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How do you use ODB Editor?

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tfjunk

18 Jul, 2013 08:45 PM

I'm happy that ODB Editor support is added in, even if it is flakey. I've been looking for something like that for a while.

But, question on how to use it: Do you need something like QuickCursor to invoke it? Or is there another way, with say just Evernote and MMDC, to make it work? First and foremost, I'm interested in exchanging plain text (MMD markup) between Evernote and MMDC.

Thanks,
Travis

1. Support Staff 1 Posted by Fletcher on 18 Jul, 2013 11:32 PM

   

   ODB Editor Suite is a two part protocol, requiring a "client" and "server." Text editors can support one half of the protocol, but the "sending" application has to support the other part of the protocol. MarsEdit, for example, allows you to specify an external editor (such as MultiMarkdown Composer).

   QuickCursor is an application that was designed to act as a "sender" for any application using a standard Apple textfield. It appears that it is no longer officially supported, but I was able to download and compile the source and get it to work on my machine. I have used it to send text from TextEdit, Mail, Notes, and other apps to MMDC, and back again so that I could edit text more easily.

   I don't use Evernote, so I can't guarantee it's compatible with QuickCursor, but I imagine it would be.

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2. Fletcher closed this discussion on 18 Jul, 2013 11:32 PM.

3. Fletcher re-opened this discussion on 19 Jul, 2013 09:50 PM

4. Support Staff 2 Posted by Fletcher on 19 Jul, 2013 09:50 PM

   

   ODB Editor Suite is a two part protocol, requiring a "client" and "server." Text editors can support one half of the protocol, but the "sending" application has to support the other part of the protocol. MarsEdit, for example, allows you to specify an external editor (such as MultiMarkdown Composer).

   QuickCursor is an application that was designed to act as a "sender" for any application using a standard Apple textfield. It appears that it is no longer officially supported, but I was able to download and compile the source and get it to work on my machine. I have used it to send text from TextEdit, Mail, Notes, and other apps to MMDC, and back again so that I could edit text more easily.

   I don't use Evernote, so I can't guarantee it's compatible with QuickCursor, but I imagine it would be.

   F-

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5. Fletcher closed this discussion on 21 Jul, 2013 11:20 PM.

6. tfjunk re-opened this discussion on 26 Jul, 2013 05:16 PM

7. 3 Posted by tfjunk on 26 Jul, 2013 05:16 PM

   

   Okay, I know there are issues with ODB Editors and 10.7, but I'm seeing some strange behavior:

   1. Everything works with Mail/Evernote and TextWrangler sent via QuickCursor. That is, I downloaded and compiled QC. I have the non-App Store version of TW and Evernote. All works fine.

   2. Return doesn't work with MMDC (non-App Store). If I have Mail/Evernote send text to MMDC via QC, the text shows up but saving doesn't cause the text to return.

   I find this a little weird because these are all non-sandboxed apps and it works fine, everything time, on 10.7 with TextWrangler.

   Is there something that TW is doing that MMDC isn't?

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8. Support Staff 4 Posted by Fletcher on 26 Jul, 2013 08:41 PM

   

   The ODB Editor suite is not supported in 10.7 in Composer. I am not claiming that it is technically impossible --- clearly there are applications that support ODB in 10.7. But the ODB Editor protocol is maddeningly archaic, IMHO, and doesn't fit cleanly into the way NSDocument seems to want to function. Given that 10.9 is on the way, I don't plan on spending a bunch of time to try to troubleshoot a feature that never worked well on 10.7 to begin with. When I experimented with trying to get ODB to work in 10.7, the errors that were occurring were bizarre, and a solution was not readily apparent.

   I'm happy to support ODB in 10.8 (and 10.9 if it works) provided it doesn't start causing problems. Several of the bugs in Composer v1 running on 10.7 were because of trying to support ODB. And since it appears Apple Event communication between apps may not be possible in the future, I can't promise the feature won't go away entirely.

   In my tests, however, ODB works just fine in Composer running on 10.8. I think it works on 10.9, but there are other issues in 10.9 that I am waiting on Apple to resolve. With each developer preview, it seems that there are different problems it causes for Composer. So I can't guarantee anything yet.

   And if a solution to enable ODB on 10.7 appears, I am not opposed to implementing it. I'm just not sure how much time I will be able to devote to that, since 10.7 is almost two major releases out of date at this point.

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9. Fletcher closed this discussion on 26 Jul, 2013 08:41 PM.

10. tfjunk re-opened this discussion on 26 Jul, 2013 08:51 PM

11. 5 Posted by tfjunk on 26 Jul, 2013 08:51 PM

    

    Fair enough. I support the idea of developers focusing on the future (e.g, 10.9) rather than the past. I'll be upgrading my OS one of these days, maybe when I get a new machine. I mainly wrote to give another data point - that TextWrangler did seem to work on 10.7.

    Thanks for your responsiveness.

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12. Fletcher closed this discussion on 27 Jul, 2013 06:55 PM.