Absolute Beginner: Import Calibre Source for Plugin Use?

[enuddleyarbl]

I'm an absolute beginner to all aspects of editing an existing plugin in Calibre. So, I'm not even smart enough to search for an answer. I'm trying to look at an existing Calibre plugin in an IDE (VS Code). Looking at even the _init_.py module, I see that the IDE can't resolve the very first "from" line:

# The class that all Interface Action plugin wrappers must inherit from
from calibre.customize import InterfaceActionBase

Import "calibre.customize" could not be resolved

Does that mean I have to grab the Calibre source as described:
https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/dev...tting-the-code
and then set up a Windows development environment:
https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/dev...nt-environment
?

Or, is that just for modifying Calibre, itself?

If I do have to grab that source code, do I need to worry about my regular use of Calibre?

[kovidgoyal]

Yes, you need the calibre source.

[enuddleyarbl]

I did a git clone on the Calibre repository and got the source code ok. But, then I couldn't figure out how to point the plugin's code in my IDE (VS Code) at the Calibre source. I finally found a reference in the Calibre manual to doing that with PYTHONPATH in the IDE:

https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/dev...ite-python-ide

Which I couldn't figure out how to do. Finally, I just created a Windows environment variable (just like I did with CALIBRE_DEVELOP_FROM) and most of the references resolved (the remaining ones are for the actual plugin's configuration file and for "from PyQt5.Qt import QApplication" -- which I'm working on).

But, as a suggestion, could you add a sentence to either the Getting the Code or the Windows Development Environment sections of the manual to set up that PYTHONPATH Windows environment variable at the same time as setting up the CALIBRE_DEVELOP_FROM one (assuming I did the right thing)?

[bopuc]

Indeed, adding this explicitly to the documentation would be very helpful.

It is unfortunately not obvious (even to the experienced) where to put development plugin code (which is a repo itself) in relation to a local clone of the Calibre source code in order for the IDE to resolve imports when working on said plugin.