanks for your example.

Alan Kilborn

@Meta-Chuh said:

proxy authentication is not supported in notepad++.

So one that gets that would have to install plugins manually if they want them. Is there a concise procedure for that (install manually) to document or linkto here, since we’ve started the ball rolling in this thread for proxy problems…?

Meta Chuh

@Alan-Kilborn

Is there a concise procedure for that (install manually) to document or linkto here, since we’ve started the ball rolling in this thread for proxy problems…?

unfortunately not.
i guess none of us has had the time to make a general guide for manual plugin installations.
we currently only have our specific guides for past user requests, dealing with specific plugins.

but yes, we should do that.

Alan Kilborn

@Meta-Chuh

Well, I didn’t mean anything particularly polished. ;)

It seems like PluginsAdmin must have a list of where to go to get the plugins. Someone could visually look at the list to figure out where to go to manually get a plugin…?

As a recent arrival to 7.6.x, why is this better than the PluginManager days? (No such proxy issues back then) :)

Meta Chuh

@Alan-Kilborn

all plugin links are publicly available at the plugins admin’s json lists:

64 bit plugins: https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/nppPluginList/raw/master/src/pl.x64.json

32 bit plugins: https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/nppPluginList/raw/master/src/pl.x86.json

installation should be fairly easy, as we have the plugins > open plugins folder... menu now, but i fear that the json list itself will be too hard to read for non power users.

maybe you have an idea how we could make a general manual plugin installation guide which is simple to read, but yet suitable for newer users.

Alan Kilborn

@Meta-Chuh said:

publicly available at the plugins admin’s json lists

Ah, yes, this is what I was thinking of. Thx.

guy038

Hi, @meta-chuh, @alan-kilborn and All,

UPDATED on 05 11 2019 : Because, it’s not possible to, directly, paste multi-lines text, from browser to the N++ Replace dialog !!

Here is, below, a quick way to get two neat lists of the plugins, from the pl.x86.json and pl.x64.json files ! With regexes, of course ;-))

Start Notepad++
Disable the wrap text feature ( => un-tick the View > Word wrap option )
Open an new tab ( Ctrl + N )
Paste the appropriate json file in this new tab
Copy a normal selection of all the multi-lines search regex, below :

(?x-is)                                   #  FREE-SPACING mode, search SENSITIVE to case, DOT = a SINGLE STANDARD char, ONLY
^(  \h*  \{  |  \h*\},\h*\{  |  \}  )  |  #  [ BLANK chars ] + ( '{' or '},  {' ) or LAST '}' changed into 121 DASHES
^\h*  "npp-plugins"  .+  \r\n          |  #  Line  containing "npp-plugins" DELETED
^\h*  (  \},?  |  \]  )  \r\n          |  #  Lines containing '},' or '}' or ']', at END of line, DELETED
^\h+"  ( arch )                        |  #  BLANK chars + string '"arch'             changed into 'Architecture'
(32|64)",$                             |  #  Strings '32",' / '64",' at END of line,  changed into '32 bits' / '64 bits'
^\h+"  ( id )                          |  #  BLANK chars + string '"id'               changed into 'SHA-256'
^\h+"  ( repository )                  |  #  BLANK chars + string '"repository'       changed into 'Download'
^\h+"  (.)                             |  #  FIRST LOWER-case letter, after leading BLANK chars in UPPER-case
(":[ ]")                               |  #  String '": "' changed into 11 SPACE characters + ':' + 1 SPACE character
",?$                                      #  DOUBLE quote or string '",' , at END of line , DELETED

Now, open an second N++ new tab ( Ctrl + N )
Paste the search regex in that second tab
Do a normal selection of all this search regex, copied
Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )

=> The Search what : zone should be, automatically, filled up, with the search regex

Then, paste the single-line replace regex, below, directly, in the Replace with : zone, of the Replace dialog

(?3Architecture)(?4\4\x20bits)(?5SHA-256)(?6Download)(?7\u\7)(?8\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\:\x20)((?1-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------)

Tick, preferably, the Wrap around option
Select the Regular expression search mode
Move back on the tab, containing the json file
Click, once, on the Replace All button ( about 1s )

To end with, we just need to align the colon character, in all lines. Quite easy with this final regex S/R :

Paste the line, below, directly, in the Find what : zone

(?x-s)  ^  .{13}  \K  [ ]+  #  All CONSECUTIVE SPACE characters, after the FIRST 13th characters, are DELETED

Leave the Replace with : zone EMPTY
Click, once, on the Replace All button

Et voilà !

What’s your feeling about it ? Isn’t it more pleasant to study ?!

Best Regards,

guy038

dinkumoil

@Meta-Chuh , @Alan-Kilborn and all

I wrote a script to download a specific Notepad++ plugin.

The script displays a numbered list of all plugins available through the latest Notepad++ plugins list on GitHub. The user can select one of these plugins by entering its number to download and unpack the plugin to the hard disk.

It is possible to provide the architecture of Notepad++ and, if required, a proxy address as arguments. It is also possible to append the architecture of Notepad++ to the filename of the script, e.g. LoadNppPlugin_x86 for 32 bit Notepad++ and LoadNppPlugin_x64 for 64 bit Notepad++.

