NotePlan Plugins

Overview

NotePlan Plugins provides an extensive API for extending default editing and task management and work across all platforms (macOS and iOS).

Each plugin command can be invoked using the NotePlan Command Bar, or by entering any of available commands directly in the editor by entering /command (NotePlan will auto update the list of possible commands as you type)

Prerequisite

The following items are required for NotePlan Plugin Development

Node 12.15 or greater
NotePlan 3.0.21 or greater
macOS Catalina 10.15.2 or greater (strongly recommend macOS Big Sur 11.x)
github gh is strongly recommended

Plugin Information

If you have an idea for a plugin, submit them here or inquire in the NotePlan Discord community's #plugin-ideas channel.

If you are a developer and want to contribute and build your plugins, see the plugin writing documentation and discuss this with other developers on Discord #plugin-dev channel. You might want to consult this good modern JavaScript tutorial.

Getting Started with Plugin Development

Step 1: Clone NotePlan Plugin Repository

Clone this repository

Step 2: Install Node (if not installed)

Make sure you have a recent version of node and npm installed (if you need to install node, brew install node is the quickest method, you can follow instructions on node website).

Step 3: Initialize Local Development Environment

Run the following commands from the root of your local GitHub repository for NotePlan/plugins.

npm install && npm run init

This will install the necessary npm dependencies and initialize your plugin working directory, including:

Configure eslint eslint (for checking code conventions)
Configure flow flow (for type checking)
Configure babel babel (a JS compiler)
Configure rollup rollup (for bundling multiple source files into a single release).

Each of these tools have their own configuration files at the root directory (e.g., .flowconfig or .eslintrc)

Note: Each of these configuration files can be overridden if needed by placing a project specific configuration file in you project plugin, however, for consistency with other NotePlan plugins, we encourage to use the defaults wherever possible.

Creating your first NotePlan Plugin

Using the NotePlan CLI, perform the following actions:

Step 1: Review List of Available Plugins

noteplan-cli plugin:info to see a list of all available commands across all existing NotePlan plugins.

Step 2: Check if your desired plugin command is available

You will need to make sure there are no duplicate plugin command names, otherwise NotePlan will activate the first matched command name noteplan-cli plugin:info --check <name> to see if your plugin command is available

Step 3: Create your plugin using NotePlan CLI Answer the prompt questions (or supply all the necessary options from command line (see noteplan-cli plugin:create --help for details)

noteplan-cli plugin:create

Step 4: Startup Auto Watch Process

npm run autowatch <your_plugin_folder> from the root directory to build your plugin as you develop so it can be tested in NotePlan.

Step 5: Start your plugin command develop and test locally

You can now develop and test your plugin locally,

Step 6: Create Pull Request (if you wish to make your plugin public)

At this point, if you would like to make your plugin available publicly, you can proceed to creating Pull Request to the NotePlan Plugin Repository (see information below)

Common Development Actions

These are the most common commands you will use while developing:

File Watcher

The default watch command npm run autowatch (without any other arguments) command will rebuild all plugins just in case shared files affect another plugin. If you want to focus autowatch on a subset of plugins, you can pass the plugin folder name to autowatch like so:

npm run autowatch

npm run autowatch from the root of your local NotePlan/plugins repository which will bundle all the files in your /src directory into single file scripts.js and will be copied from your repository directory to your Plugins folder in the running NotePlan data directory for testing.

Note: The watcher will remain running, watching the NotePlan directory and re-compile whenever changes have been made to your <your_plugin>/src JavaScript files.

npm run autowatch <your_plugin_directory>

For example, running npm run autowatch dwertheimer.TaskAutomations will perform the same watching operations for the dwertheimer.TaskAutomations plugin only.

Create Pull Request

Once you are finished editing and testing your plugin, you can submit a Pull Request to the NotePlan/plugins repository and it will be reviewed for inclusion. Once it has been approved, it will be available from NotePlan > Preferences > Plugins section, enabling it to be installed by other NotePlan users

Using NotePlan Debugger

If you need to use your IDE JavaScript Debugger This works great, but if you want to try to debug in the Javascript debugger you can use the following watching syntax:

npm run autowatch dwertheimer.TaskAutomations -- -debug

This process will bundle your code into single script.js file, but will skip the ES transpiling process. When you have completed debugging process, make sure the code has been transpiled (using npm run autowatch... process outlined above)

Frequently Used Commands

The common script you will run npm run autowatch however, you may need to use any of the following

npm run autowatch:compact a less verbose version of autowatch that might suit more experienced developers
noteplan-cli plugin:info --check <name> to check if you desired command name is in use by any other NotPlan Plugins

npm run typecheck: typecheck all javascript files with Flow. Only files with a // @flow comment are checked.
npm run fix: lint and auto-format
npm run docs: build documentation for javascript files
npm run lint: run ESlint on the entire repo
npm run lint-fix: run ESlint on the entire repo and fix whatever it can automatically fix
npm run format: auto-format all Javascript files using prettier
gh release delete <release name>: Will delete the release from the repository, so making it unavailable in NotePlan as well. (Though it won't remove it from anyone who has already downloaded it.)

Editor Setup

Use the setup guide for your preferred editor (we prefer Visual Studio Code), and then read the section on Working with Multiple Files.

Visual Studio Code (recommended)

Install VSCode Extensions

Install the following extensions for the following tools:
- flow "Flow Language Support" by flowtype
- eslint "ESLint" by Dirk Baeumer
- prettier "Prettier - Code formatter" by Prettier

Update Settings

Set prettier to be the default formatter for js files.
- You can open the Command Bar using CMD+SHIFT+P and then search for Format Document.
- When you do this, you may get asked for a formatter of choice. Choose "Prettier"
- If it asks you if this should be your default for all JS files, choose Yes.
Restart the editor to ensure the plug-ins are working.
- You should see type errors when you make those
- You should see lint errors when you format code wrong
- You should see your code get auto formatted when you save
Make sure to open this folder directly in VSCode and not the entire repo as the ESLint plug-in can be annoying about that

Sublime Text 3 and 4

Install the following extensions using Package Control
- SublimeLinter This allows various linters to work
- SublimeLinter-eslint
- SublimeLinter-flow
- jsPrettier
- Babel Syntax definitions for ES6 Javascript and React JSX extensions
Configure your packages:
- Open a .js file
- From the View menu, select Syntax → Open all with current extension as… → Babel → JavaScript (Babel)
- Open the package settings for jsPrettier and add "auto_format_on_save": true,

Linting Code

If you don't have an editor set up to lint as you code, you can run npm run test and it will give a list of problems to fix.

Using Flow

By practice, NotePlan plugins use flow for static type checking. You can get more information by referencing NotePlan Flow Guide

Using NotePlan CLI

NotePlan CLI can be used throughout your development process. For more information about available NotePlan CLI commands, you can use:

noteplan-cli <command>
or
np-cli <command>

The following commands are available:

plugin:info

Provides information about the installed NotePlan Plugins (see noteplan-cli plugin:info --help for available options)

plugin:create

Used to create new NotePlan Plugins (see noteplan-cli plugin:create --help for available options)