plugin question

[sbrand]

Hi,
I thought I'd give some plugins and presets a try.
I downloaded, installed and added Jeffrey Friedl's "Export to SmugMug" to the plugin manager without problems.
Then I downloaded, installed and even played with Bryan Wheeler's "27 Free Lightroom Presets."
When I try to add it to plugin manager, however, I am unable to do so. I get an error message that says, "an error occurred while attempting to load this plugin."
I'm not at all sure what the plugin manager does and/or if I need to load the plugin into the plugin manager.
The plugin seems to be behaving OK but only time will tell.
Thanks for any advice.
Stephanie

 

[Brad Snyder]

Stephanie, maybe I'm misunderstanding the issue, but there's a big difference between an 'export plugin', like Jeffrey's, and 'develop presets' like Bryan's.

If you've been able to play with Bryan's 27 presets in the Develop module, then they're properly installed. The plugin manager is not involved in that process at all.
If you've been able to use Jeffrey's SmugMug plugin, then it's probably installed properly as well. The plugin manager can be used to install that tool.

 

[sbrand]

Stephanie, maybe I'm misunderstanding the issue, but there's a big difference between an 'export plugin', like Jeffrey's, and 'develop presets' like Bryan's.

If you've been able to play with Bryan's 27 presets in the Develop module, then they're properly installed. The plugin manager is not involved in that process at all.
If you've been able to use Jeffrey's SmugMug plugin, then it's probably installed properly as well. The plugin manager can be used to install that tool.

Thank you. Sounds like all is fine (I haven't tried the SmugMug plugin yet, but I'm presuming that it will be OK). I still don't understand what the plugin manager is, however. Can you explain in a sentence or 2?
Thanks again
Stephanie

 

[Brad Snyder]

Stephanie, Jeffrey's site gives an excellent explanation Plugin Installation.
I don't know about 2 sentences, tho', how about 2 paragraphs?

In short, the plugins are either a folder (Windows) or package (Mac) which are stored somewhere convenient on your hard-drive, and you use the plug-in manager to install, remove, and control the plugins from the Lr Export dialog. In general, although the learning curve is a little steep, this works as advertised.

There's a complication: Export plug-ins in Lr1.x were stored in a special Modules folder. Any plug-in stored in that location, is automatically installed at Lr runtime. Since this is true, the plug-in manager can't deal effectively with plug-ins stored there, because it doesn't know how to remove them. Since users often collect a number of plug-ins from various sources, of various ages and versions, the installation instructions vary all over the place, and confusion results.

 

[sbrand]

Ok, Brad. Actually that was pretty clear. With your explanation the difference is clear enough to me so that, at least, I understand that plugins are treated more like mini computer programs and presets are just what they say they are.... Thanks.
s