[wp-hackers] Google Summer of Code 2007

[Michael D Adams]

On Mar 14, 2007, at 5:01 AM, DD32 wrote:
> What i propose is a Update manager Plugin for Wordpress,
> It should:
> - Gather information about the currently installed plugins, themes,  
> PHP
> extensions+versions, PHP/Mysql/Wordpress versions etc.
> - Check each Component(Plugin, Theme, and WordPress itself) for a  
> method
> of being updated
>   -- Methods of updating could include: Header line added to  
> specify an XML
> update link, a text file with only the latest version in it, or  
> even a php
> function?
> - Fetch the update file for the component, Check the requirements  
> of the
> plugin if specified
>   -- Requirements: WordPress Version, PHP version, PHP Extensions
> available, Other Plugins available?
> - Notify a specified user of WordPress that there is an update  
> available
> - Allow the user to Update the Plugin/Theme with a click of the  
> mouse (If
> a package is available, AND the plugin isnt marked as "Manual only
> install")
>   -- An extension of this would be to allow the Plugin to  
> Automatically
> updata a plugin without having to ask the user, of course, only if the
> user chooses to enable such an option..
>
> What i'd like to include, given enough time, and thinking over:
>
> - Allow the upload directly of Plugin and Theme files, Should cut  
> out the
> FTP upload issues that some have.. Should possibly be only allowed for
> authorised components perhaps, i'm not sure yet how to deal with  
> that, I
> dont want to give a hole for people to abuse if they manage to get  
> in to
> the wordpress admin..
> - Allow the searching of Plugin repositories from within wordpress,  
> and
> allowing it to download-then-install the Plugins/Themes directly  
> from the
> same panel.
>   -- Support different respositories depending on getting  
> permission from
> them, Alternativly, if someone else would like to give wp- 
> plugins.org a
> real make over, then it could be the only supported repos. (As  
> AFAIK, its
> under Wordpress control, Whilst the others are just from Wordpress  
> Fans?)
>
> - A feature i'd Like to have included, however, i do not see myself
> managing to implement initially, Is for allowing it to update  
> WordPress
> itself, I'd like to have Notifications built into the initial version,
> However, would like for it to be expandable to update wordpress
> automatically. There IS a plugin attempting to do this though. i'll be
> watching how it progresses (Cant find a link right now for it though)
>
>
> Ok, Now to some that may seem like a huge list, and to others it'll  
> seem
> like a rather small list.. But its still something that is overall,  
> not
> implmented in a user-friendly plugin allready for users.
> Included in that lot would also be all the documenation a Plugin/Theme
> author could want to know how to implement the system in their
> Plugins/Themes, As well as simple tools to create XML files for the
> updater... (possibly a Plugin for wordpress to help those to host it
> themselves -- Thats something i'll do afterwards if i do this anyway)
>
> I'd personally like to see someone take it as a project to re-develop
> wp-plugins.org into more of a repository for Plugins, Currently its  
> not
> the best looking, rather bland and unused by many plugin developers.
> I'd love to see it transformed into something that people actually  
> want to
> submit their plugins to.. I suppose if i include it on the Search  
> list for
> this Plugin, Then that might make people more willing to submit to  
> it..
> I'd be willing to see another student do that, or someone else, and
> implement any needed items into a plugin for wordpress.

Some of the stuff above will be made a little bit easier by a project  
Mark Jaquith, Matt Thomas and myself have been working on: the soon  
to be launched (soon = days) plugin browser at http://wordpress.org/ 
extend/plugins/

You can get an idea of what it's about by looking at the similar (but  
less pretty and less fully featured) bbPress plugins browser: http:// 
bbpress.org/plugins/

It hooks into the wp-plugins.org SVN repository, parses each plugin's  
readme file or description and gives each plugin a page of its own  
for searching, stats, tagging, commenting, rating, etc.  Several  
similar projects have come (and gone) before, but hopefully this one  
will be centralized enough that it can stay viable.  Particularly if  
it's made all the *more* useful by the kind of things you suggest above.

The next step (after launching the site in the first place) is to  
implement some sort of XML-RPC or REST protocol for querying the  
status of plugins: most recent stable version, last update time, or  
whatever else might be useful (exactly what you described above).    
None of that's been done (or even thought over much), and I'd be very  
happy to support endeavors along those lines by someone (whether as a  
GSoC project or not).

Michael