[wp-hackers] Google Summer of Code 2007

[DD32]

Ok, Theres a lot to read through, so apologies to anyone who doesnt get a  
full reply.
(And sorry that its taken me so long to reply)

On Thu, 15 Mar 2007 08:28:39 +1100, Michael D Adams <mikea at turbonet.com>  
wrote:
> Some of the stuff above will be made a little bit easier by a project  
> Mark Jaquith, Matt Thomas and myself have been working on: the soon to  
> be launched (soon = days) plugin browser at http://wordpress.org/ 
> extend/plugins/
>
Very useful, I didnt realise there was any form of redevelopment allready  
happening! (But i'm really not supprised)

> The next step (after launching the site in the first place) is to  
> implement some sort of XML-RPC or REST protocol for querying the status  
> of plugins: most recent stable version, last update time, or whatever  
> else might be useful (exactly what you described above).   None of  
> that's been done (or even thought over much), and I'd be very happy to  
> support endeavors along those lines by someone (whether as a GSoC  
> project or not).

at least publishing a single XML file with all the details about the  
plugin included would be great from my POV.

On Thu, 15 Mar 2007 08:47:07 +1100, Peter Westwood  
<peter.westwood at ftwr.co.uk> wrote:
> Is this plugin browser _only_ going to support plugins hosted on  
> wp-plugins.org or will there be future functionality/apis to allow  
> external hosted plugins to be easily listed?

I would personally not want to limit plugin authors to ONLY using  
wp-plugins.org, as some have said, some people are happy to host the  
plugin themselves..

On Thu, 15 Mar 2007 10:31:17 +1100, Mark Jaquith <mark.wordpress at txfx.net>  
wrote:
> Note that your plugin would have to be licensed under the GPL, as that  
> is a requirement of having your code live (even as a copy) at wp- 
> plugins.org

Thats a show-stopper for some, Not all code is going to be GPL'd, I think  
its best that non-GPL'd code stay off wp-plugins.org, but if an update  
plugin is to be created, it needs to be supported by the majorityof the  
plugin developer userbase, if some people are locked out from using it,  
then thats a bad thing.
Perhaps the new plugin host section can have a part added for "External  
Plugins", Basically no code is hosted by wp-plugins, and they only list  
the plugin for sake of searching, Download links information pages, etc,  
all redirects the user to the plugin authors webpage?

On Thu, 15 Mar 2007 14:55:08 +1100, Mark Jaquith <mark.wordpress at txfx.net>  
wrote:
> The other solution is one that could be implemented on the WordPress  
> side.  Add a new parsed plugin meta line that designates a special third  
> party update server.  We could publish the API so that people who just  
> cannot bring themselves to have their plugins be downloaded from a  
> server not under their control can still benefit from things like plugin  
> update notification.

I mentioned this earlier in the piece,
I feel that that should be the method followed:

IF update uri specified, Contact uri, get update information
	(Prevent automatic updates? -- if implemented)
ELSE IF contact wp-plugins.org to see if listed, Get update information
ELSE plugin update uri not specified, Not included in wp-plugins.org,
Report as Unsuported.

If WordPress doesnt allow for external update urls, then it may lead to  
some plugins having to implement their own update system, pointless  
duplicating resources.

On Thu, 15 Mar 2007 10:50:11 +1100, Martin Fitzpatrick  
<martin.fitzpatrick at gmail.com> wrote:
> Careful what you say about update plugins ;) ...mine (
> http://www.mutube.com/projects/wordpress/update-manager ) is most
> definately under development and isn't in the slightest bit buggy
> *cough*. It is however very basic in using www.wp-plugins.net data to
> check for updates and does no compatibility checking.

No offence intended to anyone who had attempted this.
But yours is probably the 2nd one out of 10+ which i've seen thats  
actually active.

> Anyway, I'm all for an improved updater using wp-plugins.org (SVN,
> etc.) and version checking.  I'd also be happy to volunteer my limited
> experience (and bad habits) to the development if that would be
> useful?

That may well be useful, You've recently been working on this idea, I'm  
sure your input would be appreciated by both myself and anyone else.

I'm going to write up a application now for GGoC for a plugin to  
search/integrate/install from wp-plugins.org/