10 Replies Latest reply: Nov 3, 2010 4:11 PM by nope0000 RSS

    Indesign CS5 plugin not dectecting valid extension

    nope0000 Community Member

      I wrote a plugin for Indeisign CS4 with Visual Studio 2008. I then ported the code successfully to Inesign CS3.

       

      Everything is working. Yes, it is possible to develop Indesign CS3 and CS4 Plugins with visual studio 2008 whitout any problem!

       

      But then i ported the code to CS5. The code for CS is compiling successfully but when i start Indesign it alerts "adobe indesign does not recognize the xy.pln as valid plug-in. Please reinstall xy.pln."

       

      The same happens whit CS5 SDK samples i compile and copy to the plugin folder or link over the reference folder in users windows profile.

       

      This may be an IDE setting...

       

      Any suggestions?

        • 1. Re: Indesign CS5 plugin not dectecting valid extension
          Steven.. Community Member

          On Windows new to CS5 you have to copy resources folder besides the plug-in to enable multi-threaded access to resource files

          • 2. Re: Indesign CS5 plugin not dectecting valid extension
            nope0000 Community Member

            Could find the folder but not where to copy it to.

             

            Also resource folder is created for sample project but not for my own (ported) project.

             

            Where do i have to copy the resource folder and what do i have to change to get the resource folder created for my ported project?

            • 3. Re: Indesign CS5 plugin not dectecting valid extension
              Steven.. Community Member

              nope0000 wrote:

               

              Could find the folder but not where to copy it to.

              copy into the same folder s plugin

               

              nope0000 wrote:

               

              Also resource folder is created for sample project but not for my own (ported) project.

              Very hard to track.

               

              Rather use dolly from CS5 sdk to create new plug-in with your info and add files

              • 4. Re: Indesign CS5 plugin not dectecting valid extension
                nope0000 Community Member

                Thank you for your answer. I got it running.

                 

                I already tried to copy the resource folder of a sample project's plugin to the plugin folder after your first answer what didn't work because i had renamed the plugins name before. a mismatch between the plugins name and the resource folder name does result in the same error message like if the folder wasn't copyied at all.

                 

                To port a VS 2008 Project from CS4 to CS5 i had to change the following in the VS2008 project file to get the resource folder built:

                 

                Replace two entries from

                 

                ####   CS4 SDK Project File:  ####

                   <Tool
                    Name="VCPreLinkEventTool"
                    CommandLine="merge_res.cmd &quot;$(IntDir)&quot;  Projectname"
                   />

                ####   CS4 SDK Project File:  ####

                 

                with the according entry in

                 

                ####   CS5 SDK Project File:  ####

                <Tool Name="VCPreLinkEventTool" CommandLine="merge_res.cmd &#34;$(IntDir)&#34;  Projectname &amp;del /f /s &#34;$(TargetDir)($(TargetName) Resources)\&#34;*.idrc &amp; xcopy /E &#34;$(IntDir)\&#34;*.idrc &#34;$(TargetDir)($(TargetName) Resources)\&#34; /Y"/>

                ####   CS5 SDK Project File:  ####

                • 5. Re: Indesign CS5 plugin not dectecting valid extension
                  new_be Community Member

                  I followed the same below steps to plugin my Indesign plugin which was writt

                  en for cs4 to cs5.

                   

                  I got the same error that Indesign cs5 doesn't recognize the xy.pln.

                   

                  I tried changing the visual studio project file and rebuild my code in visual studio 2008.

                  I recive the following errors.

                   

                  Performing Pre-Link Event...

                  1>Bad arguments to merge_res.cmd

                  1> Usage

                  1> 1)merge_res.cmd $(IntDir) ResourceFile

                  1> 2)merge_res.cmd $(IntDir) ResourceFile CoreResourceFile

                  1>Use 1) if the platform and core resourfile names are the same.

                  1> Use 2) if they are different.

                  1> Where ResourceFile is the filename without .res

                  1> CoreResourceFile is the filename without .fres

                  1> Example: 1) merge_res.cmd $(IntDir) TableModel

                  1> 2) merge_res.cmd $(IntDir) TableModel TableModelCore

                  1>merge_res.cmd done.

                  1>The system cannot find the file specified.

                  1>Invalid parameter - /E"..\objR\MediaBin\"*.idrc

                  1>Project : error PRJ0002 : Error result 4 returned from 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe'.

                   

                   

                  Please help me out what I am doing wrong.

                   

                  Thanks

                  Ram

                  • 6. Re: Indesign CS5 plugin not dectecting valid extension
                    new_be Community Member

                    I got the resource folder to be copied.

                    Even if I copied the resources folder, I am getting the same error that xy.pln is not a valid plugin and is not recognized by Indesign cs5.

                     

                    Can you please guide me what wrong i have done?

                     

                    I had written my plugin using visual studio 2005 for cs4.

                     

                    For cs5, I recompiled the code with visual syudio 2008 and made necessary changes to get the resources folder.

                    • 7. Re: Indesign CS5 plugin not dectecting valid extension
                      Peter Schülke Community Member

                      I just produced that very same error after moving the expanded folder from my zip file, which I generated from the resource folder. I opened the installed resource folder and noticed that it contains a second folder, which contains the resourefolders. As a Mac user I did not expect winzip to generate a base folder conatining the original contents at zip time. After moving the contained resource folder from the unzipped archiv into plugins instead of the unzipped base folder all worked well.

                       

                      Could you've been trapped by this behaviour of winzip too?

                      • 8. Re: Indesign CS5 plugin not dectecting valid extension
                        new_be Community Member

                        When I compiled my plugin code with visual studio 2008

                        , I got the resources folder copied to my InDesign installation directory

                        but while starting the application i still recieve the same error.

                         

                        Am I missing anyotherthing?

                        • 9. Re: Indesign CS5 plugin not dectecting valid extension
                          new_be Community Member

                          This is what below I get after all my source files are compiled.

                          I have made changes to the Pre-link event configuration.

                           

                          Performing Pre-Link Event...

                          1>merge_res.cmd - calling ConcatRes

                          1> 1 file(s) copied.

                          1>Error: not a res file

                          1>Usage: ConcatRes <main res file> <res file to concat>

                          1>merge_res.cmd done.

                          1>The system cannot find the file specified.

                           

                          After this I get some 13 resources folder generated. But still the plug-in doesn't load. I am working with windows, later I have to do with MAC.

                          Any guess what could have been wrong.

                          Please suggest me. Any help will be great.

                           

                          Thanks

                          • 10. Re: Indesign CS5 plugin not dectecting valid extension
                            nope0000 Community Member

                            there is a post somewhere in this forum where someone told thad copying project folders and rewriting project files is very hard.

                             

                            it worked for me and i didn't found it a hard or time consuming task, however, if you don't get it to work that way, you may wan't to take the official way to not loose time.

                             

                            btw, i have no idea about the other way, i like clear text, what project files in fact are.....