( This post is for Lightroom 2.0 and later. See here for plugin installation in Lightroom 1.x )
Starting with Lightroom 2.0, plugins are added and maintained via the Plugin Manager, which is accessible from Lightroom's File menu, and also from a button on the Export Dialog itself.
Here's a screenshot of the Plugin Manager on my system, after I installed half a dozen plugins. At the moment, it's showing my “Metadata Wrangler” plugin selected. Mouseover the labels at left to highlight areas of the screenshot...
(Mouseover items below)
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Installing a New Plugin
(short version)
Installing a plugin for use with Lightroom 2 and later usually involves these steps:
- Downloading a zip file from the plugin source.
- Unzip the plugin, and move the resulting “...lrplugin” folder to wherever you'd like to store your plugins.
- Bring up Lightroom's Plugin Manager and register that folder with the Add button.
(If prompted for a catalog update, do so.)
Installing a New Plugin
(long version)
1. Download a zip file from a plugin source
Plugins are available from a variety of sources. My plugins are available from my Lightroom goodies page. Tim Armes has written a number of plugins as well. The central listing of Lightroom plugins is Adobe's Lightroom Exchange.
After unzipping, you should end up with a folder whose name ends in “.lrplugin” or“.lrdevplugin”. On a Mac, a “.lrplugin” folder actually appears as a “module” package.
You don't normally ever need to be concerned with the contents of a plugin folder, but if you need to confirm that the folder actually contains a plugin in the first place, check for an “Info.lua” file. (On Macs, you may need to “Show Package Contents” in Finder to view the files inside.) I mention this because some programs that produce zip files create a “....lrplugin” folder into which they drop the actual plugin “.lrplugin” folder, which can cause confusion.
2. Move the plugin folder to wherever you'd like to store your plugins
Starting with Version 2.0, Lightroom allows you to keep the plugins wherever you like — you just have to tell it where you place each one — so it's up to you to pick a spot to save them. For example, I usually create a “Plugins” folder in one of the Lightroom data folders, and then drop plugin folders in there. Here are the locations I create for plugins:
| Windows XP | \Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Adobe\Lightroom\Plugins\ |
| Windows Vista | \Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Plugins\ |
| Mac OSX | ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/Plugins/ |
Again, you're free to pick wherever you like, with the caveat that Lightroom treats some of its application-data folders specially (as discussed below).
3. Register the plugin with Lightroom
Bring up Lightroom's Plugin Manager, either from the File menu, or from the Plugin Manager button on the Export Dialog. Click the Add button, then navigate to the “.lrplugin” folder.
Some plugins add their own set of per-image metadata to the catalog, and for such plugins, you are prompted for permission to update the catalog upon install. You should upgrade.
For example, my “Update to Flickr” plugin maintains in the catalog data about which images have been updated to Flickr, and their location at Flickr. This supports a number of features, such as the ability to replace an image during upload, the ability to filter within Lightroom for images that have/haven't been updated, the ability to include the Flickr-upload-status in Lightroom smart collections, etc.
You are also prompted in the same way when upgrading a plugin if the new version has any changes to the set of custom plugin metadata.
Using an Export Plugin
An export plugin can be selected by bringing up Lightroom's export dialog, then clicking on the “Files on Disk” banner across its top. That brings up a popup list of the export handlers available (both the built-in ones, and the ones you've added via the Plugin Manager)....
Using a Filter Plugin (a “Post-Process Action” Plugin)
Some plugins aren't intended to be an export destination, but, rather, to provide generic support for any export. For example, my Metadata Wrangler plugin allows you to strip selected metadata from exported copies as they are produced. It can be used with the built-in “Export to Disk” standard export, with my “Export to....” plugins (e.g. Export to Flickr), or with other third-party export plugins.
Adobe calls these “Post-process Actions”, but most people call them “Export Filters”.
Once you've added and enabled a filter plugin via the Plugin Manager, it shows up in the lower-left of the export dialog....
Click on its name, then the Insert button at the bottom, and you'll see it added to the main dialog. In the screen snippet above, the “Metadata Wrangler” dialog section is shown collapsed, so you only see its banner. If you were to click on the little triangle beside the name, you'd see the full dialog for the plugin, which, in this case (my Metadata Wrangler filter) is huge (see here for a screenshot).
Plugin Maintenance & Upgrades
Once a plugin has been registered with Lightroom, you can enable or disable it from the Status section of the Plugin Manager. A disabled plugin can't be used from within Lightroom, but remains registered in the Plugin Manager, so can be easily enabled for use.
