Use the Wizard

Select Install Plugin from the Configure Plugins Menu (Under Options). You can either download from a mirror, or select a downloaded plugin to install from local media.

When installing, you will be asked to select which plugins are:

• Loaded By Default (These plugins will be loaded at startup. They are placed in the default index [default.idx].)
• Loaded From Index (If supported (only supported plugins will be listed here), these plugins are indexed. You can then select them from the options submenu "Load Plugin(s) From Index".)

Install From Py

If you are making your own plugin, or have the plugin files availible in unzipped format, simply locate the main plugin file (PluginName.py), and DrPython will do the rest.

Naming Convention

If you want to distribute your plugin named PluginName, make sure that:

1. All needed files are in a zip file: PluginName-Version.zip
2. The main plugin file is named: PluginName.py
3. The install script, if any, is named PluginName.py.install
4. The index file, if any, is named: PluginName.idx

The first thing you need to do is import the relevant wxWidgets modules (usually just "wx").

Next, you need to define the "Plugin" function.

DrFrame is the variable for the DrFrame in the DrPython program. It is the same variable as in DrScript.

Now you can add something to the interface simply by using the underlying code in DrPython. To bind a function to an event, there are two ways. Let's take a look at the following code.

What this code does is the following. It adds an item to the viewmenu (you can grab the menu names by looking in the DrPython source: drpython.py). DrFrame.GetNewId() makes sure a unique id number is returned. (You only need an id number if the wx Component you are adding requires one. You need one for menus).

The second step to adding a menu is to use the DrFrame function. There are two necessary steps. The first is to define a function. If this function is going to access DrFrame, it must be defined within the Plugin function (which is only called once, when the plugin is loaded).

The function you add must take one argument, event. You can name them whatever you want. For example, MenuEvent the second will hold the wx Menu Event.

Next, you must use the wxPython method Bind() to bind that function to the component you want. Consult the wxPython documentation for usage. Here is a brief summary of Bind().

Keyboard Shortcuts

To Tell DrPython to let a user access a function from keyboard shortcuts, the pop up menu, or the toolbar, you have several options. You can specify each separately (or choose only one or two methods), or you can specify all at once.

Here is a brief code example.

This will let the user add the function OnFindInFiles to keyboard shortcuts, the pop up menu, or the toolbar.

For more info on what this means for each method, see below.

To add a keyboard shortcut, you have two options. You can simply use "AddKeyEvent". It takes the following arguments.

The default for all modifier keys (Control, Shift, Alt, Meta) is 0 (do not use).

Keycodes can be tricky. For both lowercase and uppercase, use the Python function ord() plus the uppercase letter. Add Shift=1 if you want to use uppercase.

Target: Uppercase 'A'

Target: Lowercase 'a'

This will make the shortcut set in stone.

If you want to let the user configure the shortcut:

For example:

Now, you can open the customize shortcuts dialog, and select the "examplenumber2" plugin, to set the shortcut for the function "exampleFunction" you just added.

Note the use of the ShowMessage function.

Show message calls the drScrolledMessageDialog. DrFrame.ShowMessage(message, title) The drScrolledMessageDialog automatically displays a traceback if one exists.

Pop up menu

To allow the user to add to the pop up menu, use AddPluginPopUpMenuFunction.

The NameOfTheCurrentPlugin is straightforward.

This will allow the user to, via the PopUpMenu Dialog, add a Plugin Function to the PopUpMenu (with the label FunctionLabel).

Notes: If you uninstall the plugin, you have to manually remove the item from the PopUpMenu list via the PopUpMenu Dialog.

Each Plugin Item on the PopUpMenu is only loaded if that plugin is loaded. So if the plugin is loaded via index, when you load the plugin, the relevant item will show up on the PopUpMenu. Even if the plugin is not loaded, the item is on the PopUpMenu List.

Toolbar

To allow the user to add to the ToolBar, use AddPluginToolBarFunction.

This will allow the user to, via the Customize ToolBar Dialog, add a Plugin Function to the ToolBar (with the label FunctionLabel).

Notes: If you uninstall the plugin, you have to manually remove the item from the ToolBar list via the ToolBar Dialog.

Each Plugin Item on the ToolBar will be loaded no matter what, so be sure to remove the entry if you remove the plugin (if not, nothing will happen when you click the button.)

To set icons, you have two options. One is to write an install script that installs the icons onto the user's harddrive, and then adds entries for each icon into the custom icon data file in the user's DrPython preferences directory.

The other is to let the user set the icons manually.

To add entries, you can either do so manually, or use the following built in functions.

Here is an example.

Assuming you have copied the icon file to the proper location (in this case, in the plugin directory plugindir/bitmaps/24/), this will add an entry into the user's custom icon data file, so that if they have their toolbar set to 24x24, and they add the Find In Files item, it will display the "Find In Files.png" icon. This function is best called in a .install script.

