Plugin

Introduction

Plugins are made to extend the functionality of Total Commander individually. The size of the main program stays small and fast, adapted by the user and his personal needs.

Function

Plugins are special libraries to implement additional functions. These DLLs are not run by the user but by Total Commander. The benefit of this technique is having a common interface for each plugin type. For now there are 4 plugin types completely integrated into Total Commander and its interface.

Plugin types

Four plugin types are available to extend TC's functionality:

• Packer plugins (WCX)
• File system plugins (WFX)
• Lister plugins (WLX)
• Content plugins (WDX)

Where to find plugins?

The most convenient way to find them is by using the following sites:

• totalcmd.net you should visit first if you want to stay up-to-date with plugins and Tools.
• totalcmd.pl is the Polish site containing a large number of plugins, Tools, documentation and so on. At first it was in Polish only, but now it has English version too.
• Club Total unfortunately is not available now. However, there is still hope that it will rise again some day.
• Official addon site is the best choice if you prefer final "tested by author" versions. This is the place to go if you don't like any experiments.
• Unreleased plug-ins A wiki page full of unreleased plug-ins which are currently neither listed on totalcmd.net nor released officially on ghisler.com.

Installation

Since Total Commander version 6.5 an integrated installer for plugins is available. Whenever you want to install a plugin now, all to do is: Open the downloaded archive with a doubleclick. The setup will start automatically. An installation "by hand" is still possible. The programs in the next chapter can be very usefull to manage all your plugins.

Plugin management

These tools were created to make the plugin management easier:

• TC Plugins Manager
• Vic Plugin manager

In some cases you might need a tool for managing your plugins:

• When you find that one plugin used to be loaded at first.
• You decide to install two different plugins for the same extension...
• To be continued...

Plugin development guides

Each plugin is a DLL which exports a set of functions specific to the plugin type and described in the following pages:

• Packer plugins developer guide
• File system plugins developer guide
• Lister plugins developer guide
• Content plugins developer guide

Plugin programming interfaces

Plugin programming interfaces make it possible to develop a plugin in your prefered programming language (apart from C++ and Delphi).

• Java Plugin Interface for WCX, WDX, WFX and WLX
• VBScript Plugin Interface for WFX

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