[Run][Plugin Manager] Support Community / non-core plugins

[dewinterjack]

Is the plugin environment the same as with Wox? The Wox.Plugin package seems to still be present. Can existing wox plugins be used? I can't drag any files into the launcher like I could with wox.

Do you have any guides or tips for creating a plugin otherwise?

[crutkas]

right now we haven't tested that path. is there a plugin you want enabled? would be good to know what some of everyone's favorites are so we can validate.

[dewinterjack]

I’m experimenting with developing my own extensions. I managed to get it working with Wox and it seems that PowerToys Run is using a very similar system. I tried compiling my extension and mimicking the other extensions by placing the folder with the other plugins C:\Program Files\PowerToys\modules\launcher\Plugins however the launcher isn't starting up.
I'm seeing this in the logs:
2020-05-19 20:44:03.4743|ERROR|PluginConfig.GetPluginMetadata|Didn't find config file <C:\Program Files\PowerToys\modules\launcher\Plugins\Wox.Plugin.TimeChecker\plugin.json>

[dewinterjack]

I could try to contribute some plugin installation support if this hasn’t been looked into yet.

[crutkas]

right now it is disabled so we can stabilize the core. Else debugging could get progressively hard if we can't account for the base with people

[addrum]

right now we haven't tested that path. is there a plugin you want enabled? would be good to know what some of everyone's favorites are so we can validate.

everything search would be the must have for me including configuring indexed locations etc (even if this is done through everything itself like the wox integration)

[ABS96]

Some of us would appreciate an instant translation plugin, like Gtranslate.

[ghost]

I personally would appreciate default browser's bookmark search. From what I remember when I was using Wox, their various bookmark search plugins were not efficient. Chromium's own omnibox is an excellent tool for bookmark searching.

[calania]

I would personally really like the ability to convert between units, for example, to convert from imperial to metric.

[drew-royster]

Lorem Ipsum Generator would be awesome

[Dhruva-Storz]

Would also be great to convert currencies

[eiis1000]

Am also hoping to see plugins soon! This would allow developers to focus more on core features and leave stuff like integrated search #3245 and translate to the plugin creators.

[gtheys]

right now it is disabled so we can stabilize the core. Else debugging could get progressively hard if we can't account for the base with people

So this means we can enable it and compile it ourselves?

[crutkas]

In theory, if the plugins go against the plugin interface, it should work. I know we may have tweaked the interface however from the wox

[Drabenstein]

I would also appreciate plugins support as I find Powertoys Run fast and well-designed but I've moved temporarily to Listary due to their extensibility, e.g. you can setup shortcut and url with placeholder {query} which is replaced so we can fast query nearly all pages like google, bing, filmweb, imdb, etc.

[dlgombert]

Devdocs or Zeal or something similar would be great.
Maybe custom web search providers

[enricogior]

Adding a reference to #5273

[gmmedia]

I would love to see Steam, Clipboard History, Youtube Query and an integration for the markdown note-taking tool Obsidian.

[CWempe]

I would like to use Kitty.
https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox.Plugin.Kitty

[Animeshz]

+1 I'd like to have a google/bing search plugin sort of g searchquery or b searchquery :)

[davidegiacometti]

Hi!
I leave here two plugins that I have created. They have very basic functionality but can be useful in someone's daily workflow.

• Search Microsoft Edge favorites: https://github.com/davidegiacometti/PowerToys-Run-EdgeFavorite
• Search GitKraken repositories: https://github.com/davidegiacometti/PowerToys-Run-GitKraken

[phone8588]

I am not a coder so seeking community help than building. Is it possible to add a custom unit conversion feature to the PowerToys Run Unit Converter plugin? Have used keypirinha-cvt plugin for many years and there is no equivalent low-code option in PowerToys to do the same. Couple links on topic from history of Cvt plugin development -

1. Custom conversions beyond in tool - https://github.com/DrorHarari/keypirinha-cvt#customizing-conversions
2. Basics of custom units - https://github.com/DrorHarari/keypirinha-cvt#adding-new-conversions-measures
3. Discussion on custom calculations with examples - 2.0 does not allow reloading of custom conversions DrorHarari/keypirinha-cvt#4

Perhaps can seek help from @DrorHarari

[Gurrrra]

I tried making a feature request, but apparently there is no plans for getting this into Run by default, so I copy/paste it into here to see if anyone would like to make it into a plugin :)
Being able to search on different sites would be a very welcome feature. Not sure if Chrome have this, but Vivaldi at least have this feature where you can set it up so if I in the address field write "yt Rickroll" (without the "") you'd search for Rickroll on Youtube, "map Paris" you'd search for Paris on google maps or "wiki super mario" you'd search for super mario on Wikipedia.
This would just be a list where you can add you're own site URL for searching with a suggestion URL and whatever abbreviation you'd want with it.
Below is a screenshot on how I've set it up in Vivaldi.

