BC4 Plugin API?

[swythan]

Does BC4 have a documented plugin API?

I've got a fairly advanced use case where I want to inspect the differences between two files that are themselves made up of a lot of rows, and each row is essentially an array of doubles. I'd like to show the rows as if they were files, provide custom logic for determining if the differences between rows is significant, and then have a custom UI for comparing two rows (including graphs).

I had been thinking I would need to write the whole thing myself, but then thought that maybe a BC plugin might allow me to at least reuse some of what's already there.

Conceptually it feels a bit like a custom archive format plus a custom comparison viewer (like the image comparer).

Thanks for a great product. It's been keeping me me sane for years!

[Zoë]

Additional archive types can be supported by creating a plug-in that's compatible with Total Commander's WCX "packer" plug-in architecture. The header and a whole bunch of examples are available at http://www.ghisler.com/plugins.htm.

We don't have a viewer plugin API anymore, but you can create a file format that will run an external application. In the File Formats dialog, click the [+] button and select "External format". You can have different command lines for a quick compare (from the folder compare) vs a visual one. Quick compare should return 0 for a match, 1 for a mismatch.

v2 had an api for plug-in viewers. v3 supported it, but it wasn't well integrated with either the user interface or the virtual file system, so we removed it and added the support for external applications. We haven't gotten much/any feedback on the change though, so I'll be interested to hear how it works for you.

[swythan]

OK, thanks for the info Zoe.

It was only an idea. Our optimum solution probably doesn't involve BC anyway. I was just interested in whether BC might give me a shortcut.

I'll keep the external program idea in mind as we go forward and come back here if I've got any more questions.