I’m guessing this is a question that’s already been asked and answered. If so, my apologies, but I didn’t find it right off hand in the forums.
While you can write Xojo plugins with C/C++, is the ability to create them using Xojo itself on the roadmap?
I copied this right from the Plugins SDK folder:
“The Plugins SDK (software development kit) is for using C/C++ to make your own plugin functions and controls for use with Xojo.
Plugins can be created for use by desktop, iOS, web and console projects.”
See Xojo “Libraries” for this.
I understand the Library portion, however as I was watching Geoff’s video on libraries and it didn’t really shed any light on the difference between a Xojo plugin (ex: ODBC Plugin) and a Library. I’m interested in using Xojo to create a Xojo IDE Plugin using Xojo.
If you don’t already know the difference between a plugin and a library, you’re only interested in some buzzwords you heard. Let’s find out what’s really going on.
Without buzzwords, without technical terms, in your own words describe
What are you trying to accomplish?
What do you want this plugin to do?
What features are you trying to add to the Xojo Framework?
“Creating an IDE plugin” is not an answer!
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I’m just reading through the Xojo blog where it says: A Library is a collection of pre-written, reusable code containing methods, classes and UI. Up until now, the way to distribute a Library for use with Xojo was to create a Plugin or to manually re-use project items across projects. Both have pros and cons.
Plugins are compiled and do not expose source code, but plugins cannot be created using Xojo itself and are typically created using C/C++ along with the Xojo Plugin SDK. Sharing project items is fine for internal projects or open-source projects, but less ideal for commercial libraries. They can be harder to manually add to a project and are recompiled along with the project, slowing the debug process.
If there is no difference, then I’m okay. I was wanting to know if there is a way to add functionality to the Xojo IDE itself. I’m experimenting. I didn’t create any buzzwords. These two terms were used in the Xojo blog and I’m wanting to know the difference. Why does ODBC and SQLite and PostgreSQL show up as “plugins” and not as “Libraries”? Is it because they are compiled C/C++?
Plugins and libraries extend the Xojo framework and don’t expose IDE functionality.
If you choose to share functionally what you want to do rather than the technology you think you need to use, we can tell you whether or not it’s possible and how it can be accomplished.
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