IMPORTANT NOTE (22 Sep 2021): AVOID USING PHP FOR NEW EXTENSIONS. PHP is no longer shipped with macOS as of Monterey. Other scripting languages may well disappear in future too. I will be introducing a new extension format, based on JavaScript, in a PopClip soon.

PopClip Extensions

Document updated 22 Sep 2021. Applicable from PopClip 2021.9 (3510) onwards.

New in PopClip 2021.9

PopClip 2021.9 introduces several new fields and some other changes. Lots of these changes come from your feedback, so thanks for those of you who have got in touch. Everything should be backward compatible, so where I have made any changes PopClip still accepts old format too. This document only shows the current, recommended fields. Main highlights:

PopClip now supports SVG image files as well as allowing you to specific an image as a SF Symbols identifier or to generate an icon from up to 3 letters of text. Renamed the Image File field to Icon.
PopClip now provides an HTML and a Markdown version for all text selections, when Pass HTML is set. When the content is not HTML backed, the HTML and Markdown is generated from the selected RTF or plain text content.
The POPCLIP_HTML field is now sanitized to remove CSS, potentially unsafe tags, and to fix invalid markup. The unsanitized HTML is also available in a new field POPCLIP_RAW_HTML.
The markdown version is in the POPCLIP_MARKDOWN field.
Added POPCLIP_ACTION_IDENTIFIER field. This is passed to the action script allowing you to use the same script for multiple actions.
Added POPCLIP_FULL_TEXT field. This is always contains the full selected text in cases where POPCLIP_TEXT only contains the part of text matched by regex or requirement.
Added Option Value Labels array so that the options list can show a (localizable) display name different to the value which is passed to the extension.
Apps array is now a single App dictionary (since it turns out we hardly ever need to specify more than one app).
Removed the html requirement since all selections now come with HTML (as above).
Removed the Preseve Image Color option. PopClip now always converts the icon to monochrome.
Removed the Restore Pasteboard option. PopClip now always restores the pasteboard.
Removed the Long Running option. All extensions are now assumed to be potentially long running.

I've also made the error checking on loading an extension more robust, so if you have something like a mis-named field or the wrong type, you'll get an more specific message about what the problem is.

One more thing... there is also a brand new extension format based on JavaScript. Documentation still "to-do", watch this space!

Introduction

PopClip extensions add extra actions to PopClip.

This repository contains the documentation for making your own extensions (this readme file) as well as the source files for the extensions published on the main PopClip Extensions page.

License

All extension source files are published under the MIT License (see LICENSE) unless noted otherwise in the readme files of individual extensions.

Credits

All the extensions and documentation were created by Nick Moore, except where stated. Contributor credits may be included in a readme file with each individual extension.

Contributing

Thank you for contributing! New extensions can be contributed by pull request, as a new folder in the source folder of this repo. Alternatively simply by zip up your extension and email it to me. Contributors, please note the following:

By contributing to this repo, you agree that your contribution may be published at PopClip Extensions.
Submitting to the repo does not guarantee publication.
I may make changes to any extension submitted.
Don't worry about signing the extension. I will take care of that.

Useful Links

For an easy way to create certain types of extension with no coding necessary, check out Brett Terpstra's PopMaker app.

Here are some external "how to" guides for creating extensions:

Extension Signing

By default, PopClip will display a warning dialog when you try to install your own extension, because it is not digitally signed.

If you find this gets annoying while you are testing your work, you can turn off the warning. Run the following command at the Terminal, then Quit and restart PopClip:

defaults write com.pilotmoon.popclip LoadUnsignedExtensions -bool YES

Please be aware that PopClip extensions can contain arbitrary executable code. Be careful about the extensions you create, and be wary about loading extensions you get from someone else.

Extra Debugging Output

To help you when debugging Script extensions, PopClip can be configured to write script output and debug info to be viewed with the Console app. To enable it, run this command in Terminal:

defaults write com.pilotmoon.popclip EnableExtensionDebug -bool YES

General Overview

Types of Actions

There are five kinds of actions supported by PopClip extensions.

Action Type	Description	Example
Service	Invoke a Mac OS X Service, passing the selected text.	MakeSticky
AppleScript	Run an AppleScript, with the selected text embedded.	BBEdit
Shell Script	Run a shell script, with the selected text passed as an environment variable.	Say
URL	Open an HTTP URL, with the selected text URL-encoded and inserted.	GoogleTranslate
Keypress	Press a key combination.	Delete

Filtering

All extensions have access to the following filtering mechanisms, to help prevent them appearing when they are not useful:

Filter by matching a regular expression.
Filter by application (either include or exclude).
Filter by whether cut, copy or paste is available.
Filter by whether the text contains a URL, email address or file path.

