A filter could reshape and repaint objects, but not set the stroke's
join, cap or miter limit, nor the effects an object's appearance holds.
A tool that prepares objects for a live effect (a sheet of samples,
each with the effect at its own settings) had to leave the user to
apply the effect to each object by hand.
- Each input stroke has its join, cap and miterLimit beside its paint
and width (live effects get the same, through the shared encoder),
and each object its own effect records, {id, params, visible}.
- An output stroke may set them (miter limit clamped to 1-500), and an
output object's "effects" replaces its own effects.
- The host admits each record as effect.apply does: an effect that
effect.list lists or an installed live-effect plug-in, parameters it
takes (filled in to their defaults; a plug-in's checked against its
manifest), one 3D effect that fits the object (its fills' and
strokes' own effects counted), and the texture of an effect with
Load Texture (Glass, Texturizer) as the effect stores it, never a
file to read. A record the object already had stays as
it is, so a filter that hands its input back changes nothing. One
refused record refuses the whole output and the document stays as
it was.
The plug-ins crate checks the records' form; which effects exist is the
engine's to say (objects::AdmitEffects, engine plugin::admit_effects).
effects::validate_three_d is the one check of whether a 3D effect fits
an object, for effect.apply, effect.setParams and the filters.
A path handed back as it was now stays the live shape it was: write()
dropped a live rectangle's or ellipse's parameters whenever the output
held a path, changed or not, so a filter that returned its input
turned a live rectangle into a plain path.
objects/tests.rs checks the round trip, stroke styles on existing and
new strokes, the host's refusal, the bad forms refused, and a live
rectangle handed back unchanged (a plain path before the fix);
tests_plugins.rs runs filters that set a built-in and a plug-in effect,
an echo that changes nothing, and six refused outputs.
CRAFT_PLUGIN_FRAME_WASM=<folder> saves a test filter to try in the app.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01HhvnnnD5fTFupK8WWq35un
A live-effect plug-in was given only its object's geometry. An effect
that draws as wide as the stroke it sits on, or tells its fills apart,
had to ask for them again as parameters, which then went stale when
the paint changed.
A live effect's input object now holds the object's fills and strokes
too, read only and in the form a filter gets them (one encoder,
objects::paint_lists, for both), and _context.item says where the
effect sits: "object", or {"fill": i} / {"stroke": i} for an effect in
a fill's or a stroke's own effects. effects::GeomContext carries the
object's appearance and the item, and the plug-in cache keys on the
paints, so a change of paint runs the plug-in again. Hosts from before
this give geometry only; nothing in the output changes.
Expand worked a fill's geometry effects out in the object's context, so
a plug-in effect there would be told "object" and a gradient fill was
expanded into a shape the canvas doesn't draw: fill_shape now gives them
the fill's context, as drawing does (expand.rs).
Siblings named with a declared prefix, the other half of such context,
are left out: the effected geometry is worked out from the object alone
wherever it is drawn, measured, hit-tested or expanded.
wat::when_given is a plug-in whose output depends on whether its input
or parameters hold a text. tests_plugins.rs uses it to check that an
effect sees the stroke's width and the fill, runs again for a thinner
stroke, and on a second stroke is told so; effect.rs checks the item
counting; a gradient fill under such an effect is drawn and expanded
into the same triangle. CRAFT_PLUGIN_PAINTS_WASM=<folder> saves a test
effect to try in the app.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01HhvnnnD5fTFupK8WWq35un
A plug-in's dialog labelled each field with its parameter's name spaced
out ("Line_spacing_mm:"), showed numbers without their unit and listed
at most 64 parameters in one column. A plug-in with many settings, such
as a generator's or an exporter's, could neither explain nor sort them,
and its dialog showed settings that don't apply to the choices made.
Each parameter may now say how dialogs show it, in keys that hosts
from before them ignore (plugins::dialog):
- label; unit, after the value ("0.25 mm"); help, on the label; and
helpUrl, an https:// page opened from a button after the field.
- group: the parameters outside any group come first, then each group
as a section that folds, in the order the groups first appear, the
fields lined up down the dialog.
- visibleWhen: {"pattern": ["lines"]} shows a parameter only
while each checkbox or choice it names, declared before it, has one
of the values listed and is shown itself. Manifest::visible decides
every parameter in one pass, in declaration order. A hidden parameter
still goes to the plug-in with its value, so a run never depends on
what the dialog showed.
Two types join number, int, bool and choice: string, a text field cut
to maxLength, and numberList, numbers typed separated by commas or
spaces, each clamped, minItems to maxItems of them. A plug-in declares
up to 256 parameters, at most 64 outside groups. The filter, live-effect
and exporter dialogs use every key. The Appearance panel's editor of a
plug-in effect uses the labels, units, help and conditions, and reads a
typed number list as the dialog does.
dialog.rs tests parsing, the round trip of a manifest written out,
sections, visibility (also of 256 overlapping conditions, which a
recursive check would take forever on) and the keys refused;
manifest.rs the new types and limits. tests_plugin_fields.rs draws a
dialog with kittest: labels and units, sections in order with their
fields lined up, visibleWhen hiding and showing rows, and the help
button opening its page.
appearance.rs checks the editor's labels, units, conditions and a
typed number list, and form.rs units after numbers (a unit starting
with a digit is spaced from it) and typed lists.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01HhvnnnD5fTFupK8WWq35un
# Conflicts:
# docs/gaps.md
# docs/target-app-parity.md
A plug-in could filter objects or reshape them as a live effect, but
nothing it made could leave the app: pen plotters, cutting machines and
laser cutters read formats VectorCraft doesn't write. An exporter is a
third kind of plug-in ("kind": "exporter", with the file "extensions"
it writes), in the same sandbox and with the same ABI v1 exports.
