Plugin Questions
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## Plugin Questions

This section deals with questions concerning the use of jEdit's plugins. Plugins are applications that share jEdit's memory space and user interface and provide a wide variety of functions and services.

1. General plugin questions
  Q: Where can I get information on the latest available official plugins?
  Q: Where can I get information on new plugins under development?
  Q: How do I install a plugin manually, without using the Plugin Manager?
  Q: Why can't plugins be loaded dynamically (i.e. not having to restart)?
  Q: How do I write a plugin?
  Q: Is there an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) plugin for jEdit?
  Q: Is it possible to execute your application from within jedit?
  Q: Can I work with CVS under jEdit? Is there a plugin for CVS? How can I send a command from jEdit so as to use CVS from within jEdit?
  Q: Is there a debugger plugin?
  Q: Using AntFarm, how do I pass a command-line property to my build (for example, ant build -Dtarget=test)?
  Q: Any development on integrating an XSL parser? It would be great to have the possibility to do XSL + XSLT -> XHTML development in the same environment as other development.
  Q: Is there a plugin to enable opening of files across networks using SSH?

#### 1. General plugin questions

Q: Where can I get information on the latest available official plugins?
Q: Where can I get information on new plugins under development?
Q: How do I install a plugin manually, without using the Plugin Manager?
Q: Why can't plugins be loaded dynamically (i.e. not having to restart)?
Q: How do I write a plugin?
Q: Is there an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) plugin for jEdit?
Q: Is it possible to execute your application from within jedit?
Q: Can I work with CVS under jEdit? Is there a plugin for CVS? How can I send a command from jEdit so as to use CVS from within jEdit?
Q: Is there a debugger plugin?
Q: Using AntFarm, how do I pass a command-line property to my build (for example, ant build -Dtarget=test)?
Q: Any development on integrating an XSL parser? It would be great to have the possibility to do XSL + XSLT -> XHTML development in the same environment as other development.
Q: Is there a plugin to enable opening of files across networks using SSH?

Q: | Where can I get information on the latest available “official” plugins?
A: | To get a listing of the latest plugins available for downloading from jEdit Plugin Central, use the Plugin Manager feature on jEdit's Plugin menu. You can also get more detailed descriptions of the plugins from the Plugin Central web site.
Q: | Where can I get information on new plugins under development?
A: | Many plugin developers make beta versions of their plugins available for downloading on the jEdit Community web site. Check the “Plugin beta versions” section of the web site's “Downloads” area.
Q: | How do I install a plugin manually, without using the Plugin Manager?
A: | Copy the plugin's jar archive file (or files, if there are more than one) to the `/jars` subdirectory of either (a) the directory in which jEdit is installed, or (b) your user settings directory (which you can find by evaluating the BeanShell expression `jEdit.getSettingsDirectory()`.
Q: | Why can't plugins be loaded dynamically (i.e. not having to restart)?
A: | There are plans to support such a feature in jEdit 4.2, however it will likely require a different plugin API, so existing plugins will need to be updated to take advantage of it.
Q: | How do I write a plugin?

A:

Writing a plugin requires a working knowledge of Java and some familiarity with jEdit's Plugin API. There is a tutorial on plugin development in the jEdit User's Guide. The source code distribution for jEdit also includes the source for an example plugin, Quick Notepad, which is discussed in the tutorial.

To learn more about plugin development, take a look at the source code for other plugins, particularly those whose features or user interface you might use as a model. The jedit-devel mailing list and the message boards at jEdit Community are also available for specific questions.

Q: | Is there an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) plugin for jEdit?
A: | Yes. Open the Plugin Manager, then select Install plugins. You will find the IRC plugin which you can select for installation.
Q: | Is it possible to execute your application from within jedit?

A:

Yes. You can use the System shell of the Console plugin to run you application. The only limitation is that the plugin does not provide access to the application's standard input stream, so you will not be able to provide command-line input once the application is running. If the application requires such input, it will hang and you will have to terminate its process. Details are available in the help documentation for the Console plugin.

Q: | Can I work with CVS under jEdit? Is there a plugin for CVS? How can I send a command from jEdit so as to use CVS from within jEdit?
A: | GruntSpud and jEditCvs are two such plugins. Under Windows and the WinCVS Open Source package, you can specify `jedit.exe` as your default viewer and editor to automate the opening of file.
Q: | Is there a debugger plugin?
A: | A plugin based on the version 1.4 of the JSwat debugger application is currently available for download using jEdit's Plugin Manager feature. The Debugger plugin is also available.
Q: | Using AntFarm, how do I pass a command-line property to my build (for example, `ant build -Dtarget=test`)?
A: | In general, you would need to run Ant from a command line to pass specific parameters. The AntFarm plugin currently does allow you specify the target to be built from its graphical display, so the example given in the question could be run using the plugin.
Q: | Any development on integrating an XSL parser? It would be great to have the possibility to do XSL + XSLT -> XHTML development in the same environment as other development.
A: | There is currently one plugin available called XSLT. The XSLT plugin provides features for: transforming XML using XSL transformation stylesheets; evaluating XPath expressions on XML and displaying results; and indenting XML.
Q: | Is there a plugin to enable opening of files across networks using SSH?
A: | Yes, the FTP plugin privides this functionality as of version 0.5. You will need to have Java 1.4 or newer to use it. Prior versions of java can still be used with the plugin, however you will only be able to use the FTP protocol.

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