[Gurrrra]

After some scrolling through this thread I see that I'm not alone in asking for this particular functionality so getting this would make more than one person happy :)
I did some searching did find a plugin that you can search on IMDb (with suggestions) directly from Run which is awesome. Then I started to think if it would be possible to use the code from that plugin to do the same for other places as well, and maybe even expose the search URL and suggest URL directly in the plugin settings. This way it would be an easy deal to at least duplicate that plugin with different settings for each site I want to be able to search on, or maybe for a way more elegant solution just give the possibility to add more than one site with a shortcut for each directly in the plugin, just like this Vivaldi list above :)

I did have a quick peak myself in the IMDb plugin source code, but me having only dabble every so slightly in python or even programming was quite lost. So hoping someone else with a bit more skills could help out? :)

[Advaith3600]

I and many community members could not do currency conversion in Powertoys Run. I have been through other discussions which discuss this in more detail. I took the liberty to create a custom plugin that does this. It is available here: https://github.com/Advaith3600/powertoys-run-currency-converter

[hlaueriksson]

Do you have any guides or tips for creating a plugin otherwise?

I took the time to write a blog post on the subject:

• https://conductofcode.io/post/creating-custom-powertoys-run-plugins/

Creating custom PowerToys Run plugins
A step by step guide on how to create community plugins for PowerToys Run

[hlaueriksson]

I would also appreciate plugins support as I find Powertoys Run fast and well-designed but I've moved temporarily to Listary due to their extensibility, e.g. you can setup shortcut and url with placeholder {query} which is replaced so we can fast query nearly all pages like google, bing, filmweb, imdb, etc.

@Drabenstein

Being able to search on different sites would be a very welcome feature. Not sure if Chrome have this, but Vivaldi at least have this feature where you can set it up so if I in the address field write "yt Rickroll" (without the "") you'd search for Rickroll on Youtube, "map Paris" you'd search for Paris on google maps or "wiki super mario" you'd search for super mario on Wikipedia.
This would just be a list where you can add you're own site URL for searching with a suggestion URL and whatever abbreviation you'd want with it.

@Gurrrra

I created a plugin that lets you search sites with DuckDuckGo !Bangs

• https://github.com/hlaueriksson/Community.PowerToys.Run.Plugins#bang

I think it's something along the lines of what you described in your comments above.

[Daydreamer-riri]

Hey guys, I implemented "select a site to search" in my plugin. I think a lot of people need this feature.

[hlaueriksson]

@crutkas I'm wondering if it's be possible for Powertoys to create a nuget package? I think that'd be easier for 3rd party developers, since we don't really need the whole PT repo to compile, just the key dll's.

I took the matters into my own hands and created:

• https://github.com/hlaueriksson/Community.PowerToys.Run.Plugin.Dependencies

that builds and published a NuGet package to:

• https://www.nuget.org/packages/Community.PowerToys.Run.Plugin.Dependencies

I have tried this approach here:

• hlaueriksson/GEmojiSharp@9b655b2

and it builds:

• https://github.com/hlaueriksson/GEmojiSharp/actions/runs/10046536235

Example of usage in a .csproj file:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net8.0-windows</TargetFramework>
    <UseWPF>true</UseWPF>
    <Platforms>x64;ARM64</Platforms>
    <PlatformTarget>$(Platform)</PlatformTarget>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Community.PowerToys.Run.Plugin.Dependencies" Version="0.82.1" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <None Include="plugin.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
    <None Include="Images/*.png">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

[hlaueriksson]

that builds and published a NuGet package to:

• https://www.nuget.org/packages/Community.PowerToys.Run.Plugin.Dependencies

With the aforementioned NuGet package in place, I created a set of dotnet new templates that simplify creating PowerToys Run plugin projects and solutions:

• https://github.com/hlaueriksson/Community.PowerToys.Run.Plugin.Templates

Create a solution:

dotnet new ptrun-sln -o MyPlugin

Create a project:

dotnet new ptrun-proj -o Community.PowerToys.Run.Plugin.MyPlugin