Anatomy of a PopClip Extension

About .popclipextz files

For distribution on the PopClip Extensions page, extensions are zipped and renamed with the extension .popclipextz. You can examine an existing PopClip extension by renaming it with a .zip extension and unzipping it, to reveal a .popclipext package.

The .popclipext package

A PopClip extension consists of a property list called Config.plist, plus (optional) additional files such as the icon and any required scripts, all contained in a directory whose name ends with .popclipext. Such a directory will be treated as a package by Mac OS X. To view the contents of a package, right click it in Finder and choose 'Show Package Contents'.

If you double-click a .popclipext package, PopClip will attempt to load and install it. PopClip stores its installed extensions in ~/Library/Application Support/PopClip/Extensions/.

Here is an example package structure, using the 'Say' extension:

Say.popclipext                  -- Containing folder
   _Signature.plist             -- Signature (official Pilotmoon extensions only)
   Config.plist                 -- Main configuration file
   say.sh                       -- Script file
   speechicon.png               -- Icon file

The Config.plist

Every extension must contain a Config.plist file. This should be a text file in Apple Property List format. The plist contains information about the extension, and also defines one or more actions. You can edit plist files with a standard text editor, with Xcode, or with a dedicated plist editor such as PlistEdit Pro.

Example plist: ExampleConfig.plist.

Here is an example plist for 'Translate Tab', as viewed in Xcode:

Icons

Icons may be specified in the Icon and/or Extension Icon fields in a few different ways:

<filename>.png or <filename>.svg specifies an image file within the extension package, in either PNG or SVG format.
symbol:<symbol name> specifies an SF Symbols name, for example symbol:flame. Symbols are only available on macOS 11.0 and above.
text:<text icon specifier> instructs PopCLip to generate a text-based icon, as described below.

PNG and SVG icons should be square and monochrome. The image should be black, on a transparent background. You can use opacity to create shading. PNG icons should be at least 256x256 pixels in size.

Text based icons can up to three characters, on their own or within a square or circle. Examples:

text:A - the letter A on its own
text:(1) - the digit 1 in an outline circle
text:((本)) - the character 本 in a filled circle
text:[xyz] - the characters xyz in an outline square
text:[[!]] - the character ! in a filled square

Configuration Details

General

All key names are case sensitive.
Make sure that you set each field the correct type. A common error is to enter a number as a string type.

"String or Dictionary" type

Fields shown as "String or Dictionary" type are localizable strings. The field may be either a string or dictionary. If you supply a string, that string is always used. If you supply a dictionary mapping language codes (en, fr, zh-Hans, etc.) to a string. PopClip will display the string for the user's preferred language if possible, with fallback to the en string.

Plist Troubleshooting

Common reasons for malformed XML are:

Missing end tags
Mismatched start and end tags
Unescaped & characters (& must be encoded as &)

Config.plist Structure

The Config.plist file has the following structure.

Key	Type	Required?	Description
`Extension Identifier`	String	Required	Provide a string which uniquely identifies this extension. Use your own prefix, ideally a reverse DNS-style prefix. For example `com.example.myextension`. Do not use the prefix `com.pilotmoon.` for your own extensions.
`Extension Name`	String or Dictionary	Required	This is a display name that appears in the preferences list of extensions.
`Extension Icon`	String	Optional	See Icons. If you omit this field, the icon for the first action will be used (if any), or else no icon will be displayed.
`Extension Description`	String or Dictionary	Optional	A short, human readable description of this extension. Appears on the web site but not in the app.
`App`	Dictionary	Optional	Information about the app or website associated with this extension. You can use this field to, optionally, specify that a certain app must be present on the system for the action to work. See App Info Dictionary.
`Required OS Version`	String	Optional	Minimum version number of Mac OS X needed by this extension. For example `10.8.2`.
`Required Software Version`	Integer	Optional	Minimum version number of PopClip needed by this extension. This is the numeric version as shown in brackes in PopClip's about pane. I recommend using `3510` for new extensions based on this document.
`Actions`	Array	Required	Array of dictionaries defining the actions for this extension. See Action Dictionary.
`Options`	Array	Optional	Array of dictionaries defining the options for this extension, if any. See Option Dictionary.
`Options Title`	String or Dictionary	Optional	Title to appear at the top of the options window. Default is `Options for <extension name>`.

