Shared Abstractions

Models and support contracts used across the interfaces in the other SDK pages.

ISearchResult

The read-only view of a result every plugin interface operates on — plugins never get a mutable result object, only this:

interface ISearchResult
{
    string Name { get; }
    string FullPath { get; }
    string ContextDirectory { get; }
    bool IsDir { get; }
    bool IsApplication { get; }
    FileMetadata Metadata { get; }
    bool[]? GetHighlightMask(string text, string query);
}

Metadata carries Size/Created/Modified/Accessed for every result the host's own file index produced — reading it is free (no disk I/O or IPC), unlike FileMetadataService.GetMetadataAsync (see Host Services), which is only worth calling for a path that isn't already one of your current results.

FileMetadata

readonly record struct FileMetadata(long Size, DateTime Created, DateTime Modified, DateTime Accessed);

Local time. default (every field zero/DateTime.MinValue) means "not available" — a result that isn't backed by the file index (e.g. one another plugin produced). Check Metadata.Modified != default to tell that apart from a real, legitimately zero-byte file, whose Size is genuinely 0 but whose timestamps are still real.

IPluginSearchWindow

The minimal window-control surface passed to ISearchResultAction.Execute and similar callbacks — deliberately small; plugins act on results through this, not by holding onto the real window:

interface IPluginSearchWindow
{
    void LocateInExplorerExternal(string path);
    void OpenFileOrFolderExternal(string path);
    void OpenFileOrFolderAsAdminExternal(string path);
    void HideWindow();
}

IConfigurable

Implement this alongside IPlugin to get a configuration UI generated automatically under Settings → Plugins → Configure — no custom WPF required for simple cases.

interface IConfigurable
{
    PluginConfigSchema GetConfigSchema();
}

PluginConfigSchema is a flat Fields: List<PluginConfigField>. Each PluginConfigField has a Key, optional GroupKey/LabelKey/DescriptionKey (translation keys, resolved through your own ITranslationProvider if you have one), a FieldType, a DefaultValue, and — depending on the type — Choices, nested SubFields, or RequireModifier (Hotkey fields only, rejects an unmodified single key).

Set RequireNonEmpty on a field (typically a Text trigger keyword) to fall back to DefaultValue instead of persisting an empty/whitespace value on save — otherwise a user clearing a keyword field would silently make whatever depends on it unreachable rather than reverting to a sane default.

ConfigFieldType covers: Boolean, Text, Integer, Choice, Array, Object, Group, StringList, Hotkey, FilePath, FolderPath. See CoreExtensions for a real schema using nested groups and StringList.

Registries

ActivePathCollectorRegistry, FileDialogAdapterRegistry, and InlineSearchAdapterRegistry are how the host collects every loaded implementation of the corresponding system adapter interfaces into one place at runtime. Plugin authors don't normally interact with these directly — implementing the interface is enough for the host to discover and register your plugin automatically.