Padre::Plugin(3)

NAME
Padre::Plugin - Padre plug-in API 2.2

SYNOPSIS
  package Padre::Plugin::Foo;

  use strict;
  use base 'Padre::Plugin';

  # The plug-in name to show in the Plug-in Manager and menus
  sub plugin_name {
      'Example Plug-in';
  }

  # Declare the Padre interfaces this plug-in uses
  sub padre_interfaces {
      'Padre::Plugin'         => 0.91,
      'Padre::Document::Perl' => 0.91,
      'Padre::Wx::Main'       => 0.91,
      'Padre::DB'             => 0.91,
  }

  # The command structure to show in the Plug-ins menu
  sub menu_plugins_simple {
      my $self = shift;
      return $self->plugin_name => [
          'About'   => sub { $self->show_about },
          'Submenu' => [
              'Do Something' => sub { $self->do_something },
          ],
      ];
  }

  1;

STATIC/CLASS METHODS

  "plugin_name"
The "plugin_name" method will be called by Padre when it needs a name to display in the user interface.

The default implementation will generate a name based on the class name of the plug-in.

  "plugin_directory_share"
The "plugin_directory_share" method finds the location of the shared files directory for the plug-in, if one exists.

Returns a path string if the share directory exists, or "undef" if not.

  "plugin_directory_locale"
The plugin_directory_locale() method will be called by Padre to know where to look for your plug-in l10n catalog.

It defaults to $sharedir/locale (with $sharedir as defined by "File::ShareDir" and thus should work as is for your plug-in if you're using the "install_share" command of Module::Install. If you are using Module::Build version 0.36 and later, please use the "share_dir" new() argument.

Your plug-in catalogs should be named $plugin-$locale.po (or .mo for the compiled form) where $plugin is the class name of your plug-in with any character that are illegal in file names (on all file systems) flattened to underscores.

That is, Padre__Plugin__Vi-de.po for the German locale of "Padre::Plugin::Vi".

  "plugin_icon"
The "plugin_icon" method will be called by Padre when it needs an icon to display in the user interface. It should return a 16x16 "Wx::Bitmap" object.

The default implementation will look for an icon at the path $plugin_directory_share/icons/16x16/logo.png and load it for you.

  "padre_interfaces"
  sub padre_interfaces {
      'Padre::Plugin'         => 0.43,
      'Padre::Document::Perl' => 0.35,
      'Padre::Wx::Main'       => 0.43,
      'Padre::DB'             => 0.25,
  }

In Padre, plug-ins are permitted to make relatively deep calls into Padre's internals. This allows a lot of freedom, but comes at the cost of allowing plug-ins to damage or crash the editor.

To help compensate for any potential problems, the Plug-in Manager expects each plug-in module to define the Padre classes that the plug-in uses, and the version of Padre that the code was originally written against (for each class).

This information will be used by the Plug-in Manager to calculate whether or not the plug-in is still compatible with Padre.

The list of interfaces should be provided as a list of class/version pairs, as shown in the example.

The padre_interfaces method will be called on the class, not on the plug-in object. By default, this method returns nothing.

In future, plug-ins that do not supply compatibility information may be disabled unless the user has specifically allowed experimental plug-ins.

CONSTRUCTORS

  "new"
The new constructor takes no parameters. When a plug-in is loaded, Padre will instantiate one plug-in object for each plug-in, to provide the plug-in with a location to store any private or working data.

A default constructor is provided that creates an empty hash-based object.

INSTANCE METHODS

  "registered_documents"
  sub registered_documents {
      'application/javascript' => 'Padre::Plugin::JavaScript::Document',
      'application/json'       => 'Padre::Plugin::JavaScript::Document',
  }

The "registered_documents" method can be used by a plug-in to define document types for which the plug-in provides a document class (which is used by Padre to enable functionality beyond the level of a plain text file with simple Scintilla highlighting).

This method will be called by the Plug-in Manager and the information returned will be used to populate various internal data structures and perform various other tasks. Plug-in authors are expected to provide this information without having to know how or why Padre will use it.

This (theoretically at this point) should allow Padre to keep a document open while a plug-in is being enabled or disabled, upgrading or downgrading the document in the process.

