How to make a Sublime Text 2 plugin with a custom display area at the bottom, like the console?

Question

I wish to make a Sublime Text 2 plugin which will display information in an area at the bottom of the screen, just like the console does. However in this area I wish to display my own text from my Plugin, not related to the console.

Here is a screenshot of a window with the console open.

How can this be done?

Answer 1

Basically, what you need is

1. Create an output panel: self.window.get_output_panel("textarea")
2. Show this panel: self.window.run_command("show_panel", {"panel": "output.textarea"})

A simple example is shown below. And you can refer to exec command in the default package: C:\Users\lhuang\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text 2\Packages\Default\exec.py.

class ShowTextAreaCommand(sublime_plugin.WindowCommand):
    def run(self):
        self.output_view = self.window.get_output_panel("textarea")
        self.window.run_command("show_panel", {"panel": "output.textarea"})

        self.output_view.set_read_only(False)
        edit = self.output_view.begin_edit()
        self.output_view.insert(edit, self.output_view.size(), "Hello, World!")
        self.output_view.end_edit(edit)
        self.output_view.set_read_only(True)

Answer 2

And if you're going after Sublime Text 3, where begin_edit() and end_edit() are depreciated:

class ShowTextAreaCommand(sublime_plugin.WindowCommand):
    def run(self):
        self.output_view = self.window.get_output_panel("textarea")
        self.window.run_command("show_panel", {"panel": "output.textarea"})

        self.output_view.set_read_only(False)
        # edit = self.output_view.begin_edit()
        # self.output_view.insert(edit, self.output_view.size(), "Hello, World!")
        self.output_view.run_command("append", {"characters": "Hello, World!"})
        # self.output_view.end_edit(edit)
        self.output_view.set_read_only(True)