[wp-hackers] Plugin Management and Autoupdate System

[jason switzer]

On 7/30/06, Computer Guru <computerguru at neosmart.net> wrote:

> Actually, that's exactly why we're not doing it that way. Individual sites
> on a whole are more stable - like I said, look what happened when the
> _Automattic_ site wp-plugins.org went down. Look how slow pingomatic and
> akisemt are.
>
> Don't worry about bandwidth, the files are tiny - but here is a better
> idea:
> You approach Dr. Dave (who is a great guy!) and tell him:
> "Can you please have your site auto-create the RDF download bulletins that
> are compatible with WP 2.1's new plugin system?"
>
> Then your plugin file can point to his server anyway.



This couldn't be more wrong. A single authorative site can be load balanced.
Where as, if a developer who self hosts creates a popular plugin, he will
likely not be able to handle the traffic. His ISP will complain, his machine
may put on the brakes. This is generally a bad idea. In fact, I believe it
will discourage weekend warriors from developing plugins. Other centeralized
sites did not work for one reason and one reason only: out of the box
support for automatic plugin management. It was up to the site maintainer to
maintain installation rules and plugin lists.

If I had to host the updates and host the plugin, I would be less inclined
to publish this content from my site. If there were a site I could update
with my new plugin version and the installation rules, I would spend less
time getting my plugin to the end users and more time developing. That is
what really matters to the content developers.

Besides, I've been saying from the get-go that the plugin installation rules
could be php exec() sort of thing. Why should the maintainers define the
installation routines, let the developers implement a common interface.