Custom panel plugin not being found when running rviz2

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I have tried to create a custom ros2 package that will be a panel plugin for rivz2, by following information from "User's Guide to plugin development" as well as "Creating a ROS 2 package" but when running rviz2 it is not finding my custom plugin. I expect to find the custom panel in the rviz GUI under Panels --> Add New Panel but there is nothing there. How can I ensure that the plugin is found by rviz when it is running, any suggestions would be helpful!

The package is successfully built with colcon and when running ros2 pkg list I have verified that ros2 finds the custom package, my_panel_plugin, but I haven't found any other way of troubleshooting what the issue could be.

I also tried running rviz with debug flag

ros2 run rviz2 rviz2 __log_level:=debug

but my only conclusion from that is that my custom plugin is not being found by the plugin loader in the same way as eg. the rviz_default_plugins.

According to the documentation linked above I need to invoke the PLUGINLIB_EXPORT_CLASS macro for the plugin loader to find the plugin. I believe I have done this correctly but see the related files for reference, CMakeLists.txt, package.xml and plugin_description.xml.

ROS enviroment variables

ROS_PYTHON_VERSION=3
ROS_VERSION_NAME=dashing
ROS_DISTRO=dashing
ROS_VERSION=2

File structure

├── rviz_plugins
│   └── my_panel_plugin
│       ├── CMakeLists.txt
│       ├── my_panel_plugin.cpp
│       ├── my_panel_plugin.h
│       ├── package.xml
│       └── plugin_description.xml

I've added

#include <pluginlib/class_list_macros.hpp>
PLUGINLIB_EXPORT_CLASS(sf::rviz_plugins::my_panel_plugin, rviz_common::Panel)

at the end of my_panel_plugin.cpp.

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.5)
project(my_panel_plugin)

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 14)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)

# find dependencies
find_package(ament_cmake REQUIRED)
find_package(rclcpp REQUIRED)
find_package(rviz_common REQUIRED)
find_package(Qt5 COMPONENTS Widgets REQUIRED)
find_package(pluginlib REQUIRED)

include_directories(include)

# Qt5 boilerplate options from http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/cmake-manual.html
set(CMAKE_INCLUDE_CURRENT_DIR ON)
set(CMAKE_AUTOMOC ON)

add_library(${PROJECT_NAME} SHARED
            my_panel_plugin.cpp
            )

# Link ament packages
ament_target_dependencies(${PROJECT_NAME} rclcpp rviz_common)

# Link non ament packages
target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} Qt5::Widgets)

# prevent pluginlib from using boost
target_compile_definitions(my_panel_plugin PUBLIC "PLUGINLIB__DISABLE_BOOST_FUNCTIONS")

install(TARGETS my_panel_plugin
  DESTINATION lib/${PROJECT_NAME}
  )

pluginlib_export_plugin_description_file(my_panel_plugin plugin_description.xml)

# replaces catkin_package(LIBRARIES ${PROJECT_NAME}) 
ament_export_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME})

ament_package()

package.xml

<package format="2">
  <name>my_panel_plugin</name>
  <version>0.0.1</version>
  <description>This package adds a plugin to rviz2</description>
  <maintainer email="you@example.com">Your Name</maintainer>
  <license>Proprietary</license>

  <buildtool_depend>ament_cmake</buildtool_depend>
  <depend>rclcpp</depend>
  <depend>rviz_common</depend>
  <depend>libqt5-widgets</depend>
  <depend>rviz2</depend>

  <export>
    <rviz plugin="plugin_description.xml"/>
    <build_type>ament_cmake</build_type>
  </export>
</package>

plugin_description.xml

<library path="lib/libmy_panel_plugin">
  <class name="my_panel_plugin/My_panel_plugin"
         type="sf::rviz_plugins::My_panel_plugin"
         base_class_type="rviz_common::Panel">
    <description>
      My_panel_plugin
    </description>
  </class>
</library>