RemovePluginIcon is best called in the Uninstall function, and removes the entry in question from the custom icon data file.

Note: AddPluginIcon will overwrite any entries in the custom icon data file with the same label.

Preferences

If the you want to set and load preferences in your plugin, all you have to do to edit those preferences is define a function.

This function will be called (with DrFrame as the argument) from the Options menu. You can make your own Preferences Dialog, and have it launched from this function.

About Dialog

If you want to have an About dialog, or a Help dialog, use:

This function will be called (with DrFrame as the argument) from the Help menu. You can make your own Dialog, and have it launched from this function.

DrFrame Events

DrPython defines a few wxPython events you can use in your plugins. They are:

EVT_DRPY_DOCUMENT_CHANGED

(Posted whenever the active document is changed).

EVT_DRPY_FILE_OPENING

(Posted at the start of DrFrame.OpenFile).

EVT_DRPY_FILE_OPENED

(Posted at the end of DrFrame.OpenFile).

EVT_DRPY_FILE_SAVING

(Posted at the start of DrFrame.SaveFile).

EVT_DRPY_FILE_SAVED

(Posted at the end of DrFrame.SaveFile).

EVT_DRPY_FILE_CLOSING

(Posted at the start of DrFrame.OnClose).

EVT_DRPY_FILE_CLOSED

(Posted at the end of DrFrame.OnClose).

EVT_DRPY_NEW

(Posted at the end of DrFrame.OnNew).

EVT_DRPY_NEW_PROMPT

(Posted at the end of DrFrame.OnNewPrompt).

Usage is as below:

That's it. Just bind the event to DrFrame. By default, no argument is passed to the function. (There is no need to call event.Skip()).

You can change this as follows:

This will result in CustomFunction(None).

(The last argument is a tuple of arguments to pass to the function.)

IMPORTANT: You MUST Unbind the event if the function is a member of a deleted object.

For example: If you have:

and you want to call

You MUST call DrFrame.PUnbind((DrFrame.EVT_DRPY_NEW, MyPanel.OnButtonPress) first.

DrFrame.PUnbind takes the same arguments as PBind, except you do not need the optional arguments bit.

Note: If a plugin runs code in OnNew, it is highly recommended that the plugin is loaded by default, rather than via an index. Otherwise things can be a bit complicated if multuiple documents are open when the plugin is loaded (you can always handle this in your plugin code, however).

Adding to Panels

Want to write a panel to access from the main window? Here is what the code looks like for the creation of a Panel.

So there are four steps to creating a side panel:

Get the Target Notebook Page itself, and its index,

• Create the Panel.
• Set the Notebook page's Panel
• Tell DrPython to Show the Panel.

There are several important things to note:

1. GetTargetNotebookPage takes two arguments, the position (0 = Left, 1 = Right), and (optionally) the tab text for the target notebook.

2. GetTargetNotebookPage returns the page itself (the parent of the Panel you create), and the index. The Index and the Position (Left, Right) are how you access that specific panel. In this case, the last two arguments to drSourceBrowserPanel are the position and the index.

3. You need to call the target sash window's .SetPanel method to ensure the Panel you create is sized properly.

4. You need to call ShowPanel after newly creating a panel.

5. You have two options for toggling a panel.

   1. Simply call TogglePanel(Position, Index).
   2. Call ShowPanel(Position, Index, ShowThePanel=True). (ShowThePanel is a boolean, enabled by default.).

   If you choose B, you can use IsVisible(Position, Index) to determine if the Panel is showing. In this case, if the panel is going to be shown, DrPython refreshes the Source Browser.

Here is the code for destroying the Panel.

ClosePanel(Position, Index) will destroy the panel completely, so any code after it will cause issues. This makes calling ClosePanel from code that gets called more than one (like wx.EVT_SIZE) a bad idea.

Also note that the SourceBrowser variable is set to None here. Closing a Panel does not automatically do this, so if you are using the value of variable holding the Panel in your code, be sure to set it to None before destroying the Panel itself.

The full code can be found in the SourceBrowser code in the DrPython Core.

Install Script

An install script is especially useful if you have files you want to install to a specific location on the user's hard drive (eg, bitmaps for the toolbar).

Here is an example.

Note the return statement. This determines the behaviour after your plugin install script exits. If you return True, DrPython will continue to install the plugin. This is good if you just want to install some bitmaps, but otherwise want DrPython to handle the rest.

Returning False will tell DrPython to halt the installation. This is good if you want to let the user cancel, or if you want to manually install the plugin yourself. Also note GetPluginsDirectory(). This returns the user directory where plugins are stored once they are installed.

Uninstall Script

If you want specific behaviour on uninstall, write a method in your plugin file called UnInstall.

Again, note the return. UnInstall must take a DrFrame as the only argument. If this function returns True, DrPython will continue with the rest of the uninstall process. If the function returns False, DrPython will halt the uninstall.