Folders: My Livecode, User Extensions, plugins, extensions…

[Fjord]

(MacOS Big Sur, Livecode Community Edition 9.6.2)

Hi, all !

Can anyone help me straighten up my ideas about the folders used by Livecode. Or is there a doc about these?

1. 'My Livecode': I read on the forum that the 'My Livecode' folder (created automagically in my Documents folder) can be moved somewhere else; I would like it to sit in my Livecode projects folder.
How do I tell the Livecode app where I created / moved the folder 'My Livecode'?

2. the 'Documents > My Livecode' folder contains an empty subfolder called 'Extensions'.
What is supposed to go into 'My Livecode > Extensions'? plugins? LC builder extensions? should I create a 'plugins' subfolder in 'My Livecode'?

3. in the Development app > Preferences, I reset 'All preferences to default'; then in Files & Memory, the field labelled 'Users Extensions' contains '/Users/FT/Développement/Livecode/Livecode plugins'; this is NOT a reset value, that's a folder I created some time ago; it contains a few stacks (Auto-backups.rev, GLX2, NativeSpeak…) that I bought years ago; I can NOT see these stacks in the menus of the LC app (I don't use them anyway).
Is 'extensions' the same as 'plugins'? What's supposed to go into my '/Users/FT/Développement/Livecode/Livecode plugins'? and how do I use those from the app?

4. I keep reading in the forum people talking about dropping general purpose stack in the famous 'plugins' folder and those stacks starting automatically.
Where is the 'plugins' folder supposed to be located in? where do I telle LC about that place? how do I drop stacks there so that they start automagically?

[richmond62]

On a Macintosh computer the Plugins folder is inwith the LiveCode.app thing:

LiveCode Community 9.6.3.app/Contents/Tools/Plugins

[Klaus]

Bonsoir Francois,

1. LC -> Preferences -> Files and Memory -> (At the bottom righ)t User extensions
There you can select your USER plug-in folder.

2. This folder is neccessary for WIDEGTS that you (might) install.
No real idea how these are structured.

3. Not sure about your strange default value for user extensions.
For the rest see 2.

4. See 1, that is what you are looking for.
See menu: Development -> Plugins -> Plugin settings
There you can set individually for each plugin e.g. if it starts up automatically etc.
Just take a look.

Hint:
You need to restart LC after "dropping a general purpose stack in the famous plugins folder".
LC only loads plugins at startup.


Best

Klaus

[stam]

A valid question really, as:

- Extensions (ie plugins) live in a folder inside the My livecode folder inside your Documents folder by default. You can change this in the preferences.
- However this can be called either extensions or plugins; I realised this when the default name of Extensions raised issues with plugins that were looking for a folder called Plugins. I ended up with both an extensions and plugins folder in the end.
- Plugins can be dropped in either of these and on restarting LiveCode they'll appear in the plugins menu, as mentioned by Klaus.
- Widgets are a different kettle of fish altogether, as need to be installed from Tools > Extension Manager and can't just be dropped in a folder.

This is a significant area of haziness for new users... but does pale to insignificance after a few months of use.

[Fjord]

OK, I moved my 'Documents > My Livecode' folder to some other place, named it 'User extensions', modified in the 'Preferences > Files & Memory', quit and relaunched Livecode and everything seemed all right. Thanks!

Now:
- I created a 'plugins' subfolder in the 'User extensions' folder above, as Livecode won't seem to do it by itself (!) as I would expect
- I dropped a plugin there, relaunched: it appears in the 'Development > plugins' menu; seems to be OK.

@stam:
I experimented: I now have a 'User extensions' folder with 2 subfolder 'User extensions > Extensions' and 'User extensions > Plugins'. If I drop a stack in the 'Plugins" subfolder, it will appear in the 'Development > plugins' menu. If I drop it into the 'Extensions' subfolder, it won't appear in the Menu. So both subfolder are not equivalent as I seemed to understood from your message.

Widgets are a different kettle of fish altogether, as need to be installed from Tools > Extension Manager and can't just be dropped in a folder.

Where would widgets appear? never tried to touch these...

@richmond62:
I tried and opened the app, and yes, I found some stacks that appeared in the 'Development > plugins' menu. I had been wondering where these stacks came from! So if I understand correctly, plugins can be stored EITHER in the app bundle OR in the 'User extensions > Plugins' subfolder, right? Which leads to a question: is there a difference between these? Can I drop any stack into the app bundle?

Frankly, it would be, I'll say 'nice' (but I'm thinking silently 'professional') to document all this: not really complex, but oral tradition (=forum individual help) is no match.

[stam]

Where would widgets appear? never tried to touch these...

To install a widget (i.e. built with LCB, i think there's a couple of free ones in the LiveCode store if you want to test, go to the Tools menu > Extension Manager and click on the plus sign top right; this will install it for you. They then appear in the menu Object > New Widget and in the tools palette, as opposed to plugins which you can just drop into the extension/plugins folder and which show up in the Development menu.

[jacque]

On a Macintosh computer the Plugins folder is inwith the LiveCode.app thing:

LiveCode Community 9.6.3.app/Contents/Tools/Plugins

This location is for LC extensions and plugins only, and should not be used for user additions.

The user folder can be located anywhere as long as its path is correct in LC preferences. Inside My Livecode, plugins go into a folder named Plugins. If this folder does not exist yet, you can create it. Drop your plugins in there and restart LC. Extensions are slightly different and have their own folder.

The My Livecode folder on my machine has four folders inside: Plugins, Extensions, Externals, and Resources. Mine lives in Dropbox but on Mac the default location is now in Documents (it used to be elsewhere.) Here is a lesson on how it works:
https://lessons.livecode.com/m/4071/l/2 ... ecode-ide

[Fjord]

This location is for LC extensions and plugins only, and should not be used for user additions.

OK, makes sense. Thanks