- It adds a write-only format, plugin.<id>. document.formats lists it
with its plug-in id, and document.export writes it by that id, or by
a path ending in one of its extensions that no built-in format has;
"params" carries its parameters, checked against its manifest as a
filter's are.
- File › Export › Export As lists it after the built-in formats, with
Use Artboards greyed out, since the plug-in writes the whole
document. One with parameters asks for them in a dialog generated
from its schema (pluginExport) once the file is picked.
- The plug-in is given the native file's JSON (format::json_part:
images of 8 KiB or more without their data) and _context {mode:
"export", extension, name}. It returns {"dataBase64", "warnings"?}
or {"error"}. The host writes the file, and nothing when the plug-in
declines or returns bad data.
- An export gets 10 G instructions plus 4,000 per byte and 300 s.
Background Export's Cancel stops it between two slices of that
budget (Error::Cancelled), and a cancelled live-effect run is not
cached as a failure.
- plugin.run and Object › Plug-ins say where an exporter is instead of
calling it a live effect.
engine/tests/plugin_export.rs reads back what an exporter is handed
with wat::echo_exporter, an exporter whose file is its input or its
parameters (its base64 encoder is written in WAT). The document it is
given is document.save's JSON, without the large image's data, and its
parameters arrive defaulted, clamped and with the file's name and
extension. It also covers listing and removal, built-in extensions
winning, selectedOnly, declines, bad base64, missing data, warnings,
and Cancel stopping a plug-in that never returns. It is a test binary
of its own: installed plug-ins are process-wide, and the format-list
unit tests check exact lists. dialogs/tests_plugin_export.rs drives
Export As headlessly; plugins/tests/abi.rs covers the budget, the
parameters and the echo exporter; format/tests/native_v4.rs covers
json_part.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01HhvnnnD5fTFupK8WWq35un
A plug-in's dialog (Effect › Plug-ins, Object › Plug-ins) lays out each
parameter of its manifest as a row, and a manifest may declare up to 64.
With many of them the dialog ran off the top and the bottom of the
window, its heading and its OK and Cancel buttons off screen. A plug-in
of 64 number parameters got a dialog 2,329 px tall, its top at y = -755
in a 900 px window.
modal::scrolled_rows() puts rows in a vertical scroll area as tall as
the screen less the rest of the modal window and its edge gaps.
modal::show_at() measures that rest once it has drawn the window, for
the next frame, and asks for that frame at once if the rest changed.
The dialog then fits without waiting for input. schema_fields() puts the
parameter grid in it, for filters and effects alike. A dialog of a few
parameters is as tall as before.
a_plug_in_dialog_of_many_settings_fits_the_window opens an effect's and
a filter's dialog of 64 parameters in a 1280 × 900 window, and one of 4.
Before the change it failed with "effect: the dialog is at
[[457.0 -755.0] - [823.0 1574.0]] in the [1280.0 900.0] window".
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01HhvnnnD5fTFupK8WWq35un
Install Plug-in (plugin.install) now keeps the plug-in's module in a
Plug-ins folder next to the preferences, as Illustrator keeps plug-ins in
its Plug-ins folder, and the desktop app and vectorcraft-cli install the
ones there at startup (a module that doesn't load is skipped with a log
record, at most 512 MB are read). Remove Plug-in deletes it from the
folder. The Additional Plug-ins Folder preference is still loaded from
where it is. Confined MCP servers and VECTORCRAFT_NO_PREFS keep nothing,
as with the PDF preset and colour profile stores.
Docs: docs/mcp.md, docs/plugins.md, docs/target-app-parity.md.
VectorCraft had an Additional Plug-ins Folder preference but nothing loaded from it. Port
PhotoCraft's wasmi plug-in host (same sandbox, manifest and parameter schema) as the new
vectorcraft-plugins crate (L2), extended for vector documents:
- Object filters read the selected paths and compound paths as JSON (native PathData and
Paint forms: geometry, fills, strokes, gradients, opacity) and return the objects to keep,
change, add or delete; the output is validated in full and applied as one undo step
(plugin.run). A failing plug-in leaves the document untouched.
- Live-effect plug-ins are geometry effects in the appearance stack (effect id
plugin.<id>), re-evaluated (and cached) when the object or parameters change, editable,
exported and baked by Expand Appearance; a missing plug-in leaves the geometry as is.
- plugin.list / info / run / install / remove / reload; the preference folder installs
every *.wasm at startup and when it changes; File > Open of a .wasm installs it (web).
- Object > Plug-ins and Effect > Plug-ins menus with dialogs generated from the parameter
schema (live preview), the Appearance panel's fx menu, docs/plugins.md, an original
example plug-in (Desaturate, a Rust crate outside the workspace) and fuzzing of the
plug-in boundary (engine/tests/plugin_fuzz.rs).
Tool plug-ins and paint-changing live effects are left for later (docs/plugins.md).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Dennis Klappe