Custom plugins folder

Feature Requests
1

Id really love to be able to specify (or even hardcode) a custom/user plugin folder that is separate from ‘supplied’ metamodule-plugins folder.

basically, MM would load plugins from both folders.
(custom folder takes preference if there is a clash)

issue :

so now, MM has so many plugins - I’d guess we are all have the same update procedure
a) download new firmware and all_plugins.
b) delete firmware and plugin folders, to ensure ‘clean’ MM
c) unzip, drag over folders from download
d) boot mm, update firmware

note: I cannot just ‘overwrite’ in (b), as version number of plugin file may change, so you’d have stale files.

step (b) means I lose anything that is not released in all_plugins.

use-case / my issue
I have various ‘custom plugins’, that aren’t in all_plugins, and likely never will be.

step (b), means I have to copy them across again.tbc, its not a huge issue… just an extra step.

But also, I’d prefer if these plugins were in a separate folder anyway, for organisation etc.
as, I kind of view ‘all-plugins’ as factory/supported modules, not strictly true but you can see where Im coming from.

Im sure its not a feature many will use…
I see 3 possible use-cases

  • users testing beta / test versions of plugins
  • plugins that are ‘released’ outside of all_plugins for whatever reason ( * )
  • devs :slight_smile:

( * ) I could see my Erae plugin being released as simple github download, simply because 99% of users have zero use for it, as they don’t own Erae hardware :wink:

1 Like
2

There’s an undocumented feature that you can put .mmplugin files in the root directory of the SD card or USB drive, and it’ll find them. Not as clean as using a custom folder, but it works already.

I can add a second dir to scan, too. Maybe mm-plugins/?

There’s already a triaging that happens since it can find multiple copies of a plugin on an SD card and on a USB drive, so it checks versions and sorts newest->oldest. Having another dir to scan would fit right into this.

1 Like
3

oh, thats cool…

Im ok, with root directory., but yeah 2nd one might be cleaner.

Id probably go for something quite obvious for a name mm-plugins, I think for new users would be confusing… do I use mm-plugins or plugins, they might think they are synonymous.

perhaps user-plugins?

some users, might be familiar that computers, have user and system directories for things like libs, plugins etc.
he ‘overriding’ nature is not obvious, but also not totally unfamiliar.

4

I just pushed a change to scan “user-plugins/” as well as the root dir and “metamodule-plugns/”.
Also merged in the console features. It’ll all be in v2.3.1

4 Likes