Weird... I used WinRAR, true.
However, I told it to archive it as ZIP file.

Lemme look.

okej, ive gote the sdk up and running, but how do i write plugins now? what are actionitems and actionlists and how do they make my life easyer? and what happened to SetSearchParameters method? could you please update the documentation, or at least the examples?

thanks.
s

I'm having troubles compiling, using VS2005 and the latest SDK. I've copied parts from FARRAltTab, but I get "no suitable method found to override" for SetSearchParameters and SetFeatureParamers. I loaded the template, changed the class to my name, but left the namespace alone. Then just copied some bits from FARRAltTab. It compiled when I initially opened the template ok.

I note all the examples inherit from FARRPluginBase, not FARRCSharpPluginBase, but I get more issues if I change it to the former base, suggesting the template and SDK has changed since the example code was written.

skajfes, any chance I could pls look at your source so I can figure it out?

Edt: I didn't see you post about the missing/changed SetSearchParameters method; Perhaps I need to examine the iTunes plugin more; I'm new to all of this.

Itunes plugin does use SetSearchParameters method that no longer exists (at least from what i can see) but that didn't compile for me because I don't have itunes libraries installed.

So to write a plugin I used the suplied Visual Studio template for FARR plugin project, created a new project and that's it.
Most of my plugin logic is in the classes that derive from ActionList and ActionItem.

In the class that derives from FARRCSharpPluginBase override the method SetGeneralInfoParameters to set general parameters of the plugin (plugin name, creator, icon etc.)

In the constructor of the class that derives from ActionList call the base constructor and pass it pluginBase object and regex to activate the plugin as string. Like this:

public ClipboardList(FARRCSharpPluginBase pluginBase)
: base(pluginBase, "^clip")
{
         
}


In the GetActionsCount method I fill my results into SourceList. SourceList is defined as List<ActionItem> in ActionList class that I derived from. Results are of type ActionItem (or any derived class).

Use the constructor of ActionItem derived class to initialize the item. I did a clipboard plugin so i passed it some text that I read from a file as an argument.

Override the GetDataRaw and Execute methods. In GetDataRaw you define what will be written in Path and Group variables of the result. And Execute method defines what happens when user executes an item.
You need to override the CaptionRaw property to set the Caption that is displayed in result list.

use pluginbase.ExecuteFarrCommand () method to pass commands to farr.

And that's mostly it, I hope that this isn't as confusing as I think it is.

all good questions.

let me start with pcommand.

the idea of pcommand is normally to give a way for plugins to call each other, but it can also be useful for doing a kind of callback as you suggest.  czb uses pcommand in some very clever and creative ways to do things from web pages presented to the user, since links on a web page can trigger pcommands.

as you say:

FARR will do a plugin->set_strvalue("pcommand",EXTRA_TEXT) call to the plugin. Now, how can I catch that call?

basically what happens is the EVERY plugin will receive a set_strvalue callback with ("pcommand",EXTRA_TEXT).
then the idea is that all plugins will examine the EXTRA_TEXT and decide whether they should handle it.
ONLY if a plugin wants to tell FARR that it has assumed responsibility for it will it return a TRUE, otherwise FALSE.

So lets say you wanted to implement a special callback from farr, you would give it a unique name like "skajfes_callback_doadance"
and then you would make a context menu or statusbar or web page link that was like this: "pcommand skajfes_callback_doadance:some more info here"

and then in your set_strvalue(name,value) event function that gets called by farr
you would check if name=="pcommand" and value STARTS WITH "skajfes_callback_doadance:" and if so, then the pcommand is meant for you, so you process it and return TRUE to farr.
if not, then its for some other plugin so you return false and let some other plugin try to handle it.

Thanks for the help skajfes. I've got a better idea now after look at the iTunes code some more.

I seem to need to put my code in the constructor:

public FARRTrayList(FARRCSharpPluginBase pluginBase)
            : base(pluginBase, "^tray")
        {            EnumTray.GetTrayData(out buttonData);       // populate tray data

            foreach (TrayIconData trayData in buttonData)
            {
                if (trayData.button.fsState != 8)     // only add if button is not invisible
                    SourceList.Add(new Actions.FARRTrayAction(trayData, m_TempPath));
                //if (this.Count > 10)
                //  break;
            }
}

If I put it in GetActionsCount it doesn't work. That's ok though. However, on executing a result, it does nothing except hide FARR. I have a simple MessageBox.Show() string printed at the moment (in Execute()), but the MessageBox doesn't show?

If I put it in GetActionsCount it doesn't work. That's ok though. However, on executing a result, it does nothing except hide FARR. I have a simple MessageBox.Show() string printed at the moment (in Execute()), but the MessageBox doesn't show?

