Plugins: adding one, and using it

A plugin is a program of its own that AutoDoc runs: it keeps going while you write, draws its own dialog or card, and can reach files, the network and other tools. AutoDB, a SQL workbench, is one.

Add one. Plugins › Add from a git URL…, then the repository's address, for example https://github.com/yongjohnlee80/autodb.

1. AutoDoc clones it and runs nothing yet.
2. It shows what it would build and what it would start, and asks: Yes, at my own risk, or No, cancel. A plugin runs as you, with your files: add only plugins you trust. Audit… first has one of your agents read the code; click its notification to come back and decide.
3. Yes builds it, and the plugin appears on the Plugins menu.

Or from the registry. Plugins › Browse the registry… lists the plugins and Lua packages the registry knows, each with its audits. Install asks the same question, and says whether the commit it would install was audited. Add from a git URL… takes a registry name too.

flowchart LR
  U[A git URL] --> C[Cloned, nothing run]
  C --> Q{You decide}
  Q -->|Yes| B[Built] --> M[On the Plugins menu]
  Q -->|No| X[Thrown away]

Three kinds.

• A dialog opens over the page; Esc closes it.
• A card docks beside the page and keeps running while hidden. AutoDB is a card: it runs the statement under your cursor, and the rows go to AutoDoc's results table. Its Turn off item on the Plugins menu stops it.
• A service has no window; it works in the background.

Its commands. Each plugin's submenu on the Plugins menu has its commands. SPC p lists the plugins with commands: give one a letter of your own with *, then press that letter to see its commands, and a command's key runs it.

Manage plugins… places a plugin (left or right, where it can go), Update… brings it to its repository's latest, asking the same question again, and Remove… deletes it.

Notifications. A plugin can say what it did, or what went wrong, as a notification in the corner. SPC h keeps the history of them all.

More: Reference, Chapter 15: Plugin Architecture & Registry, and Reference, Chapter 16: AutoDB Live SQL Workbench.