Add support for scanning and cleaning up plugins

[Kidbull]

This plugin is really nice and it would be awesome if it also supported cleaning up plugins

[ashe23]

I would be happy to implement that in a plugin, but there are a couple of challenges associated with cleaning assets in a plugin.

Currently, my method for detecting unused assets in a project is primarily based on the usage of primary or level assets. This means that primary assets and all their related dependencies are marked as 'used' and are never touched.

However, when it comes to plugin assets, there can be non-primary assets that are intended for use in any project. I'm facing a dilemma in determining whether such assets are unused or not.

I would greatly appreciate any proposals or suggestions regarding this issue.

I will categorize this issue as 'research,' allowing others to provide their suggestions if they have any.

[Son1XI]

I have a project on plugin-based structure, so I also faced this problem.
For me, instead of using PathRoot, I have created several constant paths to my plugin folders and created an array of them and use it instead of PathRoot in all places I found.
It seems like it works fine, because references still counts between plugins
The small issue I faced - not everytime I can fix up all redirectors because of version control (Perforce). Shoud I create another issue for you to investigate or this is one of the problem with plugin-based projects?

[ashe23]

Hey @Son1XI
I guess i can expose plugin scanning algorithm parameters , and make it more configurable for user specific project needs. In that case user must manually enter what its marking used whats not. That definitely something to research.
Regarding problems with redirectors, i am not sure what exactly i should investigate, because its not a part of plugin functionality itself.
Maybe a bit more information will clear it up :)

[Son1XI]

It would be great to be able to choose which "content" folders it will scan, including the main and plugin folders, while also taking into account dependencies between them. This is essentially what I did for myself.