FormtIt 360 Api for external connection

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I would like to connect my cloud based software with FormIt 360 via an api. Does an api exist and what features does it have?

Cheers, Tom

[josh.goldstein]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for writing in. FormIt does have a burgeoning JavaScript API that you might find useful. The JS API is used to call core FormIt functionality, and also gives developers the ability to create rich HTML/CSS UI in FormIt's side panels in Windows (and soon, in Web). You can also make dialogs and toolbar-based plugins.

With the next version of FormIt, we'll be expanding the API significantly and enhancing our documentation. But for now, here's what we have:

• Docs
  • Information about the example plugins and how to load/install plugins
  • How to make your own plugin
  • FormIt Javascript API (for FormIt v16.x)
•  Repos
  • Example Pugins (examples of how to build various UI types)
  • Workflow Plugins (useful geometry/canvas automation plugins)
• Plugin Manager
  • You can install our in-progress Plugin Manager now, which includes the two repos listed above by default. This enables you to explore the results of the Example Plugins and try out the Workflow Plugins.
  • In FormIt for Windows, go to the Window menu and check Script Editor and Script Output
  • In the Script Editor (at the bottom of the window), paste the following:

    • FormIt.InstallPlugin("https://formit3d.github.io/FormItExamplePlugins/PluginManagerPlugin");

  • You can hit the Play button (this runs all code in the window), or, if you have other code written, you can highlight this line of text, then hit the Play Selected button (play icon with a cursor/arrow)
  • You should see the Plugin Manager appear as a panel on the right-hand side. You can install the default plugins by expanding the Repo list and checking the button on the right of each Plugin. Uninstall by clicking the checkboxes too.

You can make your own plugins, host them on a local server, and load/install them in FormIt for testing via the Script Editor window. Once you publish your GitHub repo, you can link your repo to the Plugin Manager so you can easily install/manage your plugins from there.

Note that everything I've mentioned is currently limited to the FormIt for Windows app; FormIt Web will get Plugin support with our next release. Windows' plugin integration will be improved with the next release as well.

We'd love to know more about what you're trying to accomplish, and we're happy to help as much as we can. As I said, this is all a work in progress, so feel free to post here with suggestions or comments, or use GitHub's issue tracker for more formal issues that we can address and track there.

Regards,

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Thanks a lot for your detailed response. Unfortunately, I want to integrate FormIt graphically into our web service homepage. So that seems to be not possible till now.

Cheers, Tom

[pieter7]

I'm trying to create my first plugin but I have some trouble making it show up in Formit.

I'm following the steps described here: https://formit3d.github.io/FormItExamplePlugins/docs/HowTo.html

- Is there any way to verify whether the python server is running?

- Is there a command to uninstall/reinstall the plugin?

- In the instructions is says "NOTE:  Python will need to be in the path for the batch file to run. " Could you provide some more instructions on this?

[josh.goldstein]

@Anonymous I think we can help you accomplish what you want. The upcoming version of FormIt Web has embedding capabilities that might fulfill your needs. I'll reach out directly and loop you in with some others on our team to better understand what you're looking to accomplish and how we can assist.

@pieter7 thanks for trying out the Plugins. As I said, we need to update our external documentation, so you're an early tester and we appreciate the reminder to get this stuff in order:

- Instead of the python server, we've moved internally to an npm server which you can simply install globally, then use http-server to launch the server in whatever directory makes sense

- You can use FormIt.InstallPlugin("URL"); and FormIt.UninstallPlugin("URL"); commands, or you can simply use FormIt.LoadPlugin("URL"); which allows you to load multiple instances of the same plugin, which is great for testing. Loaded plugins will disappear when you close and reopen FormIt, whereas installed plugins are persistent between sessions as long as your registry isn't cleared, or as long as the plugins are not uninstalled

- Disregard the note about the Python in your PATH and the batch file. Now that we switched to npm as mentioned above, this isn't necessary. We will update the docs and remove the batch file. 

[josh.goldstein]

@pieter7 thanks again for trying out FormIt plugins. Wanted to let you know we overhauled our plugin documentation. It should be accurate and easy to follow! Feel free to take a look and let us know if anything is unclear.

Using FormIt Plugins
Building FormIt Plugins

I'll also update the thread you started about your first plugin.