[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #50280: Enable auto-updates shows for plugins with no support

[WordPress Trac]

#50280: Enable auto-updates shows for plugins with no support
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 Reporter:  elrae                                |       Owner:  audrasjb
     Type:  enhancement                          |      Status:  reopened
 Priority:  normal                               |   Milestone:  5.5
Component:  Upgrade/Install                      |     Version:  trunk
 Severity:  normal                               |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch dev-feedback has-dev-note  |     Focuses:  docs,
                                                 |  administration
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Comment (by pbiron):

 While I understand the [https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/07/15
 /controlling-plugin-and-theme-auto-updates-ui-in-
 wordpress-5-5/#comment-38986 concerns] raised by @stephencronin (and
 others), those concerns are really about updates in general, and not about
 auto-updates, per se.  The presense of the `Enable auto-updates` link is
 **not** a ''promise'' that updates will ever be available for a particular
 plugin/theme: it merely allows site admins to opt-in to auto-updates
 **if** an update ever becomes available.

 I realize that not all site admins know where all of the plugins installed
 on a site come from and which ones are/are not hooked into the Updates API
 (many won't even know what the Updates API is!).  For example, they may be
 new to managing a particular site and someone else, who no longer works on
 the site may have installed the plugins.

 But if a particular plugin is not hooked into the Updates API (either by
 being hosted in the .org repo, having it's own updater code, or because
 its updates are handled by yet another plugin such as
 [https://github.com/afragen/github-updater GitHub Updater]) **and** the
 unavailablity of updates is a concern, then core should do something to
 inform admins of that fact...independent of the auto-updates UI!

 That is, suppose a site has the auto-updates UI disabled (and hence, all
 updates are manual), doesn't the fact that site admins regularly get
 notices to **manually** update plugins A, B & C give them a "false sense
 of security" that some day they will also get notices to **manually**
 update plugins X, Y & Z, even though, unbeknownst to such site admin,
 those notices will never be given for plugins X, Y & Z since those plugins
 are't hooked into the Updates API?

 I actually support introducing a mechanism for detecting whether a
 plugin/theme is hooked into the Updates API, but I do **not** support
 tying that mechanism just to auto-updates!  We are certainly not going to
 design and implement such a mechanism before 5.5 ships, and doing
 something last minute just for auto-updates is going to tie our hands
 about the eventual solution for updates in general, whether manual or
 auto.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/50280#comment:29>
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