There are a number of callback functions which you can create in your
plugin to run code at times other than startup. The naming scheme is
-`onAction()`. For example a function which is run every time the user saves
+`onAction(view)`. For example a function which is run every time the user saves
the buffer would be:
```lua
-function onSave()
+function onSave(view)
...
return false
end
```
+The `view` variable is a reference to the view the action is being executed on.
+This is almost always the current view, which you can get with `CurView()` as well.
+
All available actions are listed in the keybindings section of the help.
These functions should also return a boolean specifying whether the view
the boolean returned specifies whether or not the action should be executed
after the lua code completes.
+Another useful callback to know about which is not a action is
+`onViewOpen(view)` which is called whenever a new view is opened and the new
+view is passed in. This is useful for setting local options based on the filetype,
+for example turning off `tabstospaces` only for Go files when they are opened.
+
---
There are a number of functions and variables that are available to you in
-oder to access the inner workings of micro. Here is a list (the type signatures
+order to access the inner workings of micro. Here is a list (the type signatures
for functions are given using Go's type system):
-* OS: variable which gives the OS micro is currently running on (this is the same
+* `OS`: variable which gives the OS micro is currently running on (this is the same
as Go's GOOS variable, so `darwin`, `windows`, `linux`, `freebsd`...)
-* tabs: a list of all the tabs currently in use
+* `configDir`: contains the path to the micro configuration files
+
+* `tabs`: a list of all the tabs currently in use
+
+* `curTab`: the index of the current tabs in the tabs list
+
+* `messenger`: lets you send messages to the user or create prompts
+
+* `NewBuffer(text, path string) *Buffer`: creates a new buffer from a given reader with a given path
+
+* `GetLeadingWhitespace() bool`: returns the leading whitespace of the given string
+
+* `IsWordChar(str string) bool`: returns whether or not the string is a 'word character'
+
+* `RuneStr(r rune) string`: returns a string containing the given rune
-* curTab: the index of the current tabs in the tabs list
+* `Loc(x, y int) Loc`: returns a new `Loc` struct
-* messenger: lets you send messages to the user or create prompts
+* `JoinPaths(dir... string) string` combines multiple directories to a full path
-* GetOption(name string): returns the value of the requested option
+* `DirectoryName(path string)` returns all but the last element of path ,typically the path's directory
-* AddOption(name string, value interface{}): sets the given option with the given
-value (`interface{}` means any type in Go).
+* `GetOption(name string)`: returns the value of the requested option
-* BindKey(key, action string): binds `key` to `action`.
+* `AddOption(name string, value interface{})`: sets the given option with the given
+ value (`interface{}` means any type in Go)
-* MakeCommand(name, function string): creates a command with `name` which will
-call `function` when executed.
+* `SetOption(option, value string)`: sets the given option to the value. This will
+ set the option globally, unless it is a local only option.
-* CurView(): returns the current view
+* `SetLocalOption(option, value string, view *View)`: sets the given option to
+ the value locally in the given buffer
-* HandleCommand(cmd string): runs the given command
+* `BindKey(key, action string)`: binds `key` to `action`
-* HandleShellCommand(shellCmd string, interactive bool): runs the given shell
-command
+* `MakeCommand(name, function string, completions ...Completion)`:
+ creates a command with `name` which will call `function` when executed.
+ Use 0 for completions to get NoCompletion.
-* JobStart(cmd string, onStdout, onStderr, onExit string, userargs ...string):
-Starts running the given shell command in the background. `onStdout` `onStderr` and `onExit`
-are callbacks to lua functions which will be called when the given actions happen
-to the background process.
-`userargs` are the arguments which will get passed to the callback functions
+* `MakeCompletion(function string)`:
+ creates a `Completion` to use with `MakeCommand`
-* JobSend(cmd *exec.Cmd, data string): send a string into the stdin of the job process
+* `CurView()`: returns the current view
-* JobStop(cmd *exec.Cmd): kill a job
+* `HandleCommand(cmd string)`: runs the given command
+
+* `HandleShellCommand(shellCmd string, interactive bool, waitToClose bool)`: runs the given shell
+ command. The `interactive` bool specifies whether the command should run in the background. The
+ `waitToClose` bool only applies if `interactive` is true and means that it should wait before
+ returning to the editor.
+
+* `ToCharPos(loc Loc, buf *Buffer) int`: returns the character position of a given x, y location
+
+* `Reload`: (Re)load everything
+
+* `ByteOffset(loc Loc, buf *Buffer) int`: exactly like `ToCharPos` except it it counts bytes instead of runes
+
+* `JobSpawn(cmdName string, cmdArgs []string, onStdout, onStderr, onExit string, userargs ...string)`:
+ Starts running the given process in the background. `onStdout` `onStderr` and `onExit`
+ are callbacks to lua functions which will be called when the given actions happen
+ to the background process.