Action Dictionary

The action dictionary has the following structure. Exactly one of Service Name, AppleScript File, Shell Script File, URL or Key Combo should be specified. The other keys can also be placed at the top level of the config file, in which case they act as a fallback for all actions in the extension which don't supply their own value.

Key	Type	Required?	Description
`Title`	String or Dictionary	Required	Every action must have a title. The title is displayed on the action button if there is no icon. For extensions with icons, the title is displayed in the tooltip.
`Identifier`	String	Optional	A string which will be passed along in the script fields. There is no required format. The purpose of this field is to allow the script to identify which action called it, in the case that multiple actions use the same script.
`Icon`	String	Optional	See Icons. If you omit this field, the `Title` will be displayed instead.
`Service Name`	String	Required for Service actions	Exact name of the OS X service to call (as shown in the Services menu). For example, `Make Sticky`.
`AppleScript File`	String	Required for AppleScript actions	The name of the AppleScript file to use. The file must exist in the extension's package. The script must be a plain text file (save as `.applescript`, not `.scpt` - PLEASE NOTE .scpt is a different file format and will not work!) and it must be saved using UTF-8 encoding. Within the script, use `"{popclip text}"` as the placeholder for the selected text. PopCLip will to replace the placeholders with the actual text before extecuting the script. Other fields are also available: see Script Fields. See also Example AppleScript File.
`Shell Script File`	String	Required for Shell Script actions	The name of the shell script file to invoke. The file must exist in the extension's package. This will be passed as the parameter to the script interpreter. Within the script, use the environment variable `POPCLIP_TEXT` to access the selected text. Other variables are also available: see Script Fields. The current working directory will be set to the package directory. See also Example Shell Script File.
`Script Interpreter`	String	Optional	Specify the interpreter to use for the script specified in `Shell Script File`. The default is `/bin/sh` but you could use, for example, `/usr/bin/ruby`.
`URL`	String	Required for URL actions	The URL to open when the user clicks the action. Use `{popclip text}` as placeholder. For example, `http://translate.google.com/#auto%7Cauto%7C{popclip text}`. Any `&` characters must be XML-encoded as `&`.
`Key Combo`	Dictionary	Required for Keypress actions	Specify the keypress which will be generated by PopClip. See Key Code format. Key presses are delivered at the current app level, not at the OS level. This means PopClip is not able to trigger global keyboard shortcuts. So for example PopClip can trigger ⌘B for "bold" (if the app supports that) but not ⌘Tab for "switch app".
`Before`	String	Optional	String to indicate an action PopClip should take before performing the main action. See Before and After keys.
`After`	String	Optional	String to indicate an action PopClip should take after performing the main action. See Before and After keys.
`Blocked Apps`	Array	Optional	Array of bundle identifiers strings (for example `com.apple.TextEdit`) of applications. The action will not appear when text is selected in the specified app(s).
`Required Apps`	Array	Optional	Array of bundle identifiers strings of applications. If this field is present, the action will only appear when text is selected in the specified app(s). Note: This field does not make PopClip do a check to see if the app is present on the computer. For that, use the `App` field.
`Regular Expression`	String	Optional	A Regular Expression to be applied to the selected text. The action will appear only if the text matches the regex. The matching part of the text is passed to the action. The default regex is `(?s)^.{1,}$` (note that `(?s)` turns on multi-line mode). Note: There is no need to use your own regex to match URLs, email addresses or file paths. Use one of the `Requirements` keys `httpurl`, `httpurls`, `email` or `path` instead. Also be careful to avoid badly crafted regexes which never terminate against certain inputs.
`Requirements`	Array	Optional	Array consisting of zero or more of the strings listed in Requirements keys. All the requirements in the array must be satisfied. If omitted, the requirement `copy` is applied by default.
`Stay Visible`	Boolean	Optional	If `YES`, the PopClip popup will not disappear after the user clicks the action. Default is `NO`.
`Pass HTML`	Boolean	Optional	If `YES`, PopClip will attempt to capture HTML and Markdown for the selection. PopClip makes its best attempt to extract HTML, first of all from the selection's HTML source itself, if available. Failing that, it will convert any RTF text to HTML. And failing that, it will generate an HTML version of the plain text. It will then generate Markdown from the final HTML. Default is `NO`.

