Missing support for external tools / plugins

[szerwi]

Describe the solution you'd like
I would like to propose support for external tools / plugins which are compatible with Arduino IDE. Ex. https://github.com/me-no-dev/arduino-esp32fs-plugin or https://github.com/me-no-dev/EspExceptionDecoder
If it is already supported, how can I use tools in Pro IDE?
If it is not supported yet, are there any plans for implementing that?

Describe the problem

There is no support for extending the capabilities of Arduino IDE via external tools/plugins. This is a feature parity mismatch with Arduino IDE 1.x.

To reproduce

1. Follow the instructions to install the "Arduino Pico LittleFS Filesystem Uploader" plugin:
   https://github.com/earlephilhower/arduino-pico-littlefs-plugin#installation
2. Start Arduino IDE 2.x
3. Open the Tools menu.

🐛 The expected "Pico LittleFS Data Upload" menu item is missing.

Expected behavior

Support for extending the capabilities of Arduino IDE via external tools/plugins equivalent to the system provided by Arduino IDE 1.x.

Arduino IDE version

Original report

2.0.0-beta.1

Last verified with

2.0.2

Operating system

All

Operating system version

any

Additional context

Additional reports

• Ardublocks needed for teaching #350
• How can we add an extension to Arduino IDE 2.0? #239
• no tools #1931
• Allow 3rd parts tools in Tools menu #807
• Missing support for external tools / plugins #58 (comment)
• Missing support for external tools / plugins #58 (comment)
• Missing support for external tools / plugins #58 (comment)
• Missing support for external tools / plugins #58 (comment)
• Missing support for external tools / plugins #58 (comment)
• Missing support for external tools / plugins #58 (comment)
• Missing support for external tools / plugins #58 (comment)
• Missing support for external tools / plugins #58 (comment)
• Missing support for external tools / plugins #58 (comment)
• Missing support for external tools / plugins #58 (comment)
• Missing support for external tools / plugins #58 (comment)
• Missing support for external tools / plugins #58 (comment)
• Tool not working with Arduino IDE v2.0 beta me-no-dev/arduino-esp32fs-plugin#30
• Arduino 2.x - where to put .jar file? lorol/arduino-esp32fs-plugin#8
• ESP8266LittleFS does not show in Arduino  earlephilhower/arduino-esp8266littlefs-plugin#20
• arduino-esp8266littlefs-plugin on the new Arduino IDE 2.0  earlephilhower/arduino-esp8266littlefs-plugin#21
• littlefs on linux earlephilhower/arduino-esp8266littlefs-plugin#22
• Plugin tool not compatible with Arduino IDE 2.x earlephilhower/arduino-esp8266littlefs-plugin#25
• Arduino IDE 2.0.1 me-no-dev/EspExceptionDecoder#85
• [Question] Server-Side RPC: Receiving Attributes doesn't work thingsboard/thingsboard-client-sdk#107 (comment)
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/exception-decoder/1055759/1
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/exception-decoder/1055759/4
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/exception-decoder/1055759/5
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/exception-9-epc1-0x40100262-epc2-0x00000000-epc3-0x00000000-excvaddr-0xc010e109-depc-0x00000000/1054425/14
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/esp-exception-decoder-for-arduino-2-0/1050587
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/tool-menu-esp8266-littlefs-filesystem-uploader-not-displaying/1037055
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/esp8266-sketch-data-upload/941933
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/tools-for-arduino-ide-2-0-beta/894962
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/ide-2-0-and-esp32-sketch-data-upload/904160
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/add-tools-to-arduino-ide-2-0/893213
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/ide-2-0-beta-10-not-yet-configurable-tools-menu/892980
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/espexceptiondecoder-cant-be-found-in-tool-directory/876547
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/nrf5-softdevice-flashing-tool/866336
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/arduino-2-0-beta-no-ardublock/856338
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/tools-directory-with-esp32fs-or-esp8266fs/703461
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/tool-to-upload-data-to-spiffs-is-missing/699986
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/how-to-install-plugin-in-linux/1120703
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/decoding-abort-backtrace-help/1130283
• https://forum.pjrc.com/index.php?threads/teensyduino-1-59-beta-6.74402/#post-338480

Related

• feat: Exception Stack Trace Decoder for esp32 #1893
• Serial Monitor plugin system to be able to add protocols like VT100, VTX, VTnnn, etc. #406

Issue checklist

• I searched for previous reports in the issue tracker
• I verified the problem still occurs when using the latest nightly build
• My report contains all necessary details

[ubidefeo]

@szerwi
we have long had this in our list, but the pre-existing tools are built on Java and the new IDE is built on Electron.
In order to implement tools, we should offer entry points for those and developers should follow guidelines to write such tools in JS, or make them binary executables that could be launched.
We're not there yet, but this particular instance, the ESP exception decoder, is one of the most used tools out there :)

[szerwi]

@ubidefeo Thanks for the reply. Do you mean that ESP exception decoder is one of the most used tools in Arduino IDE? Is there any way to run ESP exception decoder outside Arduino IDE and use it together with Pro IDE?

[ubidefeo]

@szerwi we don't have any stats/numbers, there aren't many tools available, but I know that one is widely used to make sense of stack output dumped into the serial when the ESP crash.
You cannot use those tools outside of the Java IDE, they are made in Java and built to leverage the Tools system in the Java IDE

[igrr]

Hi, I'd like to mention that for the ESP-specific plugins, we are open to rewriting them in any language required for integration with Arduino IDE v2.0.

We are also open to some more limited or localized plugin functionality. For example, for the exception decoder it would be sufficient if we could add a core-specific "filter" tool which could take serial data from stdin and annotate with any additional information, and send that to stdout. The IDE could then launch this process in the background.

If some direction is given by the Arduino team, we can also contribute PRs to support these features.

[ubidefeo]

Thank you @igrr
We're really happy to see this comment.
We'll discuss this internally to figure out what's the best plan of action and get back to you.
Right now we don't have an API for plugins, but it's been in our bucket-list for a while.
I need to talk to the team to see if we can leverage a VS Code Extension kind of workflow to get started,
give us some time to talk this.
Thanks again 🙏🏼