The method call is made on the plug-in object, and returns a list of MIME type to class pairs. By default the method returns a null list, which indicates that the plug-in does not provide any document types.

  "registered_highlighters"
    sub registered_highlighters {
        'Padre::Plugin::MyPlugin::Perl' => {
            name => _T("My Highlighter"),
            mime => [ qw{
                application/x-perl
                application/x-perl6
                text/x-pod
            } ],
        },
        'Padre::Plugin::MyPlugin::C' => {
            name => _T("My Highlighter"),
            mime => [ qw{
                text/x-csrc
                text/x-c++src
                text/x-perlxs
            } ],
        },
    }

The "registered_documents" method can be used by a plug-in to define custom syntax highlighters for use with one or more MIME types.

As shown in the example above, highlighters are described as a module name and an attribute that describes a visible name for the highlighter and a reference to a list of the mime types that the highlighter should be applied to.

Defining a new syntax highlighter will automatically cause that highlighter to be used by default for the MIME type.

  "event_on_context_menu"
  sub event_on_context_menu {
    my ($self, $document, $editor, $menu, $event) = (@_);

    # create our own menu section
    $menu->AppendSeparator;

    my $item = $menu->Append( -1, _T('Mutley, do something') );
    Wx::Event::EVT_MENU(
        $self->main,
        $item,
        sub { Wx::MessageBox('sh sh sh sh', 'Mutley', Wx::OK, shift) },
    );
  }

If implemented in a plug-in, this method will be called when a context menu is about to be displayed either because the user triggered the event right in the editor window (with a right click or Shift+F10 or the context menu key) or because the "Context Menu" menu entry was selected in the "Window" menu ("Wx::CommandEvent"). The context menu object was created and populated by the Editor and then possibly augmented by the "Padre::Document" type (see "event_on_context_menu" in Padre::Document).

Parameters retrieved are the objects for the document, the editor, the context menu ("Wx::Menu") and the event.

Have a look at the implementation in Padre::Document::Perl for a more thorough example, including how to manipulate the active document.

  "plugin_enable"
The "plugin_enable" object method will be called (at an arbitrary time of Padre's choosing) to allow the plug-in object to initialise and start up the plug-in.

This may involve loading any configuration files, hooking into existing documents or editor windows, and otherwise doing anything needed to bootstrap operations.

Please note that Padre will block until this method returns, so you should attempt to complete return as quickly as possible.

Any modules that you may use should not be loaded during this phase, but should be "require"ed when they are needed, at the last moment.

Returns true if the plug-in started up successfully, or false on failure.

The default implementation does nothing, and returns true.

  "plugin_disable"
The "plugin_disable" method is called by Padre for various reasons to request the plug-in do whatever tasks are necessary to shut itself down. This also provides an opportunity to save configuration information, save caches to disk, and so on.

Most often, this will be when Padre itself is shutting down. Other uses may be when the user wishes to disable the plug-in, when the plug-in is being reloaded, or if the plug-in is about to be upgraded.

If you have any private classes other than the standard "Padre::Plugin::Foo", you should unload them as well as the plug-in may be in the process of upgrading and will want those classes freed up for use by the new version.

The recommended way of unloading your extra classes is using the built in "unload" method. Suppose you have "My::Extra::Class" and want to unload it, simply do this in "plugin_disable":

  $plugin->unload('My::Extra::Class');

The "unload" method takes care of all the tedious bits for you. Note that you should not unload any external "CPAN" dependencies, as these may be needed by other plug-ins or Padre itself. Only classes that are part of your plug-in should be unloaded.

Returns true on success, or false if the unloading process failed and your plug-in has been left in an unknown state.

  "config_read"
  my $hash = $self->config_read;
  if ( $hash ) {
      print "Loaded existing configuration\n";
  } else {
      print "No existing configuration";
  }

The "config_read" method provides access to host-specific configuration stored in a persistent location by Padre.

At this time, the configuration must be a nested, non-cyclic structure of "HASH" references, "ARRAY" references and simple scalars (the use of "undef" values is permitted) with a "HASH" reference at the root.

Returns a nested "HASH"-root structure if there is an existing saved configuration for the plug-in, or "undef" if there is no existing saved configuration for the plug-in.

