Win32::Mechanize::NotepadPlusPlus - Automate the Windows application Notepad++
use Win32::Mechanize::NotepadPlusPlus ':main'; my $npp = notepad(); # main application
Automate the Windows application Notepad++. This is inspired by the Notepad++ plugin PythonScript, but I decided to automate the application from the outside, rather than from inside a Notepad++ plugin. But this module uses similar naming conventions and interface to the PythonScript plugin.
These give you access to the Notepad++ application GUI and the Scintilla editor components inside Notepad++. The main module exports functions that return the default instances.
Win32::Mechanize::NotepadPlusPlus::Notepad gives access to the actual Notepad++ application.
my $npp = notepad(); $npp->CloseAll();
Win32::Mechanize::NotepadPlusPlus::Editor gives access to the underlying Scintilla component(s) used to actually edit the text files in Notepad++.
In PythonScript, the default instance is called editor for the active editor window. There are two additional instances, editor1 and editor2 for accessing the specific "left" and "right" editor panes.
editor
editor1
editor2
my $left_pane = editor1(); my $right_pane = editor2(); if( editor() == $left_pane ) { ... } # do this only if left pane is active pane
The Console was a PythonScript feature, beacuse it had an embedded Python interpreter. Since Win32::Mechanize::NotepadPlusPlus is an outside-in framework, there is no Perl interpreter embedded in Notepad++.
By default, the module exports nothing.
Exports the "notepad", "editor", "editor1", and "editor2" functions.
Exports the variables from both Win32::Mechanize::NotepadPlusPlus::Notepad::Messages and Win32::Mechanize::NotepadPlusPlus::Editor::Messages
use Win32::Mechanize::NotepadPlusPlus qw/:vars/; # from Notepad::Messages: %NPPMSG, %VIEW, %MODELESS, %STATUSBAR, %MENUHANDLE, %INTERNALVAR, %LANGTYPE, %WINVER, %WINPLATFORM, %NOTIFICATION, %DOCSTATUS, %NPPIDM, %ENCODINGKEY # from Editor::Messages: %SCIMSG, %SCINTILLANOTIFICATION, and more than 50 others.
This is the first public release of the module. In general, it works. As with all first releases, there is room for improvement; I welcome feedback.
The first known limitation is that none of the hooks for Scintilla or Notepad++ callbacks have been enabled. That may come sometime in the future.
All the testing and development was done with a US-English installation of Notepad++, and all the file encodings have been ANSI or UTF-8. I know that I need to include better tests for encoding, and any help you can provide with that is appreciated.
Notepad++ is a Windows application, so that's the intended platform for this module. However, I know Notepad++ can be made to run in Wine and similar environments in Linux, so it may be possible to make this module drive Notepad++ in such an environment. Feedback on this process is welcome.
To install this module, use your favorite CPAN client.
For a manual install, type the following:
perl Makefile.PL make make test make install
(On Windows machines, you may need to use "dmake" or "gmake" instead of "make", depending on your setup.)
Peter C. Jones <petercj AT cpan DOT org>
<petercj AT cpan DOT org>
Please report any bugs or feature requests thru the repository's interface at https://github.com/pryrt/Win32-Mechanize-NotepadPlusPlus/issues, or by emailing <bug-Win32-Mechanize-NotepadPlusPlus AT rt.cpan.org> or thru the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Win32-Mechanize-NotepadPlusPlus.
<bug-Win32-Mechanize-NotepadPlusPlus AT rt.cpan.org>
Copyright (C) 2019,2020 Peter C. Jones
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either: the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or the Artistic License. See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/ for more information.
To install Win32::Mechanize::NotepadPlusPlus, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm Win32::Mechanize::NotepadPlusPlus
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Win32::Mechanize::NotepadPlusPlus
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.