Xcode 8 won't load plug-ins

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Joe Groff tweet

@fzwob Xcode 8 uses library validation. It won't load in-process plugins anymore.

That’s very bad news for Alcatraz and the current plug-ins ecosystem. 😢

[RobertGummesson]

Yep, looks like the era of Xcode plug-ins is over. 😥 I will personally be looking into porting my ones and hope the extensions are not too limited.

[alanhamlett]

I'm looking for docs on creating Xcode Source Editor Extensions... anyone find them yet?

Xcode 8 adds support for Xcode Source Editor Extensions: Application Extensions provide additional
commands in the Xcode Editor menu. These extensions can manipulate both text and selections. To
create them, use the new Xcode Source Editor Extension target template in the macOS Application
Extensions section when creating a project. (23194974)

I don't have the Xcode Source Editor Extension target template in my Xcode 8 Beta, and these headers are the only thing Google found on the subject:
https://gist.github.com/OdNairy/62de23d6627d518c38fed078a0581046

Also, this video about Using and Extending the Xcode Source Editor:
https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2016/414/

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To create an Xcode Source Editor Extension, you have to add a new target to a project. The Xcode Source Editor Extension template is not available when creating a project.

Unfortunately, as its name imply, a Source Editor Extension only has access to the source code editor part of Xcode. So only a few plug-ins can be rewritten with the new official extension API. 😢

[fzwo]

In his tweets to me, Joe Groff asked for radars for missing functionality, implying that they are interested in giving us a powerful system. So I’d invite every dev whose plug-in is not supported under the new system to file radars.

f.

Am 14.06.2016 um 10:59 schrieb Cédric Luthi notifications@github.com:

To create an Xcode Source Editor Extension, you have to add a new target to a project.

Unfortunately, as its name imply, a Source Editor Extension only has access to the source code editor part of Xcode. So only a few plug-ins can be rewritten with the new official extension API. 😢

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[erikolofsson]

This is very unfortunate. For the plugins that I need I would suspect a very small portion of the functionality is feasible with the new plugin infrastructure.

A workaround is to remove the signature from Xcode.app. You can do this with https://github.com/steakknife/unsign

[fzwo]

@neonichu tweets that the template shows up when adding a new target to an existing macOS project.

[guillaumealgis]

@erikolofsson I doubt this would solve the problem. Even if being itself unsigned, Xcode will probably refuse to load unsigned code.
Maybe you could tamper with the extension loading function once Xcode's signature is removed, but that would probably also implies disabling SIP... And well this doesn't seems like a good idea at all.

(Not to mention that we have not much to gain by irritating Apple on this kind of things, and everything to gain by playing nice and providing helpful feedback)

[pdcgomes]

@guillaume-algis I tired it a couple of hours ago and it did work.

[guillaumealgis]

@pdcgomes you mean unsigning Xcode with https://github.com/steakknife/unsign to make it load arbitrary plugins?
To be honest I'm at work and I did not have time yet to play with the thing much. That was just random thoughts on the matter ;)

[pdcgomes]

Yes, correct. But agreed, not the way forward. I'm just concerned with how fast they'll be able to push additional extension points. We shall see!

[pdcgomes]

Managed to sit down with some of the Xcode engineers that are working on Xcode Extensions earlier today. As expected, anything that doesn't involve pure text manipulation can't really be achieved with the current extension point.
The good news is that this is just the beginning and they're very keen on getting as much feedback as they possibly can, so definitely submit radars with very clear use case cases.

Unfortunately there are no clear timelines, so who knows how long it'll take until we have a rich public API and more extension points.

And yes, they've confirmed that by removing code signing, existing plugins will work. Having that said, it adds even more friction to the whole process, so the average user will probably either opt out or just be completely unaware of it. The way forward is to definitely clearly document valid use cases and file radars.

Both sad and exciting times ahead.

[dabing1022]

Xcode Extensions- Your Life Will Change