Why do we separate plugin updates?

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onli
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Why do we separate plugin updates?

Post by onli »

In s9y, we have two buttons and two pages to update plugin: one for event plugins and one for sidebar plugins. Knowing the code I think I know where that stems from, but isn't that something we should change? We could have both type of updates on one page, and either separate them there or just list them together. I do not think the separation is particularly useful for users.

Do I miss something? What do you think?
yellowled
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Re: Why do we separate plugin updates?

Post by yellowled »

onli wrote:Do I miss something? What do you think?
Well, I can imagine cases in which I would want to update all plugins and cases in which I'd want to exclude some plugins from updates. Maybe because a plugin has been updated with an error, and there's already another version on the way, but it takes some time, so I want to skip said version.

However, the vast majority of use cases for most of our users is probably “Update all plugins to the latest versions”, so I see what you're getting at. We might actually only need a way to update all plugins to the latest version plus an expert setting to exclude single plugins from these updates?

YL
onli
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Re: Why do we separate plugin updates?

Post by onli »

I mean, 2.1 already has a button to update all plugins at once. But only all event plugins, or all sidebar plugins, because only those updates are shown at the same time. Do you think that distinction between updates for sidebar and event plugins is useful? I'd pack them together.
bernd_d
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Re: Why do we separate plugin updates?

Post by bernd_d »

I think, a single page for all plugin-updates would be better. For the user it doesn't matter if the available update is for a event- or sidebar-plugin. The best usability is to have one page, where i can see if there are updates.
yellowled
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Re: Why do we separate plugin updates?

Post by yellowled »

onli wrote:Do you think that distinction between updates for sidebar and event plugins is useful?
As I said – I would like for there to be some kind of mechanism to exclude plugins (“lock” the plugin version) because if you have 20 plugins installed and want to keep one at a specific version, that's tedious. That could easily be some kind of “expert option” like setting a variable somewhere or something. Doesn't have to have a comfortable interface, I think.

But I don't think there's a use case for “update all sidebar or event plugins”.

YL
onli
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Re: Why do we separate plugin updates?

Post by onli »

garvinhicking
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Re: Why do we separate plugin updates?

Post by garvinhicking »

Generally, having an update page that combines both could be helpful. But they should be listed distinctly, first all sidebar plugins, then all event plugins (not mixed).

One of the technical reasons it currently is like this, is that parsing BOTH large XML files consumes a lot of memory and ressources. It could be problematic to perform BOTH lookups in one request.

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LazyBadger
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Re: Why do we separate plugin updates?

Post by LazyBadger »

garvinhicking wrote: One of the technical reasons it currently is like this, is that parsing BOTH large XML files consumes a lot of memory and ressources. It could be problematic to perform BOTH lookups in one request.
It can be still two requests (from dev-side) with one button (from user-side)
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onli
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Re: Why do we separate plugin updates?

Post by onli »

It can be still two requests (from dev-side) with one button (from user-side)
That's exactly how it works now. The code in https://github.com/s9y/Serendipity/comm ... c78e609194 is a simple hack that simply lets spartacus fetch both lists and then merges them. It worked flawlessly in my test (as long as the cache in templates_c gets cleared, but that would happen automatically after a few hours).

If one would like to separate the list, then that should be done in the template. I did not implement this yet – Garvin, could you test how it behaves, whether you still think that is necessary? For me it felt fine when combined into one, and it preserves the "Update All" button.
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