+ `userargs` are the arguments which will get passed to the callback functions
+
+* `JobStart(cmd string, onStdout, onStderr, onExit string, userargs ...string)`:
+ Starts running the given shell command in the background. Note that the command execute
+ is first parsed by a shell when using this command. It is executed with `sh -c`.
+
+* `JobSend(cmd *exec.Cmd, data string)`: send a string into the stdin of the job process
+
+* `JobStop(cmd *exec.Cmd)`: kill a job
This may seem like a small list of available functions but some of the objects
returned by the functions have many methods. `CurView()` returns a view object
-which has all the actions which you can call. For example `CurView():Save()`.
+which has all the actions which you can call. For example `CurView():Save(false)`.
You can see the full list of possible actions in the keybindings help topic.
+The boolean on all the actions indicates whether or not the lua callbacks should
+be run. I would recommend generally sticking to false when making a plugin to
+avoid recursive problems, for example if you call `CurView():Save(true)` in `onSave()`.
+Just use `CurView():Save(false)` so that it won't call `onSave()` again.
Using the view object, you can also access the buffer associated with that view
by using `CurView().Buf`, which lets you access the `FileType`, `Path`, `Name`...
If you want a standard prompt, just use `messenger.Prompt(prompt, "", 0)`
+# Adding help files, syntax files, or colorschemes in your plugin
+
+You can use the `AddRuntimeFile(name, type, path string)` function to add various kinds of
+files to your plugin. For example, if you'd like to add a help topic to your plugin
+called `test`, you would create a `test.md` file, and call the function:
+
+```lua
+AddRuntimeFile("test", "help", "test.md")
+```
+
+Use `AddRuntimeFilesFromDirectory(name, type, dir, pattern)` to add a number of files
+to the runtime.
+To read the content of a runtime file use `ReadRuntimeFile(fileType, name string)`
+or `ListRuntimeFiles(fileType string)` for all runtime files.
+
+# Autocomplete command arguments
+
+See this example to learn how to use `MakeCompletion` and `MakeCommand`
+
+```lua
+local function StartsWith(String,Start)
+ String = String:upper()
+ Start = Start:upper()
+ return string.sub(String,1,string.len(Start))==Start
+end
+
+function complete(input)
+ local allCompletions = {"Hello", "World", "Foo", "Bar"}
+ local result = {}
+
+ for i,v in pairs(allCompletions) do
+ if StartsWith(v, input) then
+ table.insert(result, v)
+ end
+ end
+ return result
+end
+
+function foo(arg)
+ messenger:Message(arg)
+end
+
+MakeCommand("foo", "example.foo", MakeCompletion("example.complete"))
+```
+
# Default plugins
-For examples of plugins, see the default plugins `linter`, `go`, and `autoclose`.
-They are stored in Micro's github repository [here](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/tree/master/runtime/plugins).
+For examples of plugins, see the default `autoclose` and `linter` plugins
+(stored in the normal micro core repo under `runtime/plugins`) as well as
+any plugins that are stored in the official channel [here](https://github.com/micro-editor/plugin-channel).
+
+# Plugin Manager
+
+Micro also has a built in plugin manager which you can invoke with the `> plugin ...` command.
+
+For the valid commands you can use, see the `command` help topic.
+
+The manager fetches plugins from the channels (which is simply a list of plugin metadata)
+which it knows about. By default, micro only knows about the official channel which is located
+at github.com/micro-editor/plugin-channel but you can add your own third-party channels using
+the `pluginchannels` option and you can directly link third-party plugins to allow installation
+through the plugin manager with the `pluginrepos` option.
+
+If you'd like to publish a plugin you've made as an official plugin, you should upload your
+plugin online (to Github preferably) and add a `repo.json` file. This file will contain the
+metadata for your plugin. Here is an example:
+
+```json
+[{
+ "Name": "pluginname",
+ "Description": "Here is a nice concise description of my plugin",
+ "Tags": ["python", "linting"],
+ "Versions": [
+ {
+ "Version": "1.0.0",
+ "Url": "https://github.com/user/plugin/archive/v1.0.0.zip",
+ "Require": {
+ "micro": ">=1.0.3"
+ }
+ }
+ ]
+}]
+```
+
+Then open a pull request at github.com/micro-editor/plugin-channel adding a link to the
+raw `repo.json` that is in your plugin repository.
+To make updating the plugin work, the first line of your plugins lua code should contain the version of the plugin. (Like this: `VERSION = "1.0.0"`)
+Please make sure to use [semver](http://semver.org/) for versioning.