Converting Acrobat 7 SDK -built plug-in to Acrobat 9

Question

We have a plug-in developed inhouse with Acrobat 7 SDK. We are looking for someone with SDK programming experience to help us port it for Acrobat 9. We tried ourselves using Xcode compiler, but it seems that the plug-in is not showing up either as a Menu item nor as a tool icon.
I understand that it may be a very simple problem, which somehow we miss resolving, but since our original programmer is no longer with us, we need some help in porting the tool to Acrobat 9 Pro.
If interested, or have a suggestion, please call me at 216-252 7300 ext. 2684.
Andrzej

Answer 1

NoSmoking,
Thanks for the reply. Since I am not the programmer you may need to just bear with me a bit, if you can.
First, the app is running on OSX (10.3.9 - 10.5.11) - hence the use of XCode as compiler. I checked About Adobe Plug-ins list in 9 Pro which shows loaded plug-ins and our UpdatePage4Layer.acroplugin is not there. Unless there is another way to look at the loaded plug-in list, I cannot find it.
Second, could you explain the check using PluginInit method? There is a section in the project's code which covers PluginInit, but I am not sure how I can use it:
/* PluginInit
** The main initialization routine.
** Return true to continue loading plug-in.
** Return false to cause plug-in loading to stop.
ACCB1 ASBool ACCB2 PluginInit(void)
return MyPluginSetmenu();
I also searched for AVMenuItemNew in the project's code and here is what I found:
// Create our menuitem
menuItem = AVMenuItemNew (MyMenuItemTitle, MyMenuItemName, NULL, true, NO_SHORTCUT, 0, NULL, gExtensionID);
AVMenuItemSetExecuteProc (menuItem, ASCallbackCreateProto(AVExecuteProc, MyPluginCommand), NULL);
AVMenuItemSetComputeEnabledProc (menuItem,
ASCallbackCreateProto(AVComputeEnabledProc, MyPluginIsEnabled), (void *)pdPermEdit);
// get advanced menu
advancedMenu = AVMenubarAcquireMenuByName (menubar, "Advanced");
endToolsGroup1MenuItem = AVMenubarAcquireMenuItemByName(menubar, "endToolsGroup1");
ASInt32 sepIndex = AVMenuGetMenuItemIndex(advancedMenu, endToolsGroup1MenuItem);
// add new menuitem under AcrobatSDK Sub Menu
if(bUnderAcrobatSDKSubMenu) {
// Acquire the common "AcrobatSDK" sub menu.
commonMenu = AVMenubarAcquireMenuByName (menubar, "AMGR:AG_Plugins");
// if "AcrobatSDK" sub menu is not existing, create one under Advanced menu.
if (!commonMenu) {
commonMenu = AVMenuNew ("AG Plugins", "AMGR:AG_Plugins", gExtensionID);
commonMenuItem = AVMenuItemNew ("AG Plugins", "AMGR:AG_Plugins", commonMenu,
false, NO_SHORTCUT, 0, NULL, gExtensionID);
bCreatedCommonMenu = true;
AVMenuAddMenuItem(advancedMenu, commonMenuItem, sepIndex);
// add new menu item to Acrobat SDK sub menu
AVMenuAddMenuItem (commonMenu, menuItem, APPEND_MENUITEM);
// or directly add new menu item under Advanced menu
else {
endToolsGroup1MenuItem = AVMenubarAcquireMenuItemByName(menubar, "endToolsGroup1");
ASInt32 sepIndex = AVMenuGetMenuItemIndex(advancedMenu, endToolsGroup1MenuItem);
AVMenuAddMenuItem(advancedMenu, menuItem, APPEND_MENUITEM);
AVMenuRelease(advancedMenu);
AVMenuItemRelease(endToolsGroup1MenuItem);
AVMenuRelease (commonMenu);
HANDLER
if(endToolsGroup1MenuItem)
AVMenuItemRelease(endToolsGroup1MenuItem);
if (advancedMenu)
AVMenuRelease (advancedMenu);
if (commonMenu)
AVMenuRelease (commonMenu);
return false;
END_HANDLER
Then I found also instructions to get the tool bar button (which BTW did not work in Acrobat 8):
//add button to toolbar
DURING
// Create the main toolbutton. We position it just before the end of the
// tools group of buttons.
toolsSeparator = AVToolBarGetButtonByName(toolBar, ASAtomFromString("endSelectToolsGroup"));
toolButton = AVToolButtonNew (ASAtomFromString("AMGR:UpdatePG4Layer"),GetToolButtonIcon("UpdatePG4Icon","png"), true, false);
// You must set the internal/external nature of the toolbutton
// before adding it to the toolbar. Buttons are internal by default.
// AVToolButtonSetExternal (toolButton, TOOLBUTTON_EXTERNAL);
AVToolBarAddButton (toolBar, toolButton, true, toolsSeparator);
AVToolButtonSetExecuteProc (toolButton,
ASCallbackCreateProto(AVExecuteProc, MyPluginCommand), NULL);
AVToolButtonSetComputeEnabledProc (toolButton,
ASCallbackCreateProto(AVComputeEnabledProc, MyPluginIsEnabled), (void *)pdPermEdit);
AVToolButtonSetHelpText (toolButton, "AG Plugins:UpdatePG4Layer");
HANDLER
return false;
END_HANDLER
return true;
However I do not know where I can find AVMenuItemNew&#12289, or is that expression a combination of separate items?
Thanks again for your help,
A.