Requirements keys

These are the values supported by the Requirements field. Additionally, you can prefix any requirement with ! to negate it.

Value	Description
`copy`	Text must be selected, and the system Copy command must be available (that is, the Copy item in the Edit menu must not be greyed out).
`cut`	The system Cut command must be available.
`paste`	The system Paste command must be available.
`httpurl`	The text must contain exactly one web URL (http or https).
`httpurls`	The text must contain one or more web URLs.
`email`	The text must contain exactly one email address.
`path`	The text must be a local file path, and it must exist on the local file system.
`formatting`	The selected text control must support formatting.
`option-*=#`	The option named `*` must be equal to the string `#`. For example `option-fish=1` would require an option named `fish` to be set on. This mechanism allows actions to be enabled and disabled via options.

Before and After keys

Thee cut, copy and paste keys can be used in the Before field. All the values can be used in the After field.

Value	Description
`cut`	Perform system Cut command, as if user pressed ⌘X.
`copy`	Perform system Copy command, as if user pressed ⌘C.
`paste`	Perform system Paste command, as if user pressed ⌘V.
`copy-result`	Copy the text returned from the script script to the clipboard. Displays "Copied" notification.
`paste-result`	If the system Paste command is available, paste the text returned from the script, as well as copy it to the clipboard. Otherwise, copy it as in `copy-result`.
`preview-result`	Copy the result to the pasteboard and show the result to the user, truncated to 160 characters. If the system Paste command is available, the preview text can be clicked to paste it.
`show-result`	Copy the result to the pasteboard and show it to the user, truncated to 160 characters.
`show-status`	Show a tick or a 'X', depending on whether the script succeeded or not.

Option Dictionary

Options are presented to the user in a preferences window and are saved by PopClip's preferences on behalf of the extension. Each option dictionary has the following structure.

Key	Type	Required?	Description
`Option Identifier`	String	Required	Unique identifying string for this option. It must be an all-lowercase string. This field is used to pass the option to your script. (See Script Fields.)
`Option Type`	String	Required	One of the following: `string` (text box for free text entry), `boolean` (a check box) or `multiple` (pop-up box with multiple choice options).
`Option Label`	String or Dictionary	Required	Label to appear in the user interface for this option.
`Option Description`	String or Dictionary	Optional	A longer description to appear in the options UI to describe this option.
`Option Default Value`	String	Optional	For `string`, `boolean` and `multi` types, this field specifies the default value of the option.
`Option Values`	Array	Required for `multiple` type	Array of strings representing the possible values for the multiple choice option.
`Option Value Labels`	Array	Optional	Array of "human friendly" strings corresponding to the multiple choice values. This is used in the PopClip options UI, not passed to the script. If ommitted, the option values themselves are shown.

Script Fields

These strings are available in Shell Script and AppleScript extensions. Where no value is available, the field will be set to an empty string.

Shell Script Variable	AppleScript Field	Description
`POPCLIP_EXTENSION_IDENTIFIER`	`{popclip extension identifier}`	This extension's identifier.
`POPCLIP_ACTION_IDENTIFIER`	`{popclip action identifier}`	The identifier specified in the action's configuration, if any.
`POPCLIP_TEXT`	`{popclip text}`	The part of the selected plain text matching the specified regex or requirement.
`POPCLIP_FULL_TEXT`	`{popclip full text}`	The selected plain text in its entirety.
`POPCLIP_URLENCODED_TEXT`	`{popclip urlencoded text}`	URL-encoded form of the matched text.
`POPCLIP_HTML`	`{popclip html}`	Sanitized HTML for the selection. CSS is removed, potentially unsafe tags are removed and markup is corrected. (`Pass HTML` must be specified.)
`POPCLIP_RAW_HTML`	`{popclip raw html}`	The original unsanitized HTML, if available. (`Pass HTML` must be specified.)
`POPCLIP_MARKDOWN`	`{popclip markdown}`	A conversion of the HTML to Markdown. (`Pass HTML` must be specified.)
`POPCLIP_URLS`	`{popclip urls}`	Newline-separated list of web URLs that PopClip detected in the selected text.
`POPCLIP_MODIFIER_FLAGS`	`{popclip modifier flags}`	Modifier flags for the keys held down when the extension's button was clicked in PopClip. Values are as defined in Key Code format. For example, `0` for no modifiers, or `131072` if shift is held down.
`POPCLIP_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER`	`{popclip bundle identifier}`	Bundle identifier of the app the text was selected in. For example, `com.apple.Safari`.
`POPCLIP_APP_NAME`	`{popclip app name}`	Name of the app the text was selected in. For example, `Safari`.
`POPCLIP_BROWSER_TITLE`	`{popclip browser title}`	The title of the web page that the text was selected from. (Supported browsers only.)
`POPCLIP_BROWSER_URL`	`{popclip browser url}`	The URL of the web page that the text was selected from. (Supported browsers only.)
`POPCLIP_OPTION_` (all UPPERCASE)*	`{popclip option }` (all lowercase)*	One such value is generated for each option specified in `Options`, where `*` represents the `Option Identifier`. For boolean options, the value with be a string, either `0` or `1`.

