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Topic: Mozilla Like Extension System (Read 17499 times) previous topic - next topic
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Mozilla Like Extension System

Reply #25 –
Quote from: Synthetic Soul on
.9 components are being posted to the current plugins site, so it seems logical that the current site is simply updated to incorporate these needs.
Why not just make an RSS feed for this site, like the one you mentioned, on foosion's site. Then all the plugin would have to do is read this RSS feed and display the results and maybe also auto download the updated dll's (of the plugins you already have) to a specific folder.

Mozilla Like Extension System

Reply #26 –
I think RSS feeds are nice to have for users, but they are not appropriate to carry the kind of information an automatic updater would require. For example, an updater that takes its job serious would need to track dependencies of components. The most obvious dependency is the required foobar2000 version, but there are also inter-component dependencies. For example, foo_pqview requires foo_common and most panel components are quite useless without the correct version of Columns UI, and last but not least things like the Windows version or .NET runtimes. The ability to tell if the configuration of a particular component will be preserved by an update is another nice to have feature. Cramming all this information into RSS in a machine readable form seems like an abuse of this format to me.

Synthetic Soul:
The current RSS feed is a byproduct of a small tool that I use to simplify deployment of my components. It is written in Lua 5.1 with some additional C/C++ libraries, and it is still in its infancy. Besides the RSS feed, it can generate a dump in a data-only subset of Lua of the version information that is also presented on the "Components" page in the foobar2000 preferences along with low level information like the foobar2000 component API version (used by foobar2000 to determine whether it can load a component) and whether the component has been built in debug mode. Finally, it can act as a specialized ZIP tool: It can take an arbitrary number of component DLLs and create a ZIP archive that contains a "components" directory with all the DLLs in it.

Just to let you know, someone (name withheld so you don't bug him prematurely ) contacted me and told me he wanted to create an updater for foobar2000 components. He said he planned to start work on it around June, if I remember correctly.

Mozilla Like Extension System

Reply #27 –
Well you wouldn't necessarily need to make it 'RSS' (as in standards-compliant and all that jazz). It would be trivial to write a PHP or ASP page to put out something in an RSS-like format with dependencies and junk like that and then just have the updater work as a sort of 'extended' aggregator (able to make sense of all the extra fields).

That's if you wanted it to be RSS-like, of course. I suppose there are more efficient ways of doing it.
~
 

Mozilla Like Extension System

Reply #28 –
Quote from: Synthetic Soul on
To actually start making some progress personally I would like to know:
  • amppa's thoughts on this topic (the current plugins site webmaster)

Hi, and sorry for not participating, I'll try to follow the discussions a bit more closely. As someone said, an e-mail notification about updated plugins shouldn't be too hard to implement, I will add the feature in the close future. I'll try to get it done within two weeks, and if you don't hear from me, feel free to bug. PM's and IRC (amppa @ IRCNet and Freenode) should be the fastest way to contact me, but as said, I'll try to follow the discussions here, too.

Mozilla Like Extension System

Reply #29 –
I just spoke with amppa and we agreed to cooperate on this, as I want to work on an updater component, and he already has a website. So what does it mean ?
A: It should happen. B: You will have to wait a bit.
We both have a school to get rid of, so a basic working solution shouldn't be there before a month (let's say early to mid June to be safe). Then there will be plenty of things to add to it I already have some ideas and I'm sure other people too (I didn't read all the topics on the subject yet).

And to answer the talks about RSS, I think we should forget about that. If you compare "foo_ui_columns|0.1.3 beta 1v5" with "<component><module>foo_ui_columns</module><version>0.1.3 beta 1v5</version></component>" (this is a RSS mockup for the example's sake), and multiply that by the number of components and then by the number of users using the updater component. I think it would be quite a big waste of bandwidth to gain nothing.

Mozilla Like Extension System

Reply #30 –
Now for the last time.
As a plugin this is an ok idea but I do prefer the centralized update site suggestion considering even as a plugin an updater has road blocks such as needing a centralized site to begin with. For example foo_album_art has a different author for version .9.1 then the one who made the plugin for .8.3 and if the updater searches say one authors page it will not find an updated version hence the need for a centralized site regardless.

Mozilla Like Extension System

Reply #31 –
Thanks to foosion, amppa and Seldaek for clearing things up.

It all sounds like very good news for foobar users.  It's nice to hear that something is in motion.
I'm on a horse.

Mozilla Like Extension System

Reply #32 –
@Blaxima & others: The website exists, it's going to be modified to support a plugin which will exist, and therefore there shouldn't be any problem. Those who like the plugin can get it wheter they use like firefox and it's extensions or not, others can use the website (which should be improved to allow a more up to date and complete database). Now the better in all this is that you could even use both or none at all if you don't care, but then you may want to go in a mountain far far away from civilization before you state your opinion. (PS: This doesn't target anyone particularly, so feel offended if you want, that's another choice you can make today thanks to this wonderful updater plugin yet to come)

@Synthetic Soul : NP. (Yep you don't get a long answer if you don't whine about random nearly-off-topic things, sorry)

Mozilla Like Extension System

Reply #33 –
Hi,

Not bloating foobar with an extension function... that makes me smile...

We are not back in 1980's using Amstrad or Comodore 64!! Mozilla is great and the extension system is fantastic and a huge time saver for me!! Yes time saver. I'm not a student anymore, I don't have days to play with foobar, find the plugins install them, etc...

I love foobar 0.8.2 and serioulsy I have no time trying to figure out how to find similar plugin/features for v.9.

Take care,

Yvan

Mozilla Like Extension System

Reply #34 –
Warning to all it concerns:
Take the browser mudslinging contest elsewhere before I go invasive on your posts. You are just lucky I don't feel like going on a post splitting spree right now.

Mozilla Like Extension System

Reply #35 –
Quote from: amppa on
As someone said, an e-mail notification about updated plugins shouldn't be too hard to implement, I will add the feature in the close future.

I promised this before Seldaek contacted me, I think I won't implement this just now as I hope it would be quite useless if there's an updater plugin. The feature itself is quite straightforward but the current registration system isn't intended for a lot of users as it was originally meant just for adding content, a mass of users would currently introduce some overhead. The site will need some changes anyway, so I suggest it's best to do those and see later if this feature is needed or not.