plugin support

[macsterdam]

I was wondering if you have any plans to add (third party) plugin support to Launchbar?

[Jaharmi]

If there were, I'd like to see compatibility with Quicksilver plugins (or at least some) since there are so many of those.

[yanokwa]

I think this would be hard to do, but QS compatibility would rock.

[lujo]

The plugin functions of Quicksilver are really attractive and always tempt me to switch. But I still just like LB better -- not to mention that QS isn't fast or stable enough. Whether plug-ins or not, I'd love to see more actions and combinations of multiple actions included in LaunchBar.

[Jaharmi]

I agree that some of the plugins for Quicksilver make that an attractive option. However, I think that even though it started out as a virtual clone to LaunchBar, Quicksilver has developed its own interface that is very interesting in its own right, and is very visual. In contrast, LaunchBar is very minimal and almost spare. To each his own!

I wonder what plugins are not already accommodated in LaunchBar, especially with all of the AppleScript-based actions you get.

One thing that came to mind in thinking about these two software packages recently is that Quicksilver is almost trying to make a subject-verb sentence. I find that I more often start with some data or object and then act on it in QS.

LaunchBar, on the other hand, has some flexibility between object first (contact cards, files, etc.) versus action first (terminal commands, large text, script parameters). Some may even consider it less consistent, but I like it.

It’s hard to explain but the two launchers make me think in different ways, which requires some adaptation when moving from one to the other.

[macsterdam]

I agree with most of what you said there, Jaharmi, Launchbar does indeed do most things already. Still, there's only so much a developer can do (time-wise that is) and opening up Launchbar to third-party developers might add very useful features. One I can think of is 'Spotlight' tags.
In Quicksilver it's very easy to add/modify/delete Spotlight tags. I wouldn't mind seeing this in Launchbar.

I have no intention right now of switching to Quicksilver. I do follow it's development and try it out every once in a while, but I always end up switching back to Launchbar, simply because it's way faster, handles keyboard shortcuts more elegantly, and overall is much smarter and much easier in use.

[SpiralOcean]

I have no intention right now of switching to Quicksilver. I do follow it's development and try it out every once in a while, but I always end up switching back to Launchbar, simply because it's way faster, handles keyboard shortcuts more elegantly, and overall is much smarter and much easier in use.

I'm in the same place as you macsterdam.

I love the visual style of QS & the almost spiritual bent to it, but whenever I have tried it I go back to LB... because of the speed... purely the speed.

I was looking for spotlight tags in LB. Haven't found it yet.

[FredB]

I was looking for spotlight tags in LB. Haven't found it yet.

I answered in this topic.

Back on topic, I totally agree with Macsterdam and pretty much everybody. I try QS every now and then and keep coming back to LB, but I really which there was some more API or plugin support... Applescript is not a good solution all the time. The new "x-launchbar URL scheme" is a good start!

[Jono]

Yea, I'd really like to see some sort of plug-in support in LaunchBar. I realise the developers of LaunchBar can't please everyone feature wise, but adding plug-in support would mean people could make plug-ins for what they'd really like to see in there.

For me I'd love to be able to load Delicious bookmarks into LaunchBar, & also be able to bring up/activate Leap saved searches from LaunchBar.

[ludwigschubert]

When I asked Objective Development about plugins, they were always too concerned about… exactly, speed and stability. They don't want LaunchBar to turn into another Quicksilver.
In theory if you can write a plugin you should also be able to write a script that fetches what you want and places it in a HTML file that can be indexed by LaunchBar.
Well, in theory.

[Jono]

I guess it's understandable they want to preserve stability & speed.

So in theory someone could write a script that loaded Delicious bookmarks, tags, notes etc. into a HTML file that was searchable by LaunchBar?

[ludwigschubert]

Yes, that's possible.
One could even add it to launchd to have it frun automatically every hour or so.
Maybe someone on this forum… unfortunately I don't know anything about Delicious bookmarks.

[Jono]

That would be great if someone could make this

[jerrykrinock]

I don't think that an HTML file containing all Delicious (or whatever) bookmarks would be useful because when it showed up in the search results and the user clicked it, Launchbar would hit that html file, which would display the list of bookmarks in your default web browser and then you'd need to find the hyperlink to the desired web page and click it. Not very handy.

I think that one would need to write and maintain a separate file for each bookmark, such as a .webloc file.

[bartekb81]

I think that one would need to write and maintain a separate file for each bookmark, such as a .webloc file.

Exactly. For instance, I wrote myself a script which performs a Google search in background (Custom search REST api) and presents the results as a folder of .webloc files - one can preview the sites by hitting spacebar or open them by hitting Return.