How to start coding for Plex?

Dev Community Dev/API Corner
1

I have gone through the Plex Plug-in Framework Documentation, Release 2.1.1. That hasn't given me any indication of how to actually begin to create a working Plex plugin.

 

Is there some "How To" documentation that shows how to create a working plugin from scratch, and how to make it run inside Plex? I haven't been able to find anything. Is coding Plex plugins a 'members only' club? :)

 

Thanks very much.

Clay

 

2

The best thing to do is to look at existing plugins for examples.  The docs can be a little out of date for some things as well.  I'd suggest browsing through some plugins in the github repository to get a feel for things, and also look at the dev blog stuff at http://dev.plexapp.com.  One of the blog articles walks you through creating a plugin:

http://devblog.plexapp.com/2011/11/16/a-beginners-guide-to-v2-1/

Coding Plex channels is not a members only club, but you definitely have to do some reading of other plugins to get a proper feel for things, and don't be afraid to ask questions, we'll try and help as much as we can.

3

And the github repo for the Plex channels:  https://github.com/plexinc-plugins

4

Thanks. I'll look at those.  I had also found this, http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/28084-plex-plugin-development-walkthrough/

That was pretty helpful, but seems a bit incomplete on actually making a working plugin. And some things weren't described, like, do you have to restart the Plex server if you make an edit to your plugin? What if your plugin will not show up in the Channels list? Things like that are important to know for those like me.

Thanks.

5

You shouldn't have to restart PMS when you make a change to your channel code, BUT ... if you change an option in the .plist file you will have to restart PMS for it to pick that up.

If your plugin doesn't show up in the channels list then it is either excluded (within the plist file) or there's a problem with the code -- missing pieces, syntax or parsing problems, etc.  In those cases check the relevant log files for the channel, PMS and the plex system log (found in the same place that all the channel logs are).

6

Thanks. Is there any sort of debugging tool or technique for building these plugins?

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