Migrating SDK 5.0 plugin to 9.1 or X SDK

Question

I have a plugin that was originally developed with the 5.0 SDK.  There is no SDK documentation available with this code.  There are files included with the old SDK that are not in the newer versions, an example being AVSPProcs.h, which appears to work with something called ADM (is this the same as Adobe Dialog Manager?).
Are there any suggestions about how I could get information on what has changed through the various versions of the SDK?  I would hate to have to rewrite the plugin from scratch but that's an option if there isn't a better alternative.

Answer 1

If you don't have all the SDK versions since v5 with the documentation,
it's impossible to get detailed enough information about what has changed
in those 11 1/2 years since the release of Acrobat 5. That's a long time.
I've done plug-in development since Acrobat 4, and I would have a hard time
to figure out what exactly is different.
Here is how I would approach it: Create a new plug-in with the latest SDK
(the A-XI SDK is not yet available). Then copy the files from the old
plug-in into the project and give it a try. Look at all the error messages
and see if you can make any sense of them. Try to find the oldest SDK you
can find and use that documentation to figure out what you need to change.
The biggest change was the move from the multi-document interface to the
single-document design of the modern Acrobat, and then with Acrobat X, the
move from the menu and toolbars to the Tools pane. And, of course the
removal of ADM which is the Adobe Dialog Manager. If the ADM was actually
used in your old plug-in, you will have to spent some time on re-creating
the UI with a different UI framework. I've used wxWidgets in the past for
cross-platform UIs, and the native Windows and Mac UIs for plug-ins that
were designed for just one platform.
You need to estimate how long it would take to re-implement the
functionality of your plug-in vs. the time it will take to port it, and
then go with whatever solution will be easier and cheaper. Not an easy
decision. I've never gone from a plug-in that was that old, but I've always
used the porting approach, never had to reimplement one.
Good luck!
Karl Heinz Kremer
PDF Acrobatics Without a Net
[email protected]
http://www.khkonsulting.com