[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #10814: Plugin GUIDs

[WordPress Trac]

#10814: Plugin GUIDs
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 Reporter:  mdawaffe     |       Owner:  westi                 
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  reviewing             
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:  Future Release        
Component:  Plugins      |     Version:  2.8.4                 
 Severity:  normal       |    Keywords:  has-patch dev-feedback
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Comment(by docwhat):

 Replying to [comment:13 Denis-de-Bernardy]:
 > Replying to [comment:12 docwhat]:
 > > Any plugins that update through another site ... well, it is the code
 serving updates on that site that has to worry about it. Not our problem.
 >
 > the point was to say that you can't rely on the guid to be set...

 I think I did a bad job explaining it.  Let me try again.

 Instead of using some magic number for the GUID, use a canonical URL.  The
 URL should also act as the point of information on updates as well as
 information about the plugin.

 For wordpress.org there can only be one  and only one
 http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/... I don't
 know how plugins are uploaded, but I doubt I can upload another google-
 sitemap-generator.  So that solves the canonical URL for wordpress.org.

 For external sites, either:
  a) We don't support plugin checking and updating.
  b) We support it by checking for an HTTP header.

 If we do 'b' then we can provide a simple .php file that reads the README
 to get the current version and set the header.  The php file could also
 include a simple styling of the README and a download link so that if a
 human visits the page, they get useful information.

 We also add the same HTTP headers to the /extends/plugins/<plugin-slug-
 name> pages on wordpress.org as well.

 The advantage to this scheme is that plugins can be renamed by using HTTP
 redirects.

 We don't have to implement all this right away.  We can start with option
 'a' and add in features in 'b' later.

 Note how you cannot have an invalid GUID.  The URL must exist.  Moving a
 plugin into wordpress.org is as easy as putting in a simple php page that
 redirects to the wordpress.org page (ditto for moving away from
 wordpress.org).

 Ciao!

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/10814#comment:14>
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