You can fully de-register a plugin with the Remove button, on the bottom of the left-hand column. Plugins installed in legacy plugin locations – the locations that plugins had to be installed for Lightroom 1.x – can't be removed this way, and the Remove button remains gray. You have to actually remove the folder.
The Status section might also display plugin version and web-site information, if the plugin provides it (such as in the screenshot above).
Upgrading a plugin
Upgrading a plugin to a newer version is similar to installing the first time, except that if you replace the original “.lrplugin” folder with the new one, you don't have to re-register the location with Lightroom. In that case, you simply need to restart Lightroom, or click the “Reload Plug-in” button in the Plugin-Manager's “Plug-in Author Tools“ section.
If you install the new version in a new location, and register it via the Plugin Manager, the previous version will remain, but be disabled. You can enable only one version of any particular plugin at a time. Simply Remove the older versions when you no longer need them.
I've built an upgrade mechanism into my plugins, such that when a new version is available, you can simply press the Upgrade Now button in the Plugin Manager. That causes the new version to be downloaded and unzipped in place over top of the old version. You then press the Reload Plug-in button, or restart Lightroom, to have the new version take effect.
(If something goes wrong with the upgrade process, you'll have to manually download and install the new version. In such a case, you might want to inspect the log file left in the temporary-files area of the system, named for the plugin, e.g. “flickr-log.txt” for the Flickr plugin).
If Lightroom 2.0 finds a plugin in any of the legacy install locations from Lightroom 1.x (described here), they are automatically registered with the Plugin Manager.
As with any plugin, such auto-registered plugins can be enabled and disabled within the Plugin Manager. They can not, however, be fully de-registered (removed) via the Plugin Manager. To remove them completely from Lightroom, you have to manually remove the plugins from disk (or, at least, from the legacy plugin folders).
Some people prefer to continue to use the legacy install locations, simply adding new plugins there (thereby avoiding the need to register them with the Plugin Manager). This approach is perfectly acceptable, of course, but comes with the drawback that added plugins are not auto-registered except when Lightroom starts.
Please do not report bugs or other comments related to my plugins here. Please do those on the appropriate per-plugin page (linked from my Lightroom Goodies page).
Hi,
Can you please precise wether this plugin works with the LR 2 Beta version, or only the final release ? I can’t it working on the LR 2 Beta…
TIA !
Charly
It doesn’t work with the public beta, sorry, only the final release. The public beta expires pretty soon, anyway…. —Jeffrey
Thanks for the new plugin - I updated LR today.
I’ve added a second Flickr account that I export to. Can I create a second plugin for the additional account?
The one plugin will work with multiple accounts. In fact, that’s one of the enhancements with the new plugins that I forgot to mention: the per-photo upload history is tied to the username used when it’s uploaded. In theory, you can log in via the plugin, then create an Export Preset, and repeat for each login you want. Then, later, when you want to switch logins, you can click on the preset while you’re in the export dialog, and you’ll be re-logged-in to the account as per the preset. However, I’ve gotten a report that the Flickr authentication doesn’t work when via a preset, so I’ve got to look into that. (I’m not a Flickr user, so never tested it myself). I do know that it works with the username/password plugins like Zenfolio, so I should be able to get it to work with Flickr, after I get some sleep! —Jeffrey
Wow - a one-minute turn-around for the response - I believe that you need to catch up on a lot of sleep.
Thanks very much - I’ll try it and let you know.
PS: I’ve tried your solution, and it works perfectly - an easy switch from one account to the other. Thanks again.
Installation problem under windows vista. After unzip, there is one directory called smugmug-jfriedl.lrplugin, but windows will enter the directory and cannot find the correct file type to open.
That directory is the plugin. You have to point Lightroom’s Plugin Manager at that folder. —Jeffrey
I can’t install the plugin, does it work with Windows XP 64 Bits?
My plugins should work on any platform that Lightroom runs on. I can’t speak to other’s plugins, though. —Jeffrey
Jeffery,
I’m getting a data mismatch error everytime I try to upload to Smugmug. I was getting this error also at the end with LR 1.41 and your last version I had installed for SM which I think was .48. I upgraded to V2 LR removed the old Plugin, installed the new plugin according to your directions. Works sometimes for one file but then it quits again. Any idea’s where to look?
thx
I am very excited about this plug-in, but I can’t get it to work with LR2. I can authenticate to picasa (or a least it looks like it does) and then I get the error message, “Internal Plugin Error”. I am running Leopard with the latest updates.
I’m getting errors trying to use this. Here are the errors…
**** Error 1
An error occurred while attempting to run one of the plug-in’s scripts.
