Packaging & Distribution

This chapter details directory conventions for plugin assemblies, bundling third-party dependencies, embedding i18n JSON resources, and automated build deployment.

1. Plugin Assembly Directory Structure

Lertaro recursively scans the Plugins\ folder located in the application root directory. To maintain clean isolation and avoid dependency conflicts across different plugins, place each plugin into its own dedicated subfolder:

Lertaro/
├── Lertaro.App.exe
├── Lertaro.PluginSdk.dll
└── Plugins/
    └── MyCustomPlugin/
        ├── MyCustomPlugin.dll           (Main Plugin Assembly)
        ├── ThirdParty.Managed.dll       (Managed Third-Party Dependency)
        └── x64/
            └── NativeLibrary.dll        (Native C/C++ Dynamic Link Library)

• Automatic Dependency Probing: When Lertaro loads the primary DLL via Assembly.LoadFrom, the .NET runtime automatically probes the plugin's folder for adjacent dependencies without cross-contaminating other plugins.
• Native File Toleration: When non-.NET native binaries (e.g. e_sqlite3.dll) are encountered, the loader safely logs them at Debug level without throwing false positive Error alerts.

2. Automated PostBuild Copy Configuration

Add a PostBuild MSBuild target to your plugin's .csproj to automatically deploy output files into the Lertaro App debugging directory upon every successful build:

<Target Name="PostBuild" AfterTargets="PostBuildEvent">
  <ItemGroup>
    <PluginOutputFiles Include="$(TargetDir)**\*.*" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <Copy SourceFiles="@(PluginOutputFiles)"
        DestinationFolder="..\..\App\bin\$(Configuration)\net10.0-windows\Plugins\$(TargetName)\%(RecursiveDir)"
        SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
</Target>

3. Embedding Localization Resources

If your plugin implements the ITranslationProvider interface, embed your translation JSON files directly as Embedded Resources to prevent missing language files:

<ItemGroup>
  <EmbeddedResource Include="Resources\Translations\**\*.json" />
</ItemGroup>

Organize files using the Resources/Translations/{CultureName}/{TypeName}.json hierarchy (e.g. zh-CN/MyCustomPlugin.json, en-US/MyCustomPlugin.json). Calling TranslationService.LoadEmbeddedTranslations parses the appropriate file dynamically based on the active UI language.

4. Versioning & Metadata

Define assembly version numbers and descriptions inside your .csproj:

<PropertyGroup>
  <Version>1.2.0</Version>
  <AssemblyVersion>1.2.0.0</AssemblyVersion>
  <FileVersion>1.2.0.0</FileVersion>
  <Description>High-performance search source and context action extension plugin.</Description>
</PropertyGroup>

This version and description string will be presented automatically inside the Settings → Plugins card.

5. Release Build & Architecture Artifacts

Run make.bat from the repository root on Windows with the .NET SDK and the 64-bit edition of Inno Setup 7 installed. The script creates separate publish outputs for x64 and win-arm64, then produces these files in dist/:

• Lertaro-Setup.exe and Lertaro-Portable.zip for x64.
• Lertaro-Setup-arm64.exe and Lertaro-Portable-arm64.zip for ARM64.

The application payload in the ARM64 artifacts is native ARM64. The ARM64 installer uses a compatibility Inno Setup bootstrapper, while the x64 installer uses a 64-bit Inno Setup 7 shell. Keep the architecture-specific payload and artifact suffixes aligned with make.bat, Installer/installer.iss, and the release workflow.