Plugins Admin: add plugin release date to sort plugins

pnedev

That’s a good idea.
As addition I would also mark a plugin for update if it has more recent release date than the current (even if the versions match).

BR

dinkumoil

@all

Too late, @donho already reverted the commit to PluginList that introduced the release date field, see here.

cmeriaux

arf !!!
so sad !!!
@donho you should keep your mind opened to the community. have a look to other editor and its package control (sublime text and its package control https://packagecontrol.io/). So much things to do in your admin UI ! it looks like a 20 years old UI. It’s not user freindly at all.

dinkumoil

@cmeriaux , @donho

It’s not only PluginsAdmin’s UI, it’s functionality also requires great improvements. Error handling is still rudimentary (which often leads to wrong and misleading error messages or to no messages at all) and user feedback during downloading and installing plugin(s) is not existent.

The plugin list is only delivered to users with new releases of Notepad++ and even then PluginsAdmin doesn’t check automatically for plugin updates, instead users have to check that manually.

And there are still some old plugins which have been made obsolete by PluginsAdmin because they do not fit its requirements (e.g. including version information) or are affected by its bugs.

AngryGamer

Too bad more software doesn’t use a mix of “semantic versioning” and “date of release versioning”.

At a glance, I find “release date” to be a rough indicator of compatibility with major releases to the underlying software (like Windows 10 “feature updates” alongside AMD driver updates).

A plugin released after a major update is likely to be fully functional. Also, it’s useful for comparing plugins which offer similar or overlapping functionality, but one is actively maintained and the other is abandonware.

larsonreever

I would consider a release date column in PluginsAdmin to be useful if it has more recent release date than the current (even if the versions match).

PeterJones

@dinkumoil said:

already reverted the commit to PluginList that introduced the release date field

@cmeriaux , given the door has been shut on the Plugins Admin doing it natively… I’m not a plugin developer, so I don’t know if the existing plugin interface can get you access to the meta-information in nppPluginList.dll, or whether that has all the meta-data necessary – at least for the release-date field – but maybe a plugin could be written to do that. Adding in @pnedev’s suggestion of finding plugins that have been updated since the last NPP release might be harder, since they’d have to search external resources (websites, etc) rather than just look at nppPluginList.dll info.

dinkumoil

@PeterJones

Unfortunately the release date usually is not part of exe/dll meta data. AFAIK there even is no field in the meta-data record designated for this purpose.

Alan Kilborn

@cmeriaux said:

would like to have an enhancement in the plugin admin UI so can see and sort plugins by there release date ?

Sounds good to me.

Steven Haymes

I have no problem with the Plugin Admin “as is”, but adding the release date and being able to sort on it, sounds like a good idea to me.

donho

@dinkumoil said:

It’s not only PluginsAdmin’s UI, it’s functionality also requires great improvements. Error handling is still rudimentary (which often leads to wrong and misleading error messages or to no messages at all) and user feedback during downloading and installing plugin(s) is not existent.

Could you point to me this issue ticket on GitHub, please?

The plugin list is only delivered to users with new releases of Notepad++ and even then PluginsAdmin doesn’t check automatically for plugin updates, instead users have to check that manually.

There’s Updates section via Updates tab. Is not what you want?
OTOH, the release of NppPluginList should be independent of Notepad++ release. Plugin Admin should be able to upgrade its NppPluginList when a update is available. It’ll be the priority on my radar.

And there are still some old plugins which have been made obsolete by PluginsAdmin because they do not fit its requirements (e.g. including version information) or are affected by its bugs.

It depends on the effort of authors or the community to make these old plugins available. It’s beyond my scope.

donho

@cmeriaux said:

arf !!!
so sad !!!
@donho you should keep your mind opened to the community. have a look to other editor and its package control (sublime text and its package control https://packagecontrol.io/). So much things to do in your admin UI ! it looks like a 20 years old UI. It’s not user freindly at all.

As the project manager and the main maintainer, my job is make this tool easy to use and easy to maintain. For now there are the other priorities such as the detection of NppPluginList update and upgrate NppPluginList automatically, and the wingup downloading progress bar (a GUI issue much more important than this one IMO).

It’s good to implement the feature you suggest, but I am not persuaded that this feature is necessary. Let’s wait and see if there will be really the FR for it.

dinkumoil

@donho said:

There’s Updates section via Updates tab. Is not what you want?

I would prefer if PluginsAdmin would check for plugin updates automatically in the background when Notepad++ starts up. If it would find updates it should display a message which plugins are ready for update and a button to perform these updates and a button to postpone the updates.

Could you point to me this issue ticket on GitHub, please?

If you mean whether I could create an issue - yes, I will do that.

cmeriaux

@donho thanks for your reply.

It’s good to implement the feature you suggest … Let’s wait and see if there will be really the FR for it.

I suggest to integerate it now or the PR might be lost or not easily integrable. Same for the plugin admin list, let’s revert the revert you’ve done or it will be paintfull to add the “release date” again

Plugin Admin should be able to upgrade its NppPluginList when a update is available. It’ll be the priority on my radar.

Does that means you are working on this or you’dd like some else to do this feature ?
I am motivated to contribute to Npp but I don’t want to work for nothing.

Alan Kilborn

@cmeriaux said:

I am motivated to contribute to Npp but I don’t want to work for nothing.

This may be the most powerful statement ever posted in these forums.

Unless for nothing is interpreted as for free…which is not the intended meaning at all.

Maybe for no reason is better. Damn, I took something away from the original quote!

cmeriaux

Thanks Alan for the clarification. My English is not so good.