Can’t execute installed plugin

Help
1

I installed QR code plugin but don’t know how to execute it

The title says it all, i installed the Qrcode plugin and think I activated it but don’t know joe to execute it. It’s not in the command palette.

Things I have tried

2

I would check their GitHub page for instructions.

The link is in the plugin description under Settings > Community plugins → <plugin-name>.

3

Thank you for the response. The instructions given on the GitHUB page are: “ Type the qrcode keyword to use the QR Code Plugin.”. I’ve tried this with no effect. In part because I don’t know how Obsidian would discriminate between a text element and a command. I think when I type it into a note it just considers it as text.

4

In the usage section on github it shows the full syntax:

```qrcode
https://github.com
```

Type or copy that into a note, and it should show that link (or whatever text you put in there) as a qrcode when you move your cursor outside of the code block when in live preview, or all the time when in reading mode.

5

Thank you for that reply. However, I copied your sample code to a note and nothing happened. I’m still confused. However, your suggestion did lead to me learning out about code blocks, which I greatly appreciate.

6

OK, lets go through the basic of using (or executing) some plugins. Please follow, or make sure you’ve done all of the steps below, and then the qr code should appear in your note:

  • Make sure Settings > Community plugins > Restricted mode is off, so that you’re able to have community plugins enabled
  • Click on Settings > Community plugins > Browse to look for plugins (or locating help more information on a plugin)
  • Type in qr code in the search field, and click on the card with the appropriate plugin
  • The top of you screen should now look similar to the following:
    image
    image1126×467 40.1 KB
  • I suspect that maybe your screen has a button with enable instead of disable as the image shows. This indicates whether you’ve turned on the plugin or not.
  • (a similar indication can be seen in the list on the previous screen, so if you close the window, and go back to Settings > Community plugins > Installed plugins, the “pill” next to QR Code Generator should be in the enabled state)
  • Now close down the settings window, and type the code block above into the window, and switch to reading view, and then you should see the following:
    image

If you don’t, then I’m not sure what strangeness you’ve got going on. A common mistake if you’re using live preview (the editing mode where you’re also able to see the formatting) is that your cursor is located within the code block. If this should be the case, then add a few line, or just go outside of the code block to allow Obsidian to render the code block.

2 Likes
7

@holroy thank you so much for that detailed summary of how to activate and use plugin commands. In my case, all the details accord with your specifications so I also am perplexed at what strangeness is going on. I tried updating Obsidian but I believe my Mac and IOS versions are current. On my iPad I could not find a backtick on the virtual keyboard but using a hardware keyboard with the iPad and my Mac keyboard I replaced the tick marks in the quoted string just in case there was something funny going on there and there was no effect. The string just sits there in the code block, with no evident invocation of the plugin. I’ll have to do some further experimenting. Thanks again for the trouble you took to elaborate the process.

8

That’s strange indeed. Could you do a screendump of Settings > Community Plugins, like in the following screen dump:

image
image1119×364 35.8 KB

And copy in the info from Show debug info, or at least from the About Obsidian screen?

9

[quote=“holroy, post:4, topic:96785”]

```qrcode
https://github.com


Thank you for that reply. I copied your sample code to a note and nothing happened. That's what's confusing. However, your suggestion did lead to me finding out about code blocks, which I appreciate.
10

Hmmm, I wrote a long reply which perhaps I forgot to hit reply because I see no evidence of it. Suffice it to say, by looking at the developer console log (who knew there was such a thing) I saw the error message: Uncaught (in promise) Error: No input text, from which I concluded that the plugin was indeed executing and thought it had no input. Accidentally, I hit return on my sample code so that the URL was on the line following the command and voila!, the QR code appeared. And, for example, when I copied your sample invocation (instead of mimicking it exactly), all the text was on 1 line so it failed as the qrcode plugin (Idon’t know about all plugin input) expected the input on the line following the command. Anyway, though am far from knowing the full story, I am at least able to generate QR codes. Thanks for all the help.

11

There is a difference between using Cmd V and Shift Cmd V (or Ctrl if on windows), which you might experience every now and then.

And yes, it’s vital for code blocks to have the front and back code fence, that is the lines with the triple backticks, on their own dedicated lines. This applies to all codeblocks.