Hello

I am new to foobar and I love it. It took me time to realize how powerful it was and it needs a documentation. But I also love the plugins but the problem is that they are scattered all around the net. Why not make a site repository like firebird for its extensions? And be able to easily download and install them?

Yvan

What you're looking for is the official 3rd party components page. There's a link on the components page on the fb2k site.

However, there are some components which aren't covered there - you can find links to most of the missing components in the thread "must know fb2k sites" in the general forum.

Installing a component almost always only means unpacking a zip into the fb2k-components folder - users who cannot handle that probably also cannot handle fb2k. The reason why i mention this is that although fx and fb2k share a similiar philosophy concerning a extensibility and customization, its target audiences are very different (fx is trying to be easy and simple, while fb2k is more geeky).

Your topic title is misleading.

- Lyx

Hello

I'm not searching any 3rd party plugins site. I am saying that Foobar needs an extension management that would make it concise and easy to install *all* official plugins under a single list. Instead of looking around on many sites for plugins and their updates. Firebird's extensions management scheme lists all plugins and make it simple to install them as well as update them by letting you know there is a newer version.

Okay installing is very easy but keeping track of everything is a waste of time and we can miss interesting plugins.

Have you tried Firebird's extensions management?

I hope I made my message clearer.

Indeed I know this site and other sites but in fact there are components listed only in this Forum and others in:

http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/kode54/index.php
http://foobar2000.free.fr/generaux.html
http://members.lycos.co.uk/musicf/
http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/foobar2000.php
http://www.stud.uni-karlsruhe.de/~uzbs/fb2k/html/

and I'm sure there are more...

Cheers,

Yvan

Yes, you are. What you want is a single list for the 3rd-party plugins. The 3rd party plugins page is meant for that - its just that not all plugin-devs are making use of it. This is a shortcoming of the plugin-devs - not a shortcoming of the platform.

The only thing which the "platform" doesn't support is automatic update. Besides of that, everything is there already - its just not being used by all plugin-devs.

- Lyx

But the 3rd party plugins page is not listing all foobar's extensions. That's my main point. Lyx I'm not searching anything for myself but I'm giving my point of view to improve foobar. Making a single list with all of them and the possibility to install/update them will foobar's experience better and easier especially for newbies or people lacking necessary time. Foobar is a powerful app and many people might not realized it if it is too abstract.

Yvan

Did you even read what Lyx wrote? Developers have to add their plugin to that page for that to happen. Alternatively, someone would have to maintain it manually. The latter would involve alot of work.

So, read up and start making documentation and whatever else you think would benefit you and other people. After all, that's how things work.

Well, I think you have a good idea there even if others don't. Extensions is one of the things that makes Firefox so awesome. In fact I was just over there looking through them today and installed a few. Doesn't get much simpler than that. Just click a link and wham bam thank you ma'am, new useability is installed and ready to use. Good luck with this though. I've found that any suggestions which seek to make foobar2000 act like another program (especially Winamp), no matter how well intentioned, is always met with extreme resistence for some reason. In other words, don't hold your breath, lol.

Difference being that with firefox, the "viewer" for the plugins (browser) and target app is the same.

By the way, the situation isn't any different with firefox - a good amount of extensions are NOT listed on update.mozilla.org - guess why? So, the situation of which you say that firefox solves it better in reality isn't any different. At this point i'd say that the "idea" of this topic feels a bit...... weird and confusing. What was the point again?

I'm not the typical fb2k user. I even don't agree with some aspects of how many fb2k components are designed(imho, fb2k is suffering from options-creep and would benefit from some of the firefox "keep it simple stupid"-approach).

However, in your case i do have the feeling that its not the _functionality_ with which you're concerned. It more seems like that you just like firefox extensions(nothing wrong with that, it was a great design-decision), then came too foobar and now have it in your head that it should also have extensions - ignoring the fact that fb2k already has most of this functionality, except auto-update - but they're not called extensions but instead "components" - and there is no update.mozilla.org but instead a "3rd party components page" - and you dont drag extensions into the app-window but instead into the components-folder. Thus, i think what you're missing is not the functionality, but instead the "label" - if components would be called "extensions" and if the 3rd party plugins page would be called "Foobar Extensions" then you would probably never had missed anything. Thus, what you're missing is the branding, not the functionality. And if this is the case, then the answer can only be: "This is foobar2000, not firefox".

- Lyx

Semantics aside, I think it is indeed about functionality. In this case it's the functionality to make adding more functionality easier to find and a breeze to install. But I'm not a program designer, just your average regular user, so what could I possibly know about good design? Of course, make it too easy for the majority of users out there and foobar2000 may lose it's sheik "for geeks only" status, and we wouldn't want that now, would we.

PS: Forgot to mention that the original topic starter (and others who haven't yet) may want to look at Quintessential Player. Particularly the menu within the player for browsing and adding skins, which is reminiscent of how extensions work. Doesn't get much simpler than that.

Maybe a link to the official 3rd party plugins site from foobar2000.org would encourage devs to use the resource. I'm sure it would be helpful to new users.

Just on a sidenote: the special installer is AFAIK regularly updated to incorporate the latest version of the "official" and "officially approved" plugins

In an attempt to make myself clearer if I was not enough:

What is missing is a simple page/window within foobar that lists all the components and make them official repository location for annoucing a new component. POINT. And yes, if there is the possibility to add an install/upgrade from within foobar that would be a nice feature. Firebird's components (AKA extensions) page has most if not all the components (AKA extensions for semantic lovers...). The official unofficial(!) 3rd party components page is not used by all (should I say most...) developers. A good example is this recent post from Badrad whom stumbled upon a site with input plugins not listed in the 3rd party comonents page.(needless to relist sites I gave previously with other components):

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....topic=29421&hl=

If there was a possibility to list (/install/upgrade) components from within foobar then developers will probably use it to list their work rather than submiting it to their own site, the forum 3rd party plugins and/or the 3rd party page. And the probability of having one single list with as many components as possible listed in it would be higher.

Just to finish the 3rd Party Page is:

The link to the pinned post:


So making an official and direct list from within foobar will make life easier for everyone.



Yvan

I too could be misunderstanding this, but Firefox does not display extensions within itself.
It merely takes you to the main page that does.
So I am guessing that yvan would like that foobar would have the link for the main component/plugin page built right into it.

As Lyx stated, neither one has a single page that contains all the plugins/components/etc...

Although, I will give Firefox the credit that the process of installing an extension is contained within the UI (you click on the link and then y ou click on a dialogue whether you wish to install it or not). there's no need to uncompress the file into a directory as in the case of foobar. -my argument for foobar is that MOST technically challenged people don't bother with foobar and thus most users of foobar are capable of installing its components.


-PS: I actually give Firefox a LOT of credit. I love this browser and it's the only one I use except in the case of needing to use windows update where one is forced to use IE.
of course, this is way OFF topic.

But Firefox does list the plugins that it has INSTALLED. I think that's what he means regarding that part.

Ehrrrrm, "preferences -> components" or "preferences - component libraries", whatever rocks your boat in that case.

Ahhh, I see that now. I had seen it before but didn't think twice of it when posting that. I just thought about how the interface for each component is spread out into its appropriate place...forgot that they're all listed there. Thanks.