HowTo: PlugIns Communication

Thanks you very match Patrick!

PluginDependency - it's a resource statement where you'll declare the *parent* plugin's ID/name.

It was defined like this in objectmodeltypes.fh:

type PluginDependency(kPlugInDependents)
{
integer; // Feature Set Id
longint = $$CountOf(Dependents);
array Dependents {
longint; // Plug-in ID of plug-in this one is dependent on
PlatformPMString; // Name of plug-in this one is depedent on
longint; longint; // Major & minor version number of plug-in this one is dependent on
}
};

Therefore I would do it that way I'll guess:

resource PluginDependency(1)
{
kWildFS
{
kMyPluginID,
kMyPluginName,
kSDKDefPlugInMajorVersionNumber,
kSDKDefPlugInMinorVersionNumber,
}
}

HTH

Best regards

Patrick Perroud

Thank you.

Patrick:
How to declare their actual dependencies?
How to add a PluginDependency resource to the client's .fr file?

Best regards,
Leonardo

Something else - the plugin that provides the interface implementation (the provider) should be required to launch the plugin that uses the interface (the client): this is done by adding a PluginDependency resource to the client's .fr file.

The reason this is required is quite obvious I'll guess: if the provider was missing for any cause then the client would crash InDesign trying to reach the missing provider's implementation . . .

Therefore - a good practice is to require the provider plugin in order to load the client plugin by *declaring* their actual dependencies.

HTH

Best regards

Patrick Perroud

Yes, that's correct. You can use interfaces implemented by other plugins provided you have the header files. Note that there are different ways of doing this.<br /><br />Another example:<br />Suppose Plugin1 has kMyBoss with an implementation of IMyInterface. You can use this interface in Plugin2 as given below,<br /><br />InterfacePtr<IMyInterface> myInterface((IMyInterface*)::CreateObject(kMyBoss, IID_IMYINTERFACE));<br />if(myInterface)<br /> myInterface->CreateFrame(...);<br /><br />Regards,<br />Narayan

Thank you Hans-Juergen, Patrick and especially Narayan.

Narayan:
When InDesign Load a PlugIn, the interfaces that it contains can be used directly from other PlugIn. ( sharing related Interface header file ).
Is this correct?

Thanks again

Regards,
Leonardo

Another example: Suppose you have a utility interface in Plugin1 that has function CreateFrame, you can use this function in Plugin2 as given below,<br /><br />if( Utils<IMyUtils>().Exists() )<br /> Utils<IMyUtils>()->CreateFrame(...);<br /><br />Regards,<br />Narayan

I just don't know what you are exactly meaning by *function* here . . .

Assuming that plugin 1 is implementing a new command - then plugin 2 would be able to call plugin 1 command as long as this command interface is known to plugin 2 at building time.

Which is quite simple to achieve sharing related header file - assuming you are implementing both plugins indeed . . .

This is how things are working with InDesign SDK - and using a proper terminology is already a first step to a solution I'll guess . . .

HTH

Best regards

Patrick Perroud

Hello Leonardo. Please take a look at the transparencyeffect and transparencyeffectui sample of the CS2 SDK to see how to access the interfaces from a different Plug-In.

Hans-Juergen