The new Lib Mangler will not show me a library that contains ESP8266WiFi.h.
I need this file to operate an add-on WiFi8266 card, will not compile sketch without it.
Is this because I am searching with a non-wifi board connected?.
I was able to grab the .h file off Github and put it in the Lib folder but is its still not available by the L/M.
I can't find any mechanism to "import" Lib's to the manager, like the old version would accept a Zip'd Lib it seems.
ESP8266Wifi is a "core" library installed when you installed the ESP8266 core. When compiling a sketch for one of the boards in the ESP8266 it will be automatically detected. If you're compiling a sketch for a non ESP8266 board, it won't be since it's specific to ESP8266 boards.
I have a 3in1 kit that has an R4 Minima and I am installing an optional 8266 module.
Since the minima does not have native WiFi or BT I believe that the Library manager is not showing those resources as being available.? ("Core" Library)
And I have not found a way to point the Lib manager at the .h package I have downloaded.
The library manger will not take a file name as a search parameter and show a matching library.
Blynk warned that they are difficult to setup.
Delete the .h file you downloaded. That's not how it works.
If you want to upload code to an ESP8266, you have to select an ESP8266 board, compile for that and upload the sketch to it. What you have that ESP8266 board hooked up to, be it an R4, an R3, a Nano, whatever, is irrelevant. You can't upload code to the ESP8266 through whatever you have it connected to. And you can't use an ESP8266 core library with a non ESP8266 board.
The sketch you run on the ESP8266 is a completely separate sketch to whatever you run on the R4.
Under Tools - Board manager,
I enter ESP8266 and it dies when I enter the 8
"No boards found for "ESP8266"
To add the 8266 board package, go to 'File -> Preferences -> Additional Boards Manager URLs` and add the following URL:
http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json
Next, click the Board icon on the left of the IDE window and type 8266 in the search bar. It should now find the esp8266 board package.
You can then go to Tools -> Board -> esp8266 and select the one that corresponds to your ESP8266 module in the same way as other boards are selected.
Ah! Adding the repository did the trick.
And thank you for the clues.
I was not looking at the WiFi module as an independant board. 
Yep
It seems the manage library options under tools does not provide the .zip Library option to the IDE globally, it is allocated to an individual sketch.
My first IDE use I've never ventured beyond shell scripting, and first sketch compiled!
I'll likely be back...
Thanx
Exactly. With the UNO R4 WiFi, Arduino have done some integration so that, for example, the WiFiS3 library comes with that board. Since the Minima doesn't have WiFi, that library can't be used and so there is no point including it with its board architecture. instead, the UNO R4 Minima and the ESP module (whether 32 or 8266) have to be treated as a separate boards and require the board architecture for the standalone ESP8266 or ESP32 module to be installed separately.
It should work in the same way, but for it to work correctly, the ZIP file needs to contain more than just a .h header file. It needs to contain ALL the files associated with the library including any .cpp and other supporting files such as libraries.properties that provides the description and other details that you see presented in the IDE Library Manager. It will not work with a board architecture because that has a different structure which is dealt with by Board Manager.
Generally libraries installed by the user get placed in the 'libraries' folder in your sketchbook folder, so if your sketchbook folder was:
C:\Arduino
then your sketch would be in:
C:\Arduino\mysketch
and contain:
C:\Arduino\mysketch\mysketch.ino
and the common libraries would be in:
C:\Arduino\libraries
e.g.
C:\Arduino\libraries\LiquidCrystalI2C
etc
It is generally preferable to use the Library Manager to install libraries. Use Add .ZIP Library only when the library you need is not available in Library Manager or you are testing a custom or development version of a library or developing your own library.
Well done. Enjoy.
NO, it's global.There is only one user library used by all your sketches.
