Installation of TikZ Extension

[ravi]

I am using inkscape version 0.48 in Ubuntu version 12.04.

Downloaded these TikZ extension files

tikz_export.py
tikz_export_effect.inx
tikz_export_output.inx

from

https://github.com/kjellmf/svg2tikz/tree/master/svg2tikz/extensions

to the directory

$HOME/.config/inkscape/extensions

Also, copied these files which came as part of inkscape installation

/usr/share/inkscape/extensions/inkex.py
/usr/share/inkscape/extensions/simplepath.py
/usr/share/inkscape/extensions/simplestyle.py

to the directory

$HOME/.config/inkscape/extensions

After this installation, when I startup inkscape I get these errors in
the terminal:

home/ravi/.config/inkscape/extensions/tikz_export_effect.inx:33: parser error : Specification mandate value for attribute data-pjax-transient
    <meta name="selected-link" value="repo_source" data-pjax-transient>
                                                                      ^
/home/ravi/.config/inkscape/extensions/tikz_export_effect.inx:69: parser error : Opening and ending tag mismatch: link line 67 and head
  </head>
         ^
/home/ravi/.config/inkscape/extensions/tikz_export_effect.inx:109: parser error : Opening and ending tag mismatch: input line 99 and label
  </label>
          ^
/home/ravi/.config/inkscape/extensions/tikz_export_effect.inx:110: parser error : Opening and ending tag mismatch: label line 97 and form
</form>
       ^
.....

[brynn]

Welcome ravi!

Oh gosh.  I just came across those extensions yesterday (while working on a project to have all Inkscape extensions listed and linked to 1 page, and eventually being able to download from there).  I only have a vague understanding what these SVG2Tikz extensions do.

The best advice I can give at this point (unless we get some new members who are familiar) would be to try and contact the author of the extensions.  There must be some contact info from that github account?

I notice that you mentioned using Inkscape version 0.48.  I suppose you could try upgrading to 0.91 (the current stable version).  But maybe there's some reason to use 0.48, that I'm not aware of.

Out of curiosity, when you say you see errors in the terminal.  What terminal?  Do you  mean using Inkscape from the command line?

Sorry, I wish there was more I could suggest.  I'm just not familiar with those extensions.  Anyone else out there who might know, please feel free to reply

Edit
If using Inkscape from command line, what happens if you open the extensions from the canvas/extensions menu?  Or is the terminal what comes up when you open the extension?

[ravi]

I had emailed this problem to tikz extension author's email mentioned github account a few
days ago, and have not heard back yet.

I tried to update to latest version of inkscape by running 'sudo apt-get install inkscape', but
get th emessage 'inkscape is already the newest version'. The version I have installed is

$ dpkg -l inkscape
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name           Version        Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
ii  inkscape       0.48.3.1-1ubun vector-based drawing program

I could try installing the latest version from source.

The errors I see come out in the gnome-terminal of Ubuntu where I had started the inkscape
process through command line.

[ravi]

When I choose 'Extensions' menu option from the inkscape menu, I don't see any 'TikZ' enabled there.
Also, at the end of those messages posted to the terminal, I see
** (inkscape:6130): WARNING **: Unable to create extension from definition file /home/ravi/.config/inkscape/extensions/tikz_export_output.inx.
which indicates some problem reading config files.

[brynn]

Hhhmm, I use Windows, so I'm not very familiar with how  programs are installed in Linux/Ubuntu.  Maybe you should report to them that they aren't providing the current version?

You can get the current version from the Inkscape website.  You should not have to compile it, if you don't want to.  https://inkscape.org/en/download/

Although it sounds like the problem is not with the Inkscape version.  It's just that I expect the extension author is probably using the current version to develop the extension.

[ravi]

Based on ubuntu packages available at
https://launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/+archive/ubuntu/stable
upgraded to latest version.

My version after the upgrade is
$ dpkg -l inkscape
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name           Version        Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
ii  inkscape       0.91.0+37~ubun vector-based drawing program (trunk build)


Also, confirmed inkscape version is 0.91 by choosing 'Help/About Inkscape'.

With about upgrade, still getting same error messages in terminal as before.

[brynn]

Yeah, I didn't think it would help.  And I just feel so helpless with this.

When you look through the files at github, are there older versions of these files?  I'm just thinking, maybe you got their current version, and it has a bug or something.  I wonder if it would be possible to sort of revert?

This probably another useless thought.  When I install "external" extensions, I've been told that there will always be 2 files to install, an INX file and a PY file.  And they usually have the same name, with the different extension/format.  In the list of files that you provided, they don't seem to match.  You mentioned 2 INX and 4 PY files, and their names don't match at all.  I guess you must have some kind of understanding that those are all the files you need, and there aren't any others you might need?

The last thought I have -- internet search.....??

[ravi]

Got this finally to work by downloading these files from
        https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kjellmf/svg2tikz/master/svg2tikz/extensions/tikz_export.py
        https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kjellmf/svg2tikz/master/svg2tikz/extensions/tikz_export_effect.inx
        https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kjellmf/svg2tikz/master/svg2tikz/extensions/tikz_export_output.inx

Here is where I found these links:
        https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1371793

No terminal errors now. Can now see this menu option
        Extensions/Export/Export to TikZ Path...

[brynn]

Oh, that's fantastic!  Nice work