How to make a deep link to plugin in Plugin Manager?

Scripting
1

How to make a deep link to a plugin in Plugin Manager?
e.g. @Mark’s Variable Font Preview

2

What do you mean with deep link?
Do you mean the clickable link that opens the plugin manager?

3

The URL looks like this:

glyphsapp3://installplugin/PLUGIN_NAME

where PLUGIN_NAME is the URL-encoded title (or "en" locale title, if multiple) of your plugin. You can use a tool like this one for URL encoding: https://www.urlencoder.io You can also define a custom value for PLUGIN_NAME by adding an identifier = "PLUGIN_NAME"; entry to your package definition in the package.plist file.

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4

For some reason it’s not working on my computer glyphsapp3://installplugin/Advanced%20Stroke%20Contrast%20Tool%20%E2%80%94%20LTTR%2FINK

5

Apparently there is a limit to how long the URL can be and your title slightly exceeds that. I think we can change that, but I am still unsure how the limit is used.

8

The limit was not the title length, but that it includes a slash (“LTTR/INK”), which is invalid in the internal identifier that Glyphs uses to match the plugin. Instead, an identifier must be provided manually in the packages.plist file.

I took the liberty to add the identifier lttrink, so your URL now looks like this:

glyphsapp3://installplugin/lttrink

If you want a different identifier, you can submit one on the Glyphs Packages repository.

9

@FlorianPircher excellent the link works perfectly. Thank you.

10

It might be better to use the “showplugin” command. Than the user can click the install button if they choose to do so.

11

Since this has come up again, is there any way to use a link to open up a glyph?

Even if it’s just a glyph in the currently active document. Just a new tab with the glyph, nothing more. Optionally with a master ID (or name, or index?) specified.

This would be immensely useful for integrating into Fontbakery reports, instead of rather hacky other solutions I’m currently having to use.

12

The identifier field does not seem to be documented in the repository’s readme.

13

It’s mostly used by modules, but in cases like this it can also be helpful for plugins. Looking over the readme, there are a few things that would benefit from a refresh. Expect an update in the next few days.

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14

There is also the “showplugin” URL to show the plugin an let the user click the install button themself.

15

The updated readme is now live: