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Plugin Update Notification

1. c0y0te
   Member

   12345

   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: 6 years ago #

2. yazeed
   Member

   12345

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

   Posted: 6 years ago #

3. dille
   Member

   12345

   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: 6 years ago #

4. winnopeg
   Member

   12345

   The same thing for themes would be really nice too.

   Posted: 6 years ago #

5. damino
   Member

   12345

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

   Posted: 6 years ago #

6. DanAtkinson
   Member

   12345

   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: 6 years ago #

7. indigoclothing
   Member

   12345

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

   Posted: 6 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: 6 years ago #

9. amessinger
   Member

   12345

   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: 6 years ago #

10. DanAtkinson
    Member

    12345

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

    Posted: 6 years ago #

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