Problems installing newly zipped plugins in Windows

[Mutley95]

Apologies if this has already been asked but has anyone been experiencing problems installing plugins recently? Older plugins still install correctly but every time I try updating a plugin and rezipping it, I get the 'Error: Plugin not a valid Sigil plugin' message. I've tried two different laptops, installing the latest version and even unzipping working plugins such as testplugin_v020.zip and rezipping them with the same results. I've tried both Windows zip and 7zip but no joy. Any help or advice appreciated.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Mutley95

Apologies if this has already been asked but has anyone been experiencing problems installing plugins recently? Older plugins still install correctly but every time I try updating a plugin and rezipping it, I get the 'Error: Plugin not a valid Sigil plugin' message. I've tried two different laptops, installing the latest version and even unzipping working plugins such as testplugin_v020.zip and rezipping them with the same results. I've tried both Windows zip and 7zip but no joy. Any help or advice appreciated.

Plugins have a specific structure and naming scheme. You can't just rezip them with a different name and/or with a different structure.

What do you mean by "updating" a plugin? If you just want the latest version, there's no need to rezip anything. You just remove the old version and install the latest version.

If you're talking about modifying an existing plugin, then that's probably where you're running afoul of the renaming thing. The zipped plugin's file name has to match the plugin's name (in the plugin.xml) exactly. The only thing allowed after that is an underscore with some sort of version indicator: TagMechanic_v0.3.2 for example for one of my own plugins. Nothing before the _ (underscore) can vary from what the name of the plugin is (as indicated in the plugin.xml's "name" tag).

The structure of the zip is specific as well. Everything must be in a single folder within the zip archive and that folder's name must match the file name (and the name attribute in the plugin.xml file). If all of a plugin's files are zipped up without that parent folder (or the parent folder is named incorrectly), that would cause the invalid plugin error message as well.

[DiapDealer]

Just to be sure... I modified one of my existing plugins and changed the name and version in all of the required places and zipped up the new parent folder and everything installed as it should have on Windows.