You can download a ZIP package with all required files from my >>> Script Collection Repository <<<. Also have a look at its description at the main page of the repo.

Keith Collyer

@pnedev OK, that helped, and I can now install plugins.

But it’s still not quite right. Instead of NP++ restarting, it opens the <Program FIles>/Notepad++ folder in Windows Explorer. When I manually start NP++, the selected plugins are there.

There are some I really miss, though, like TakeNotes

Meta Chuh

@Keith-Collyer

it opens the <Program FIles>/Notepad++ folder in Windows Explorer.

i’m still figuring out what could cause this.
usually updater\GUP.exe should be started at that point, but if it would be missing, the plugins admin menu gets disabled automatically, so it shouldn’t happen at all.

are you eventually using the old plugins manager, which is not compatible with newer versions, like 7.6.6, to install plugins ?

please test the following, to verify, if a clean notepad++ would restart after plugins admin installs, instead of opening explorer on your system.

download the notepad++ 7.6.6. portable version from >>> here <<<.
(the portable version does not require any installation and runs completely independent and isolated from your installed version. all custom settings, as well as any stuff you might want to try at the portable version, will not modify your installed version)
extract npp.7.6.6.bin.zip to e.g. your desktop.
important note: make sure to close all instances of notepad++ that might be running, before starting the portable version at the next step, to make sure you are using this portable version.
open the extracted npp.7.6.6.bin folder and start this portable version by double-clicking on notepad++.exe inside this folder.
(note: notepad++.exe will just be seen as notepad++, if you have enabled to hide all known file extensions at your explorer settings)
install any plugins at this portable version using plugins > plugins admin and tell us what you see.

many thanks and best regards.

Alan Kilborn

@guy038 :

Sadly I could not get your regex technique to work. Maybe I do something wrong?

I clicked @Meta-Chuh 's link for 32-bit json and my browser took me here:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/notepad-plus-plus/nppPluginList/master/src/pl.x86.json

I pressed ctrl+a (in the brower) and all the text I was seeing was highlighted. I copied it and pasted into a fresh N++ editing tab. (I see tab characters!)

I tried the Find regex you presented, exactly, and even tried removing all the extra, thus I tried this too:

(?-is)^(\h*\{|\h*\},\h*\{|\})^\h*"npp-plugins".+\r\n^\h*(\},?|\])\r\n^\h+"(arch)(32|64)",$^\h+"(id)^\h+"(repository)^\h+"(.)(":[]")",?$

but alas I got no matches found. Maybe there is something wrong with my technique. I ask you instead of diving in myself because that is a fairly ambitious regex. :)

guy038

Hi, @alan-kilborn, and All,

Did you notice that I’ve updated my previous post ? Indeed, I realized that you cannot paste, directly, multi-lignes code, from black NodeBB areas, into the Find what : of the Find/Replace dialog :-((

Practically, you need to :

Firstly, paste that multi-lines selection on a N++ new tab
Secondly, re-select that selection
Thirdly, open the Find/Replace dialog !

=> The search regex should be , automatically, filled up in the Find what : zone ;-))

Alan, concerning your one-line regex, obtained from my multi-lines regex, you just forgot all the alternation symbols (| ) of the overall regex, which are located before the # character which begins comments :-))

So the one-line version of the two regex S/R, described in my previous post, are :

First regex S/R :
- SEARCH (?-is)^(\h*\{|\h*\},\h*\{|\})|^\h*"npp-plugins".+\R|^\h*(\},?|\])\R|^\h+"(arch)|(32|64)",$|^\h+"(id)|^\h+"(repository)|^\h+"(.)|(": ")|",?$
- REPLACE (?3Architecture)(?4\4\x20bits)(?5SHA-256)(?6Download)(?7\u\7)(?8\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\:\x20)((?1-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------)
Second regex S/R :
- SEARCH (?-s)^.{13}\K\x20+
- REPLACE Leave EMPTY

Here is a reminder of the characteristics of “Free-spacing” mode (?x) :

In this mode :

All inserted space characters are NOT considered. So, when a regex must search for an effective space character, 3 solutions are possible :
- Escape each space character by the exhaust character \
- Replace each space character with the syntax [ ]
- Replace each space character with the syntax \x20
All characters placed after a 1st character #, are NOT considered. So, when a regex must search for an effective # character, 3 solutions are possible :
- Escape each # character by the exhaust character \
- Replace each # character with the syntax [#]
- Replace each # character with the syntax \x23
Finally, due to a bug in the regex BOOST version 1.5.5 library, currently used in Notepad++, each syntax \R MUST be replaced by the equivalent syntax \r\n ( or \n if you are processing Unix files )

This mode allows you to build a complex regular expression in several lines, with comments. A simple example :

(?x)    #  "Free-spacing" mode
(?-s)   #  The DOT représents a SINGLE STANDARD character, ONLY
[ ]*    #  An area, even NULL, of SPACE character(s)
\#      #  A SINGLE # character
.*      #  An area, even NULL, of STANDARD character(s)
\r\n    #  The TWO Windows EOL characters

If you select all this block to copy it into the search area leaving the replacement area empty, this regex deletes all the commented parts of a Python script !

Best Regards,

guy038