Questions regarding local plugin development with python.

[UltraInstinct05]

Hello 👋

I am trying to learn how to develop plugins for Flow Launcher using python. Using the documentation (https://www.flowlauncher.com/docs/#/py-develop-plugins), I am trying to get the example plugin to actually work locally on a Windows 11 PC.

Using Flow Launcher, I navigate to the user data folder (~/AppData/Roaming/FlowLauncher) and within the Plugins folder, I create a folder called Flow.Launcher.Plugin.HelloWorld with the following folder structure (I assume this is the method based on https://www.flowlauncher.com/docs/#/testing)

.
└── Plugins/
    └── Flow.Launcher.Plugin.HelloWorld/
        ├── main.py
        └── plugin.json

I copy the code (as outlined in https://www.flowlauncher.com/docs/#/py-write-code?id=_2-mainpy) to the main.py file.

My plugin.json file looks like

{
    "ID":"",
    "ActionKeyword":"hello_world",
    "Name":"Flow.Launcher.Plugin.HelloWorld",
    "Description":"Example Flow Launcher Plugin",
    "Author":"John Doe",
    "Version":"",
    "Language":"python",
    "Website":"",
    "IcoPath": "",
    "ExecuteFileName":"main.py"
}

At this point, I restart Flow Launcher and type hello_world, but don't see any results that matches what the plugin should have done. At this point, the documentation doesn't seem to have many details on debugging etc.

What am I missing here in order to make the example plugin work ?

[Garulf]

Hi @UltraInstinct05,

The ID field must not be blank and unique to your plugin.

A UUID4 is typically used as the ID.

[UltraInstinct05]

Hi @Garulf Thanks for the reply. What do people usually use to generate these UUID4 ?

[UltraInstinct05]

Also is there some place where the plugin errors are logged ? Like a dev console ?

[jjw24]

Hi @Garulf Thanks for the reply. What do people usually use to generate these UUID4 ?

Any online generator will be able to do so- https://www.uuidgenerator.net/version4

[jjw24]

Also is there some place where the plugin errors are logged ? Like a dev console ?

If you haven't implemented logging yourself then errors will be logged in flow's own logs. Type open logs