This source code is helpful in building plug-ins for the MacOS 8 Contextual Menu Manager. It is too small to really be considered a "framework" if you ask me, but what else can it be succinctly named? There is a base class, PluginBase, which does a lot of the dirty work for you of parsing AE descriptor data, command item building, file grunge work, temporary files, etc. You need to create a subclass, Plugin, that does your specific work by overriding a key method or two to provide your hard work, and may override another method or two to control the basic behavior. Your Plugin object is instantiated by the PluginSOM object that is directly grappled by the SOM code that lurks in the system.
There are two sample plugins provided, and a "template" plugin that you might find useful for cloning when you want to start building a new plugin of your own. Look at the samples to see how easy it is. Also look at the detailed comments in PluginBase.h and PluginBase.cp to see the gory details on how things work. It's not tricky, so dive right in!
Requirements
The supplied projects were created in CodeWarrior 11. CW Pro should be able to convert them over.
You need to have Apple's Contextual Menu Manager SDK (header files and libraries). The projects supplied here have their include paths set to assume that the CMM headers and libraries are located in a folder called "CMM SDK" next to the other folders supplied here. You can change this, of course. The files assumed to be in the SDK folder are:
- AbstractCMPlugin
- AbstractCMPlugin.h
- ContextualMenu.h
- ContextualMenuPlugins.h
- SOMobjectsｪ for Mac OS
I know the SDK is available online through <http://devworld.apple.com/>, but as I look for it now I can't find it.
Your plugins will run only on PowerPC machines. The Contextual Menu Manager currently does not support 68K plugins. In fact, the SDK does not give you a way to build 68K plugins. I don't know of any technical reason for this limitation, only "human resource" limitations, such as "who's gonna do it?"
Licensing Information
Copyright ｩ1997 by Trygve Isaacson. All Rights Reserved.
Use this source code! Create plug-ins galore! Here are the restrictions:
Permission granted to:
- Compile this source code.
- Modify this source code, but not to remove this copyright information.
- Freely distribute the compiled object form of this source code, and any modifications you make, in your programs.
Permission NOT granted to:
- Redistribute modified versions of this source code.
You must grant me one single-user license to your plugins based on this source code, and notify me by email where to get it.
In plain English, this means that you can use this code for free, hack it to your heart's delight, and release any plug-ins you build with it, commercial or not. Just don't redistribute this source code package as if you wrote it. Let me do that. And, since you are using my work for free, the least you can do is let me be a registered owner of one copy of your plugin.