Try setting the path value of every item in the result list. It doesn't matter what it is, and results wont execute unless it is set. (at least from what I have seen)

I think you should add your code that is supposed to execute every time the plugin is called in the GetActionsCount method (that's what I did). Maybe the Farr icon is not loaded because when farr is started(and your plugin with it) your plugin picks up the icon list just before FARR puts its icon in the tray.

So, every time the plugin is activated Farr calls GetActionsCount to get the number of results your plugin has to offer, so I think it is the best time to fill in the results.

Hope it helps
skajfes

Ok, still don't get why it doesn't work for me. Here is what I have:

    class FARRTrayList : ActionsList
    {
        private TrayIconData[] buttonData = null;
        static string m_TempPath = null;

        public FARRTrayList(FARRCSharpPluginBase pluginBase)
            : base(pluginBase, "^tray")
        {
            m_TempPath = Path.Combine(System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location), "Temp");
            Directory.CreateDirectory(m_TempPath);

            //SourceList.Add(new Actions.FARRTrayAction(null, m_TempPath));
            //SourceList.Add(new Actions.FARRTrayAction(this.PluginBase));
        }

        public override int GetActionsCount(string KeyKeywords)
        {
            MessageBox.Show("In GAC, m_TempPath = " + m_TempPath);
            string[] Files = Directory.GetFiles(m_TempPath);
            MessageBox.Show(Files.Length.ToString());
            foreach (string FileName in Files)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("Deleting file: " + FileName.ToString());
                File.Delete(FileName);
            }

            EnumTray.GetTrayData(out buttonData);       // populate tray data

            if (buttonData != null)
            {
                foreach (TrayIconData trayData in buttonData)
                {
                    if (trayData.button.fsState != 8)
                    {    // only add if button is not invisible
                        MessageBox.Show("Found tray app: " + trayData.Text);
                        SourceList.Add(new Actions.FARRTrayAction(trayData, m_TempPath));
                    }
                    if (SourceList.Count > 10)
                        break;
                }
                MessageBox.Show("IN GAC, with data count: " + SourceList.Count);
                return SourceList.Count;
            }

            else
            {
                MessageBox.Show("IN GAC, with no data count");
                return 0;
            }
        }
    }

It appears to work ok, but something is still not quite right. The msgboxes get called correctly. Each time the msgbox will display each tray icon's name, and count them correctly (ie, they've been added to the SourceList). If I re-execute my plugin again after loading a new tray app, it is correctly enumerated, so it is now dynamic as desired. However, still no results show, even though it is getting the data correctly. It correctly deletes any existing icons.

Edit: I should mention that this section of code:

            EnumTray.GetTrayData(out buttonData);       // populate tray data

            if (buttonData != null)
            {
                foreach (TrayIconData trayData in buttonData)
                {
                    if (trayData.button.fsState != 8)
                    {    // only add if button is not invisible
                        MessageBox.Show("Found tray app: " + trayData.Text);
                        SourceList.Add(new Actions.FARRTrayAction(trayData, m_TempPath));
                    }
                    if (SourceList.Count > 10)
                        break;
                }
                MessageBox.Show("IN GAC, with data count: " + SourceList.Count);
                return SourceList.Count;
            }

without the msgboxes of course, does work as expect when placed in the constructor, except then it is not dynamic. The results will show however, unlike when in GAC. Hopefully I'm just missing something very simple.

Still no luck. I understand what you're saying, it makes sense to have the results on the this Object, but I don't see why I should also need to populate SourceList. Anyways, whether I do or don't, it still doesn't work; again, this.Count returns the correct number of items, so it is populated correctly (I had a msgbox in there):

        public override int GetActionsCount(string KeyKeywords)
        {            
            string[] Files = Directory.GetFiles(m_TempPath);     // remove temp icon files       
            foreach (string FileName in Files)                       
                File.Delete(FileName);            

            SourceList.Clear();
            EnumTray.GetTrayData(out buttonData);       // populate tray data
            if (buttonData != null)
            {
                foreach (TrayIconData trayData in buttonData)   // fill SourceList
                {

                    if (trayData.button.fsState != 8)   // only add if button is not invisible 
                        SourceList.Add(new Actions.FARRTrayAction(trayData, m_TempPath));
                    if (SourceList.Count > 10)
                        break;
                }
                this.ClearTemporaryItems();
                foreach (Actions.FARRTrayAction item in SourceList)     // Copy SourceList to thisList
                    this.Add(item);                
                return this.Count;
            }
            else return 0;            
        }

It seems the same as your code, except I do nothing with the search keywords as I don't need to (I think). I also need to reset the SL using SourceList.Clear()

To expound on the issue:

There are two different ways that plugins can get triggered, one is by matching a plugin specified keyword on the left hand side of string.  The other is by matching a regex pattern supplied by the plugin.

The former should be used whenever appropriate since it allows FARR to be smarter about subsequent filtering;  regex should only be used when a plugin has a more advanced pattern to match.