[Plugin] Plugin Loader for SketchUp

[alexschreyer]

11/5/2010: I just updated this to version 1.2!

I finally got around to finishing this plugin. Everything should be working fine - let me know if you run into any problems.

This little tool came out of a need for having plugins available in a “locked down” computer lab setting (see http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=16029). It also provides an easy way to browse some of the web plugin repositories and then to load any plugin into SketchUp - from any location. Because I had a recurring need for keeping some developer references handy, I decided to include several reference web links as well. The image below shows the menu:

This is not a perfect "plugin management" solution. I'll leave that up to Google (or you!). It works pretty well for my needs, though. Try it out. Here's the download link:
http://www.alexschreyer.net/projects/plugin-loader-for-sketchup/

Thanks to Jim for helping me with some code! Let me know if I should add some more web links to the menu.

Cheers,
Alex

edit by remus: new version available here: http://www.alexschreyer.net/projects/plugin-loader-for-sketchup/ read the notes carefully.

[bianhai]

Thanks! Very good job!

[dylan]

Excellent work Alex and extremely useful

[pilou]

Tested!
Works like a charm!
Why with your plug no necessary to restart the prog after loading a new plugin?
That is black & white magic

Just why not a "free surf" on any Net's address
For goto Smustard.com for example? A Plugs famous place

[MALAISE]

I find it very useful and time saver.

Thanks Alex.
MALAISE

[Burkhard]

Nice one.
@Pilou there is a script from the first ruby days, called script loader. Works in the same way.Not magical You can find it at Didiers site.

[alexschreyer]

Thanks for the comments. I actually didn't know about the script_loader plugin. But you're right - the underlying load function is very simple, nothing fancy here. I like calling it "Plugin loader" though because the menu is the Plugin menu and I wanted to make it easily understandable even for the novice user.

@Pilou: I didn't include Smustard because the Sketchucation index seems to index their plugins and I wanted to keep the menu as concise as possible.

Two questions for everyone:

• Is there a way to turn on the navigation buttons in the web dialog? Apparently these are off in Windows by default.
• Does this work on the mac? I haven't tested it yet.

[Didier Bur]

Hi,

Hem hem, it seems I must update my site asap...

[alexschreyer]

Hi Didier, didn't mean to put pressure on you...

Cheers, Alex

[Jean-Franco]

Dear Alex, thank you for this very helpful plugin.
I've copied all my plugin folder on my USB key.
I've no problem with the single scripts. But if I want to load JPP plugin I've a bugslat !
The message box ask me to install progressbar.rb. But it already exists in my plugin folder.
Any idea on what could happen ?

[alexschreyer]

@jean-franco said:

The message box ask me to install progressbar.rb. But it already exists in my plugin folder.

This is a case where my loader might not work. Some (especially the more complex) plugins have dependencies that are "hardwired". It might help to have the progressbar.rb script in both locations. Dito for other standard scripts.

[renderiza]

Thank you very much!

Before this plugin I had to close & reopen my skecthup to review the changes I made to my ruby script but now I can just reload it right inside the program.

[gilles]

I'm trying to manage my plugin collection, your plugin seems to be a good way doing it.

Halas, when I choose "load plugins from folder" select any plugin in the folder, I have this report in ruby console:

load"/Volumes/USB/as_pluginloader.rb"
true
Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method as_require_all' for AS_plugin_loader:Module> /Volumes/USB/as_pluginloader.rb:164:in load_plugin_folder'
/Volumes/USB/as_pluginloader.rb:229

No plugin loaded.

[driven]

@gilles
add self. at line 143, that seems to work here... [ in a quick test at least!!! ]

  def self.as_require_all(dirname)

john