Dash Plugin Development

This page provides instructions on how plugin developers can integrate Dash with other apps. This page is not meant for regular Dash users. If you're just looking for a way to integrate Dash with your favorite app, check out Dash's Preferences > Integration.

The Easy Way

You can trigger a search in Dash by opening a dash://{query} URL. For example, click here. For instructions on how to open custom URLs in Terminal, System Services or AppleScripts, check out Dash's Preferences > Integration.

The Better Way

Dash supports a lot of different docsets and it would be great if plugins would be able to tell Dash which docsets it should search exactly. This is usually determined based on the type of file the user currently has opened when he/she triggers a search.

The format is: dash-plugin://keys={keywords}&query={query}

keys tells Dash which docsets it should search for
- This is a comma separated list of docset keywords. For example: python,django or macosx,iphoneos. For a list of available docset keywords, see below.
- The keywords should be ordered based on how relevant they are.
- The keywords are matched even if the user defined custom keywords.
query is the actual search query.
- Very important: The query should be percent encoded.

Examples:

dash-plugin://keys=python,django&query=string will search the Python and Django docsets for "string"
dash-plugin://keys=python,django will activate the Python and Django docsets and the user will have to enter the query
dash-plugin://query=string will just search for "string" using the docsets that the user has active by default

Mapping Between File Types and Keywords

The trick is which keywords to use given a file type. The general guideline is to use all the keywords that are relevant. If a user does not have a docset installed for a keyword, the keyword is simply ignored, so there's no harm if you send over too many keywords. For example, if the user triggers a search from a .php file, you shouldn't only send over the php keyword, but also keywords for all the PHP frameworks and even the HTML-related ones.

Recommended Mappings

This list is a work in progress. Please contact me if anything needs to be changed.

ActionScript (.as, .as3)

keys=actionscript

Android

keys=android

Boo (.boo)

keys=unity3d

C (.c, .h)

keys=c,glib,gl2,gl3,gl4,manpages

C++ (.cpp, .cc, .cp, .cxx, .c++, .C, .h, .hh, .hpp, .hxx, .h++, .inl, .ipp)

keys=cpp,net,boost,qt,cvcpp,cocos2dx,c,manpages

C# (.cs)

keys=net,mono,unity3d

Cappuccino / Objective-J (.j, .h)

keys=cappuccino

Clojure (.clj, .cljs, .cljc, .edn)

keys=clojure

CoffeeScript (.coffee)

keys=coffee

ColdFusion (.cfm, .cfml)

keys=cf

Config Files (.config)

keys=nginx

CSS (.css)

keys=css,bootstrap,foundation,less,awesome,cordova,phonegap

Dart (.dart)

keys=dartlang,polymerdart,angulardart

Elixir (.ex, .exs)

keys=elixir

Erlang (.erl, .hrl)

keys=erlang

Go (.go)

keys=go,godoc

Gradle (.gradle)

keys=gradle

Haskell (.hs, .lhs)

keys=haskell

Haml (.haml)

keys=haml

HTML (.html, .htm, .shtml, .xhtml, .phtml, .inc, .tmpl, .tpl, .ctp)

keys=html,svg,css,bootstrap,foundation,awesome,statamic,javascript,jquery,jqueryui,jquerym,angularjs,backbone,marionette,meteor,moo,prototype,ember,lodash,underscore,sencha,extjs,knockout,zepto,cordova,phonegap,yui

Jade (.jade)

keys=jade

Java (.java, .jsp, .bsh)

keys=java,javafx,grails,groovy,playjava,spring,cvj,processing

JavaScript (.js, .htc, .jsx)

keys=javascript,jquery,jqueryui,jquerym,angular,angularjs,react,vue,backbone,marionette,meteor,sproutcore,moo,prototype,bootstrap,foundation,lodash,underscore,ember,sencha,extjs,titanium,knockout,zepto,yui,d3,svg,dojo,coffee,nodejs,express,grunt,mongoose,moment,require,awsjs,jasmine,sails,sinon,chai,html,css,cordova,phonegap,unity3d

Julia (.jl)

keys=julia

Less (.less)

keys=less

Lisp (.lisp)

keys=lisp

Lua (.lua)

keys=lua,corona

Markdown (.md, .mdown, .markdown, .markdn)

keys=markdown

Objective-C (.m, .h)

keys=iphoneos,macosx,watchos,tvos,cocoapods,appledoc,cocos2d,cocos3d,kobold2d,sparrow,c,manpages

Objective-C++ (.mm, .M, .h)

keys=cpp,iphoneos,macosx,cocoapods,appledoc,cocos2dx,cocos2d,cocos3d,kobold2d,sparrow,c,manpages

Ocaml (.ml, .mli, .mll, .mly)

keys=ocaml

Perl (.pl, .pm, .pod, .t)

keys=perl,manpages

PHP (.php, .inc)

keys=php,wordpress,drupal,zend,laravel,yii,joomla,ee,codeigniter,cakephp,phpunit,symfony,typo3,twig,smarty,craft,phpp,html,statamic,mysql,sqlite,mongodb,psql,redis

Processing (.pde)

keys=processing

Pug (.pug)

keys=pug

Puppet (.pp)

keys=puppet

Python (.py, .rpy, .pyw, .cpy)

keys=python,django,twisted,sphinx,flask,tornado,sqlalchemy,numpy,scipy,salt,pandas,matplotlib,cvp

R (.r, .s, .rd, .Rprofile)

keys=r

Racket (.rkt, .ss, .scm, .sch)

keys=racket

Ruby (.rb, .rbx, .rjs, .Rakefile, .rake, .cgi, .fcgi, .gemspec, .irbrc, .capfile, .Gemfile)

keys=ruby,rubygems,rails

Rust (.rs, .rc)

keys=rust

Sass (.sass, .scss)

keys=sass,compass,bourbon,neat,susy,css

Scala (.scala)

keys=scala,akka,playscala

Shell Scripts (.sh)

keys=bash,manpages

SQL (.sql)

keys=mysql,sqlite,psql

Stylus (.styl, .stylus)

keys=stylus

Swift (.swift)

keys=swift,iphoneos,macosx,watchos,tvos,cocoapods,appledoc

Tcl (.tcl, .adp)

keys=tcl

TypeScript (.ts, .tsx)

keys=typescript

YAML (.yaml, .yml)

keys=chef,ansible