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Bundling and Installing a Plug-in

The easiest way to build a new FxPlug plug-in is to create a New Project in Xcode and use one of the FxPlug templates in the Standard Apple-Plug-ins category: FxPlug Filter, FxPlug Generator, or FxPlug Transition.

For examples of complete FxPlug plug-ins, see the directory /Developer/Examples/FxPlug.

Two Mac OS X folders are reserved for FxPlug installation. When scanning for plug-ins, host applications recursively search the folder hierarchy from these locations:

• /Library/Plug-Ins/FxPlug/

• ~/Library/Plug-Ins/FxPlug/

As you develop your plug-in and test it with the host application, you may find it convenient to perform the installation via a Copy Files build phase. Alternatively, you can create a symbolic link inside /Library/Plug-Ins/FxPlug/, pointing to the build-product directory specified in Xcode’s Project Preferences. Depending on your settings, you can create the symbolic link in the Terminal application like this:

• % ln -s ~/build/MyPlug.fxplug /Library/Plug-Ins/FxPlug/MyPlug.fxplug

In this section:

Packaging
Registration

Packaging

A completed FxPlug plug-in is packaged in a CFBundle. Each bundle contains one or more plug-ins. A bundle also contains an Info.plist property-list file that describes the plug-ins in the bundle. This description can be static or dynamic. With a static list, the plug-ins are recognized and loaded automatically; for a dynamic list, the bundle’s principal class is asked to register the plug-ins. The distinction depends on the value of a Boolean tag ProPlugDynamicRegistration in the property list. Dynamic registration incurs a plug-in scanning performance hit. So you should ordinarily use static registration. You can find more information about dynamic registration in <PluginManager/PROPlugInBundleRegistration.h>.

Registration

Before a host application can display a list of available plug-ins, it recursively scans the plug-in folders for available CFBundles that conform to the FxFilter, FxGenerator, or FxTransition protocol. Plug-in properties such as name, group name, description, and so on are specified in the bundle’s property list for statically registered plug-ins. The host application can display the list of grouped plug-ins in its UI, and allow the user to choose and apply particular plug-ins to particular tracks.

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