Access to undefined global: quote
These are fixed as of the Aug 7th version of the plugin. —Jeffrey
That directory is the plugin. You have to point Lightroom’s Plugin Manager at that folder. —Jeffrey
Windows Vista does not allow the Lightroom Plug-in Manager to open that smugmug-jfriedl.lrplugin folder. I have tried this over and over again — it does not work. I believe Vista can detect that this is a folder and is enforcing some rule that it can only open a file in a dialog box like this, not a folder. Please try this with Vista and see what we mean.
thanks
As far as I can tell, it works fine on Vista; you just have to be sure, like on the other platforms, to navigate to the folder in which the plugin folder lies, then select the plugin folder. —Jeffrey
Not sure if the issue is due to LR2 or the plugins: my XP username is in Chinese characters and when I try to install it in the folder where I used to put since LR 1.x, it fails to load “Version.lua”:
An error occurred while attempting to run one of the plug-in’s scripts.
Internal Error: Can’t load “Version.lua” (cannot open C:\Documents and Settings\咻咻貓\Application Data\Adobe\Lightroom\Modules\picasaweb-jfriedl.lrplugin\Version.lua: Invalid argument)
Fortunately LR2 allows me to move my plugins around. I moved it to another place where contains only ascii characters (e.g. “C:\My Documents\My Lightroom 2 Modules\picasaweb-jfriedl.lrplugin”) then the Plugin Manager is able to load them successfully.
In LR1.x these plugins work perfectly in the original path (with double byte characters), though…
Thanks for the report… I think I’ll have to add this to the known issues page, and follow up with Adobe about it. —Jeffrey
to John Swenson: In Vista when you add the plugin, there is also a small “add plugin” bottom which is active when you select the plucin folder. That will do it for you.
Thanks for an excellent plugin
Took me a while to figure this out. The export plugins are easy in Vista. Just do what the instructions say. Unfortunately no where here does it tell you how to intall the web gallery stuff. Which by the way are killer. You don’t install them thru the plugin manager. They are just copied into the webgallery folder of lightroom. IE: C:\Users\”username”\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Web Galleries. Then restart LR2 and the template will be there for you to use in the Web Module. Oh and one more thing. You will need to adjust the folder view options to allow the viewing of hidden files and folders because AppData is a hidden folder. Hope this helps anyone having trouble getting the web templates to work. Peace
Upgrading all flickr/picasaweb & facebook plugins in LR2 for me errors with:
Error installing new plugin; the log file is then displayed with the unzipping etc and exit status is 50 (0×00000032)
It appears not to have upgraded, but reloading the plugin makes it do so - perhaps silence this error message and make it clear the ‘upgrade avaliable’ flag?
If this happens again, please send the output of the “lr-plugin.log” file (in your Documents / My Documents folder), and I’ll see whether I can figure it out… —Jeffrey
Hi Mr. Friedl,
I downloaded and installed your plugin for “Export to SmugMug” this morning.
When displayed in the Lightroom Plug-in Manager (version 20080806.7) it provides a Note: this plugin version expires on Sep 5, 2008.
Why does it expire, and so soon?
How do I obtain a version that does not expire?
Thank you,
Art
You can pick up a new copy, closer to the expiration date, by clicking the “upgrade” button in the plugin’s custom section of the Plugin Manager. I describe the plugin-expiration stuff here. —Jeffrey
I was having the same problem John Swenson was having trying to install the plugin on a Windows Vista system. Here are more precise instructions…. After you click the add button in the Lightroom plugin manager a Windows dialogue box opens allowing you to browse to the smugmug-jfriedl.lrplugin folder. Highlight that folder and click the “Add Plug-in” button, not the open button in the Windows dialogue box. The Lightroom plugin manager will recognize the smugmug plugin and will ask you to update the catalogue. Your’re done.
I am seeing the same error as Dan when I use the Upgrade Now button on the Flickr plugin. After hitting the Reload Plug-in button (why are some things plugin and others plug-in?), it seems to reload the new version just fine.
–Bill
I’ll look into the upgrade issue, but FYI, the reason for the plugin vs. plug-in duality is that Adobe uses “plug-in” everywhere, but that’s just silly, so I stick with “plugin”. —Jeffrey
Hi,
I try to use your plugin. It appears in the Plugin Manager, but there is nothing in the Export Windows.
I run on Lightroom 2 481478
Thanks
So I am really excited about using the plugin but I keep getting an error when I try to export to flickr. I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled twice but I keep getting some derivation of the following:
+35.3: At line 14255:Assertion failed(!)
After clicking OK I get the following:
Unable to export:
An internal error has occurred: ?:12809: assertion failed!
Any ideas what I can do to get this resolved?
Thanks!!!!