App Info Dictionary

Key	Type	Required?	Description
`Name`	String	Required	Name of the app which this extension interacts with. For example `Evernote` for an Evernote extension.
`Link`	String	Required	Link to a website where the user can get the app referred to in `Name`. For example `http://evernote.com`.
`Check Installed`	Boolean	Optional	If `YES`, PopClip will check whether an app with one of the given `Bundle Identifiers` is installed when the user tries to use the extension. None is found, PopClip will show a message and a link to the website given in `Link`. Default is `NO`.
`Bundle Identifiers`	Array	Required if `Check Installed` is `YES`	Array of bundle identifiers for this app, including all application variants that work with this extension. In the simplest case there may be just one bundle ID. An app may have alternative bundle IDs for free/pro variants, an App Store version, a stand-alone version, a Setapp version, and so on. Include all the possible bundle IDs that the user might encounter.

Additional Notes

Example AppleScript File

Important: AppleScript files must be in UTF-8 plain text format. (Save as 'text' format in AppleScript editor.)

Here is an example of an AppleScript file for use in an extension (this one is for sending to Evernote):

tell application "Evernote"
	activate
	set theNote to create note with text "{popclip text}"
	open note window with theNote
end tell

Example Shell Script File

Here is an example of an shell script for use in an extension (this one is for 'Say'):

!#/bin/sh
echo $POPCLIP_TEXT | say

Shell Script Testing

While developing a script, you can test it from the command line by exporting the required variables. For example:

export POPCLIP_TEXT="my test text"
export POPCLIP_OPTION_FOO="foo"
./myscript

Script Returning Result

Scripts can return results if they specify one of the *-result keys in the Action's After field.

Scripts should indicate success or failure as follows.

Result	Shell Script	AppleScript
Success	Return status code `0`	Return without raising an error
General error. (PopClip will show an "X".)	Return status code `1`	Raise error with code `501`. Example AppleScript: `error "any text" number 501`.
Error with user's settings. (PopClip will show an "X" and pop up the extension's options UI.)	Return status code `2`	Raise error with code `502`. Example AppleScript: `error "any text" number 502`.

Here is an example of a Ruby script that could be used in a shell script extension (with the Script Interpreter set to /usr/bin/ruby) and the After key set to paste-result.

input=ENV['POPCLIP_TEXT']
# make the text ALL CAPS
print input.upcase

See also the Uppercase extension for a working example.

Key Code format

Key presses should be expressed as a dictionary with the following keys:

Key	Type	Required?	Description
`keyChar`	String	(see note below)	Character key to press. For example `A`.
`keyCode`	Number	(see note below)	Virtual key code for key to press. For example, the delete key is `51`. For help finding the code see this StackOverflow question.
`modifiers`	Number	Required	Bitmask for modifiers to press. Use `0` for no modifiers. Shift=`131072`, Control=`262144`, Option=`524288`, Command=`1048576`. Add together the values to specify multiple modifiers (see table below).

Note: Exactly one of keyChar or keyCode should be specified. Not both.

Table of modifier combinations:

Keys	Value
none	0
⇧	131072
⌃	262144
⌃⇧	393216
⌥	524288
⌥⇧	655360
⌃⌥	786432
⌃⌥⇧	917504
⌘	1048576
⇧⌘	1179648
⌃⌘	1310720
⌃⇧⌘	1441792
⌥⌘	1572864
⌥⇧⌘	1703936
⌃⌥⌘	1835008
⌃⌥⇧⌘	1966080

RalphBln/PopClip-Extensions-ForkFromOrigin