Xcode 4 plugin development
As far as I know there is no official way to create Xcode 4 plugins (just like there wasn't one for v3.x).
Here is an openradar on Xcode's lack of plugin support:
Please support the ability for 3rd parties to extend Xcode via a public plugin API. Aperture, Visual Studio, Eclipse, TextMate and other applications benefit from this ability. I would like to see more advanced refactorings, code analysis (think Resharper by Jetbrains) and modeling.
Please dupe this if you want plugins!
Edit: Just stumbled upon this:
Cédric Luthi: "Xcode 4 does support user-defined plugins, see CLITool-InfoPlist for an example of a working Xcode 4 plugin. You just have to add XC4Compatible (true) in the Info.plist."
https://github.com/0xced/CLITool-InfoPlist
That being said these GitHub repos might be handy, too:
Xcode4 Plugin-API Documentation (link dead)
Xcode Plugin Template (link updated)
Further more mogenerator's Xmod plugin might be a good starting point.
(Wasn't Xcode-4 compatible yet, last time I checked, though)
Best way to learn is to look at github plugin code (see long list below):
- Basically its a plugin bundle.
- No main.m No MainMenu.xib
- First class loaded by setting NSPrincipalClass in info.plist
- in its init: you register for AppKit notifications
- See the code samples
- some check the mainBundle app id to make sure this is XCode
- The XCode Editor window class is DVTSourceTextView
- Its a subclass of DVTSourceTextView :NSTextView : NSText
- so you can register to listen for its notifications for NSTextView or NSText
- such as NSTextViewWillChangeNotifyingTextViewNotification
Because its not an official standard I noticed each sample loads in different ways.
XCODE PLUGIN SAMPLES
compiled by either searching github/web for
'DVTSourceTextView'
This is the Xcode Editor window class name
or
Info-list key
'XC4Compatible'https://github.com/omz/ColorSense-for-Xcodehttps://github.com/ciaran/xcode-bracket-matcher- uses a ruby parser run as pipe!https://github.com/joshaber/WTFXcodehttps://github.com/0xced/NoLastUpgradeCheckhttp://code.google.com/p/google-toolbox-for-mac/downloads/list see GTMXcode4Pluginhttps://github.com/DeepIT/XcodeColorshttps://github.com/0xced/CLITool-InfoPlisthttps://github.com/sap-production/xcode-ide-maven-integrationhttps://github.com/ciaran/xcode-bracket-matcher
TO GET TO THE NSTextView that is the console
https://github.com/sap-production/xcode-ide-maven-integration
- (NSTextView *)findConsoleAndActivate { Class consoleTextViewClass = objc_getClass("IDEConsoleTextView"); NSTextView *console = (NSTextView *)[self findView:consoleTextViewClass inView:NSApplication.sharedApplication.mainWindow.contentView]; if (console) { NSWindow *window = NSApplication.sharedApplication.keyWindow; if ([window isKindOfClass:objc_getClass("IDEWorkspaceWindow")]) { if ([window.windowController isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"IDEWorkspaceWindowController")]) { id editorArea = [window.windowController valueForKey:@"editorArea"]; [editorArea performSelector:@selector(activateConsole:) withObject:self]; } } } return console;}
Have a look at this new plugin: https://github.com/sap-production/xcode-ide-maven-integration. Maybe you can derive some concepts for your plugin.