iWork Pages Plugin
-
Hello
Is it possible to embed a custom control in a Pages document?
I read through the Pages API, and all it seems to cover is just the xml file
format.
As Pages is most likely based around the standard Cocoa text system, I would
like to embed a NSTextAttachmentCell derived object in a Pages document. Is
there any current way to accomplish something like this?
A standard paste into Pages of a pdf fragment would not work because this
does not keep track of the cell baseline, and I would like to have these
custom objects lined up with the text baseline.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
thanks -
Hello> From what I understand, Pages is not based on the Cocoa text system, andcurrently does not support custom control plugins.
What would be the right list to ask if any plugin concept is planned for
Pages?
Although I do not know any internal details of the Pages architecture, every
page layout / word process or application I've seen was based around a
collection of some type of object that occupied some fixed size, and a
layout manager was responsible for laying these out.
So, I'm guessing that Pages uses some sort of object, possibly similar to
NSTextAttachmentCell which represents a rectangular page area. I'm also
guessing that is probably would not be that hard to allow 3'rd party
developers to implement this interface and have Pages display these custom
controls. -
Unfortunately, an application either supports plug-ins or it does
not. Pages does not. Short of reverse-engineering the application and
employing some serious hackery (which you would not be legally
allowed to distribute anyway), this is a complete dead end for you.
I don't believe there is a specific developer mailing list for
Pages (typically commercial applications don't have these things), so
you'll have to settle for sending a suggestion to Apple and hoping
they implement it at some point in the future.
--
I.S.
On May 22, 2006, at 2:28 PM, Andy Somogyi wrote:> Hello
>
>> From what I understand, Pages is not based on the Cocoa text
>> system, and
> currently does not support custom control plugins.
>
> What would be the right list to ask if any plugin concept is
> planned for Pages?
>
> Although I do not know any internal details of the Pages
> architecture, every page layout / word process or application I've
> seen was based around a collection of some type of object that
> occupied some fixed size, and a layout manager was responsible for
> laying these out.
>
> So, I'm guessing that Pages uses some sort of object, possibly
> similar to NSTextAttachmentCell which represents a rectangular page
> area. I'm also guessing that is probably would not be that hard to
> allow 3'rd party developers to implement this interface and have
> Pages display these custom controls.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
> Cocoa-dev mailing list (<Cocoa-dev...>)
> Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
> http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/idiotsavant2005%
> 40gmail.com
>
> This email sent to <idiotsavant2005...> -
On May 22, 2006, at 2:28 PM, Andy Somogyi wrote:> What would be the right list to ask if any plugin concept is
> planned for Pages?
I wouldn't bother asking anywhere - Apple is *extremely* tight-lipped
about future product plans. Even if such a feature were planned for
Pages, I highly doubt anyone who knew about it could talk about it.
Having said that, if you want such a feature, make sure to file an
enhancement request through Apple's bugreporter site:
<https://bugreport.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/RadarWeb.woa>
If there are plans for future plugin support, you might even get
lucky and be allowed access to the beta program so you could test
your plugin.
sherm--
Cocoa programming in Perl: http://camelbones.sourceforge.net
Hire me! My resume: http://www.dot-app.org -
On May 18, 2006, at 10:39 AM, Andy Somogyi wrote:> Is it possible to embed a custom control in a Pages document?
I'm far from an expert on this, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I've
heard of people creating plugins for Cocoa applications like Safari.
I don't think Safari intentionally supports a plugin architecture,
and SIMBL is a hack around this. Perhaps it's possible to do the same
for Pages. Heres a link to the SIMBL page:
http://www.culater.net/software/SIMBL/SIMBL.php
Omar Qazi, CEO
ROFL Software -
On May 22, 2006, at 11:42 PM, Omar Qazi wrote:> On May 18, 2006, at 10:39 AM, Andy Somogyi wrote:
>
>> Is it possible to embed a custom control in a Pages document?
>
> I'm far from an expert on this, so correct me if I'm wrong, but
> I've heard of people creating plugins for Cocoa applications like
> Safari. I don't think Safari intentionally supports a plugin
> architecture
It does. Two of them, in fact - The "traditional" Netscape plugin
API, and a new Cocoa API.
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/InternetWeb/Conceptual/
WebKit_PluginProgTopic/index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40001521>
sherm--
Cocoa programming in Perl: http://camelbones.sourceforge.net
Hire me! My resume: http://www.dot-app.org
