Feature Request: a way to retrieve accurate plugin disable/enable state

Question

As it stands, LrEnablePlugin file is executed when plugin goes from disabled to enabled, and LrDisablePlugin is executed when plugin goes from enabled to disabled. Unfortunately its really hard to glean useful information because:
plugin will go from enabled to disabled then back to enabled when new metadata is added and such stuff, and there is no way to tell whether plugin is enabled or disabled after a reload, since neither module is executed unless there is a change.
It would be useful to me to be able to simply read an accurate status: enabled or disabled.
Also, if Lr needs to disable for a moment to add metadata, I'd rather have the state not reflect the temporary disablement, unless reenabling fails and it becomes permanently disabled, or better still, have it reflect the temporary-ness of the disabled state, so maybe these states:
disabled permanently
disabled temporarily (e.g. to add metadata)
enabled permanently
enabled temporarily - for case when user attempts to enable but catalog neds updating, in which case if update fails it will be re-disabled.
If this is too much, at least a minimal improvement could be had by simply having LrEnablePlugin and LrDisablePlugin not be called when Lightroom disables/enables for the sake of metadata / catalog updating, so they're only called when user clicks the buttons. This would not be as useful as accurate live status, but at least would eliminate disable / enable actions that assume the user did something he/she did not...

Answer 1

HI Matt,
Sorry - it was late...
Anyway, I think you've got the jest of it. To help clarify further:
There are two issues with the way things are enable/disable-wise:
1.  there is no way for a plugin to tell if it is enabled or disabled.
Here's a cut from the framework:
--- Determine if plugin is enabled.
--  @usage      Note: do not depend on this reporting correctly, since default value for 'enabled' is true
--              even when plugin is disabled. Its only correct after plugin goes from enabled to disabled or vice versa after init...
function App:isPluginEnabled()
    local ena = rawget( _G, 'enabled' )
    assert( ena ~= nil, "no ena" )
    return ena
end
2. The enabled / disabled modules are executed upon temporary disablement / reenablement as well as the more permanent flavor, so they cant really be used to prompt the user, or multiple confusing prompts get issued when the state is bouncing around...
As usual, I'd like to see this improved in the next version, but I'm also open to suggestions for working around it in the mean time...
PS - I just thought of a work-around for the first issue (which primarily arises in plugins that access plugin metadata) - just try and get a known-to-be-defined metadata item - iff successful, then the plugin is enabled.
So, a possible solution:
1. Have a readable (and preferrably writable too) enable/disable state that accurately reflects right-now enable / disable state - even if temporary.
2. The ability to determine root cause of disablement, e.g. "temp-for-catalog-update", "permanent-since-catalog-update-failed", "user-initiated", ... I can imagine root cause for enablement to be useful too...
*** UPDATE: Modified method:
--- Determine if metadata-supporting plugin is enabled.
--  @param      name (string, default dummy_) name of alternative plugin metadata item (property) to be used.
--  @param      photo (lr-photo, default 1st photo of all) photo to use to check.
--  @usage      This method presently only works when a metadata item is defined. Maybe one day it will also work even with no plugin metadata defined.
--  @usage      Only works from an async task.
--  @return     enabled (boolean) true iff enabled. Throws error if not called from async task.
function App:isPluginEnabled( name, photo )
    assert( catalog, "No catalog." )
    name = name or 'dummy_' -- cant start with underscore.
    photo = photo or catalog:getAllPhotos()[1] -- getting all-photos takes ~16msec.
    assert( photo, "No photo." )
    local _dummy, msg = photo:getPropertyForPlugin( _PLUGIN, name, nil, true ) -- nil version, no-throw.
    if msg == nil then -- msg is nil if property defined and plugin enabled, even if property value is nil.
        return true
    else
        return false, msg
    end
    --local ena = rawget( _G, 'enabled' )
    --assert( ena ~= nil, "no ena" )
    --return ena
end
Rob