Ideas

Implemented: Plugin Update Notification

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  1. c0y0te
    Member

    I know there was a plugin that *used* to do this (via the one step install from wp-plugins.net)... but it seems to me that a very useful feature would be an automatic notification of any plugin updates via the WP Dashboard.

    A huge amount of functionality in WP is achieved via Plugins, so why not make life easier for those using them by enabling the notification (and even update) of same from the WP system instead of having to depend on email alerts and posts on developer websites for new code?

    Just a thought :)

    c0y0te
    http://www.avalon5.com
    "Howl @ The Moon!"

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  2. yazeed
    Member

    I think its hard to implement, but nonetheless its a good idea, would make life easier.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  3. dille
    Member

    I don't think it's THAT hard to implement, as long as the plugin author is willing to host his plugin on wp-plugins.org, which has versioning. You can very easily pull an RSS feed for a plugin's latest version.

    Of course, it would be even more interesting if you could also INSTALL your plugins from within the WP admin section, as requested here.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  4. winnopeg
    Member

    The same thing for themes would be really nice too.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  5. damino
    Member

    Some others systems are able to do this (WordPress is still my favorite blog system !)

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  6. DanAtkinson
    Member

    It's not hard to implement at all. What would be hard is getting the co-operation of plugin developers.

    Basically it could work the same way as the RDF in Mozilla Firefox. Every plugin developer would have an file for their plugin which is basically an XML file which at least shows the following information:

    • Plugin current version
    • Min WordPress version (eg 2.0)
    • Max WordPress version (eg 2.1)

    Any time the admin panel is accessed, an update check could be run. This grabs all the update files for each plugin and assesses whether they are the same as the existing one or not.

    Then the user will be notified that plugin updates are available.

    If a user submits their plugins to sites like wp-plugins, then these sites could have their own update file generator, which makes it easier for plugin developers.

    This really is simple to do. It just needs co-operation from developers and/or people to code these changes into existing plugins. Ultimately, WordPress could be changed so that it would actively refuse to activate a plugin that didn't have an update file location. This way, new and updated plugins would be forced into compatibility. Strong-armed, perhaps. But it's for the greater good.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  7. indigoclothing
    Member

    Dan, Yes, I like the comparison to Firefox - think that would be good.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  8. ceejayoz
    Member

    We've made our own update notification bit in the Tarski theme - I've provided a tutorial and code on how to do it.

    It's really quite simple.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  9. amessinger
    Member

    There's a problem with the Firefox way of managing versions, though. There have been some very good FF extensions abandoned by their developers. These don't get their version compatibility info updated in sync with new FF releases. You either have to poke around the blogosphere for community hacks that fix the compatibility data, or learn how to do it yourself. I always thought the "maximum version" thing was seriously broken.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  10. DanAtkinson
    Member

    Well, it's more of a rough outline of a proposal, rather than an RFC! ;)

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  11. mll
    Member

    Well we're told to tell our wildest dreams, so here's mine:

    I've been waiting for this thread's idea to be implemented for ages, but I'd even love to have Wordpress able to update its plugins just by the press of a button (or even automatically is the user choses so).

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  12. IcyMidnight
    Member

    Here's my suggestion to be fair to plug-in developers who don't want 1.54 million WordPress installations pinging their web servers every time the admin page is accessed.

    Plugin developers can host their plugins on wp-plugins.org and then that would take care of everything. If they would prefer to host them on their own servers they could sign up for wp-plugins.org and then simply register their plugin and get a plugin key. The registration would include the plugin's home page, and a link to the plugin's version file, which would be of a standard format. They then host this version file on their own servers and wp-plugins.org pings and caches it. The pings could be done on a schedule from wp-plugins.org (once an hour, once a day, etc) and manually by the author.

    Then the author places the plugin key in their plugin and WordPress asks wp-plugins.org for updates by plugin key.

    ---

    To add to Dan's idea and amessinger's complaint, perhaps there could be 3 WP version tie-ins:
    1. Earliest wp version needed
    2. Highest wp version tested
    3. Highest wp version suspected
    If the user's wp version is between 1 and 2 then the plugin can be updated automatically. If the user's version is between 2 and 3 then they could update after being warned. This way plugin developers can make updates to, or perhaps the WP community can request that updates are made to 3.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  13. c0y0te
    Member

    I guess it comes down to how best to maintain a third party site for hosting plugins, and then perhaps (to avoid overloading) it's a manually initiated 'ping' by default (or automatically scheduled once per week if selected) process to check your current plugins against the 'available list' at the plugins site. A simple report presented to the user can articulate the latest plugins which have updates available and then if it's possible to do the 'install' or 'update' from the Dashboard - well even better.

    The next logical step is that said plugin site allows for a newsletter / weekly update style bulletin which can also be accessed from WP, notifying users of recent plugin updates, additions, deletions etc. with simple one-line descriptions. Again - to avoid the overloading mentioned above.

    Basically it's a pain in the ass trying to keep your plugins up to date manually, so if there was one simple process instead for all plugins which enables the checking of same, and perhaps the downloading and installing of same - it would make a great difference.

    c0y0te
    http://www.avalon5.com
    "Howl @ The Moon!"

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  14. Oceanwatcher
    Member

    This ties in very well with my suggestion for a better way to upgrade WordPress itself.

    http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic.php?id=204&replies=1

    Both these things are necessary to make sure that WordPress is accessible for anyone that want to have a blog. Not only easy to install, but also easy to maintain.

    Security is important!

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  15. ubahn
    Member

    There is a plugin which is half way to getting this feature right. With help from the Wordpress team it could be complete probably faster than coding the whole feature from scratch.

    http://mattread.com/projects/wp-plugins/installer-the-plugin/

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  16. bdude
    Member

    This could work similar to the vBulletin plugin situation where you can make a request to a url, say http://www.wp-plugins.org/update/1028839/

    and it returns
    <versionlatest>2.2.12</versionlatest>
    <downloadurl>http://www.wp-plugins.org/get/1028839/2212</downloadurl>

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  17. damino
    Member

    I would like to say that may be plugin's authors could try to follow the exemple of the ImageManager Plugin which has this function : when a new update of this plugin is available it appears in the plugin manager ...

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  18. sabam
    Member

    I like this idea!

    Posted: 2 years ago #

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