  "config_write"
  $self->config_write( { foo => 'bar' } );

The "config_write" method is used to write the host-specific configuration information for the plug-in into the underlying database storage.

At this time, the configuration must be a nested, non-cyclic structure of "HASH" references, "ARRAY" references and simple scalars (the use of "undef" values is permitted) with a "HASH" reference at the root.

  "plugin_preferences"
  $plugin->plugin_preferences($wx_parent);

The "plugin_preferences" method allows a plug-in to define an entry point for the Plug-in Manager dialog to trigger to show a preferences or configuration dialog for the plug-in.

The method is passed a Wx object that should be used as the Wx parent.

  "menu_plugins_simple"
  sub menu_plugins_simple {
      'My Plug-in' => [
          Submenu  => [
              'Do Something' => sub { $self->do_something },
          ],

          # Separator
          '---' => undef,

          # Shorthand for sub { $self->show_about(@_) }
          About => 'show_about',

          # Also use keyboard shortcuts to call sub { $self->show_about(@_) }
          "Action\tCtrl+Shift+Z" => 'action',
      ];
  }

The "menu_plugins_simple" method defines a simple menu structure for your plug-in.

It returns two values, the label for the menu entry to be used in the top level Plug-ins menu, and a reference to an ARRAY containing an ordered set of key/value pairs that will be turned into menus.

If the key is a string of three hyphens (i.e. "---") the pair will be rendered as a menu separator.

If the key is a string containing a tab ("\t") and a keyboard shortcut combination the menu action will also be available through a keyboard shortcut.

If the value is a Perl identifier, it will be treated as a method name to be called on the plug-in object when the menu entry is triggered.

If the value is a reference to an ARRAY, the pair will be rendered as a sub-menu containing further menu items.

  "menu_plugins"
  sub menu_plugins {
      my $self = shift;
      my $main = shift;

      # Create a simple menu with a single About entry
      my $menu = Wx::Menu->new;
      Wx::Event::EVT_MENU(
          $main,
          $menu->Append( -1, 'About', ),
          sub { $self->show_about },
      );

      # Return it and the label for our plug-in
      return ( $self->plugin_name => $menu );

The "menu_plugins" method defines a fully-featured mechanism for building your plug-in menu.

It returns two values, the label for the menu entry to be used in the top level Plug-ins menu, and a Wx::Menu object containing the custom-built menu structure.

A default implementation of this method is provided which will call "menu_plugins_simple" and implements the expansion of the simple data into a full menu structure.

If the method return a null list, no menu entry will be created for the plug-in.

  "editor_enable"
  sub editor_enable {
      my $self     = shift;
      my $editor   = shift;
      my $document = shift;

      # Make changes to the editor here...

      return 1;
  }

The "editor_enable" method is called by Padre to provide the plug-in with an opportunity to alter the setup of the editor as it is being loaded.

This method is only triggered when new editor windows are opened. Hooking into any existing open documents must be done within the "plugin_enable" method.

The method is passed two parameters, the fully set up editor object, and the Padre::Document being opened.

At the present time, this method has been provided primarily for the use of the Padre::Plugin::Vi plug-in and other plug-ins that need deep integration with the editor widget.

  "editor_disable"
  sub editor_disable {
      my $self     = shift;
      my $editor   = shift;
      my $document = shift;

      # Undo your changes to the editor here...

  return 1;

The "editor_disable" method is the twin of the previous "editor_enable" method. It is called as the file in the editor is being closed, after the user has confirmed the file is to be closed.

It provides the plug-in with an opportunity to clean up, remove any GUI customisations, and complete any other shutdown/close processes.

The method is passed two parameters, the fully set up editor object, and the Padre::Document being closed.

At the present time, this method has been provided primarily for the use of the Padre::Plugin::Vi plug-in and other plug-ins that need deep integration with the editor widget.

  "ide"
The "ide" convenience method provides access to the root-level Padre IDE object, preventing the need to go via the global "Padre->ide" method.

  "main"
The "main" convenience method provides direct access to the Padre::Wx::Main (main window) object.

  "current"
The "current" convenience method provides a Padre::Current context object for the current plug-in.

SEE ALSO
Padre

COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2008-2013 The Padre development team as listed in Padre.pm.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl 5 itself.

The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.