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Belle Nuit Textfilter API

On the startup, the host application Textfilter checks the "Plugins" folder, parses each file in it and adds it to the plugin menu, if the parsing is successful.

Plugins use the same language as the Script filter and are saved as simple text files.

However, plugins can also have custom parameters, like the built-in functions.Plugins do not have to take care of saving the parameter values, this is done by the host application. The parameter settings are saved with the project. If you copy a project from one computer to another, be sure to copy also the plugin, because the project only saves the parameter settings, but not the code.

When a plugin filter is executed, it receives either the whole text or a selection of it, when the host is in textmode, or a cell of the list, if the host is in list mode and if the cell is selected. This is done with the function

• gettext as string

The plugin can ask which raw or column the cell is in, with the functions

• getrow as integer
• getcolumn as integer
• getcolumnname as string

Be aware that the input function always returns a string.

The plugin can ask for the parameter values with the function

• getparameter(theparamater as string) as string

where myparameter stands for the name of the parameter.

The plugin returns the processed text with the function

• print thestring as string

Print can be called multiple times, and the string will be subesequently appended to the output.

The plugin file format

To learn how to write plugins, you best look at the sample plugins in the Plugins folder.

Plugin files are simple text files and can be edited with any text editor. The filename is not of importance.

The plugin text starts with the <plugin> tag and ends with the </plugin> tag. All text must be within this tags. Comments others than in the script sections are not allowed. You can freely format the text (add spaces, add returns) between the tags, but not inside the tags, except the script section. The strings tagged with string should not use high-bit characters (ascii-value>128) nor the characters "<",">" and "\", but html-style escape sequences (kind &uuml;).

• <plugin>allyourtext</plugin>

On the second level, three tags are needed:

• <type>string</type>
  unique internal identifier for the plugin. if this tag is used by another filter, it is likely that your filter will not be called.
• <label>string</label>
  menu label of the filter
• <pluginscript>string</pluginscript>
  the code of the plugin

and two are optional

• <key><parametercount></key><integer>numberofparameters</integer>
• <parameter>string</parameter>
  with the description of each parameter.

The parameter descriptions on depend on the class of the parameter. You can have 6 parameter classes

• tspstring
• tsplongstring
• tspboolean
• tspinteger
• tsplist

Each parameter has the tags

• <class>string</class>
  The class of the parameter
• <type>string</type>
  internal identifier for the parameter. Must be unique only within your plugin.
• <label>string</label>
  label of the parameter.

Then, each parameter can be set to a default value using tags in the type of the parameter:

• tspstring and tsplongstring
  • <key>value</key><string>mystring</string>
• tspboolean
  • <key>value</key><boolean>myboolean</boolean>
    myboolean being "true" or "false"
• tspinteger
  • <key>value</key><integer>mynumber</integer>
• tsplist
  • <key>value</key><string>line1,line2,line3</integer>
    where the lines are comma-separated

Look at the interface test plugin source code to see actual code.

Textfilter was written with REALbasic http://www.realsoftware.com

Homepage : Textfilter [ Index - API - Examples - FAQ - Maillist - Plugins - Script - Userguide - Win32 ] - Search - Sitemap

e-mail: matti@belle-nuit.com - www.belle-nuit.com - 6.1.02