Plugin finder thoughts.

[Gordon228]

i was thinking of how the new plugin finder should look and i has this idea.

the image is the best i could do to give i rough outline of what it would look like in my vision. basically you would select a plugin from the left and it would give you all the options for the plugin on the right and i had it be the card backs that are shown with the name as so people can identify with it. let me know what you think.

[Trevor]

You can't show a card back image from a plugin unless you download the card image. So what you're suggesting would require downloading every plugin's card back image, and from where? Which version? And where would it go? If it would be placed in its own location, that's redundant if the plugin gets installed.

The bigger issue with the plugin finder is it can be a constant chore to update, especially since I don't know about a lot of plugins, and am in contact with even fewer plugin makers.

[Alastair]

I've been thinking about this off and on for a while now and this might be the more feasible approach. What if we stored the plugin locations and info in an SQL database. It shouldn't be much of a problem to make an interface for such a database, that can be updated by plugin owners. In that way we could let the plugin owners do the work of making sure their info is up to date and correct.

[Trevor]

I've been thinking about this off and on for a while now and this might be the more feasible approach. What if we stored the plugin locations and info in an SQL database. It shouldn't be much of a problem to make an interface for such a database, that can be updated by plugin owners. In that way we could let the plugin owners do the work of making sure their info is up to date and correct.

that sounds like a good idea. But I don't currently know how to implement a database that people could edit. All the code on the lackey side is pretty much already written. If anyone wants to help me with the database and the interface, please let me know.

One problem with the database is that it still would require someone to oversee it. People could maliciously add junk/offensive plugins. People could stop updating a plugin, or update a plugin in the wrong way. And if more than one person makes a plugin for the same game, and they don't work together, things will get confusing for users. And if someone stops updating a plugin, and someone wants to take it over, someone needs to give the new person the power to take it over. There's still a lot to oversee.

I could just have a button that links to a website with a list of all the plugins. And all you need to do to install a plugin is get the plugin's auto update URL in your clipboard and click the button in lackey.

[matoo]

I could just have a button that links to a website with a list of all the plugins. And all you need to do to install a plugin is get the plugin's auto update URL in your clipboard and click the button in lackey.

why not just link to a thread in the forums? there is a similar pinned thread in the plugin section, it is not updated, but i'm sure that if the software link to it, this will be the first place where people will post about new plugins and updates to already existing ones.

[Alastair]

I could just have a button that links to a website with a list of all the plugins. And all you need to do to install a plugin is get the plugin's auto update URL in your clipboard and click the button in lackey.

why not just link to a thread in the forums? there is a similar pinned thread in the plugin section, it is not updated, but i'm sure that if the software link to it, this will be the first place where people will post about new plugins and updates to already existing ones.

On that note I just spent the last few hours going through the updatelist.txt's that were in the list and made a new, more up to date sticky post. I ignored the ones that were manual downloads as that isn't really applicable to the plugin finder. Also updated our forum software to the latest version for us.

[matoo]

thanks, will def check this!

[Trevor]

I could just have a button that links to a website with a list of all the plugins. And all you need to do to install a plugin is get the plugin's auto update URL in your clipboard and click the button in lackey.

why not just link to a thread in the forums? there is a similar pinned thread in the plugin section, it is not updated, but i'm sure that if the software link to it, this will be the first place where people will post about new plugins and updates to already existing ones.

i am not sure about hard coding a forum link into the program, but what I think I will do is hard code a URL that redirects to the forum page. That way, I would just need to edit the webpage if the forum link ever changed.