Plugin Installer

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SharkHunter
Developer
Posts: 648
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:36 pm

Plugin Installer

Post by SharkHunter »

In the forthcoming 1.4.0 release a new framework for distributing/installing plugins is added to UMS. The feature is meant to ease the burden on how to install plugins as well as the burden of distributing them. In the future plugins can be released via this website and rated etc.
This is a rather big new feature so there might be some issues with it, so please report any problems found with it.

So how does it work?
As a user you'll find a Download and Install Plugins button in the General Configuration tab. Click on it and a list of available plugins will be presented to you. The rating system is currently disabled so all plugins will have a rating of "--". Select one or more plugins you want to install and press the Install button. Now the selected plugins will be installed and started.

Plugin developers should read the description in the Developer section.
We reject: kings, presidents and voting.
We believe in: rough consensus and running code.
counsil
Posts: 16
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2012 4:32 pm

Re: Plugin Installer

Post by counsil »

This is awesome. The only plugin I really use is Movie Info, although I install PMSEncoder out of habit. Nonetheless, it will be nice to be able to install the latest version (or the version you deem most stable) of each plugin without needing to search through all the threads to find where to download the plugin, how to configure it, where to install it to, etc...

S W E E T !!!
Gareee
Posts: 71
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:12 am

Re: Plugin Installer

Post by Gareee »

Very cool. The channels one semed to take quite a while for th epost install to complete, but the movie info one installed quickly.

Would it be possible to add an additional field with a link to capsule information on what the plugins actually do, or detailed info about them?
magebarf
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2012 11:53 pm

Re: Plugin Installer

Post by magebarf »

Yes, I'd like to join in with the praise, as it is a very handy feature that I'm sure to be using!

Sadly, I'll have to start by sharing some failure's as feedback, but this hopefully gives some chance of further improvement:

1) A few days ago I installed Channels, worked flawlessly, but when trying MovieInfo, nothing happened. Debug.log gave away the probable reason (new timestamps, as I just reproduced it):

Code: Select all

DEBUG 2012-07-21 21:20:00.555 [Thread-17] install plugin MovieInfo type 1
DEBUG 2012-07-21 21:20:01.185 [Thread-17] download of plugin MovieInfo failed java.net.MalformedURLException: no protocol: <html><body>You are being <a href="http://cloud.github.com/downloads/SharkHunter/MovieInfo/mi_inst.txt">redirected</a>.</body></html>
2) As mentioned, channels installed nicely a few days back. Today I saw in the channels thread that a new version was released.
So, I tried just using the Plugin Installer, thinking it also would help upgrading the plugins, which turned out wrong.
Now, I've got both tv_plug_188.jar and tv_plug_189.jar which both loads on start, so I get double instances.
My guess is that the installer needs to discern installation and upgrading (to keep track of files to be deleted), or one would have to simply use the same file names to make sure the plugins overwrite themselves (this would however mean that there could be unused files left behind, if a certain file no longer is distributed with a later version of the plugin).

In my case I believe it'll be fine by just removing the tv_plug_188.jar file and I'm good to go.
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SubJunk
Lead Developer
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Joined: Sun May 27, 2012 4:12 pm

Re: Plugin Installer

Post by SubJunk »

Cheers for the feedback guys. There are lots of ways we can improve the plugin installer and we will do just that in future versions :)
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SharkHunter
Developer
Posts: 648
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:36 pm

Re: Plugin Installer

Post by SharkHunter »

Gareee - There is additional info but it is doesn't make the table look nice. So it is hidden. Simply move the pointer over the row with the plugin you want info about and wait a short while. A "tool tip" will reveal itself with more info on the plugin.

magebarf - The upgrade should work. It was the last thing added so it might be something overlooked there. The movieinfo issue was just a mistake from my side. It's fixed now...
We reject: kings, presidents and voting.
We believe in: rough consensus and running code.
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SharkHunter
Developer
Posts: 648
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:36 pm

Re: Plugin Installer

Post by SharkHunter »

I've just updated the plugin installer logic somewhat. It turns out java holds multiple URL formats making some part of non working sigh....
Also made some fixes to channels as it hade a bug in it's postInstall phase. Now everything should be better....
The new pluginINstaller will of course not be released until the next UMS makes it out...
We reject: kings, presidents and voting.
We believe in: rough consensus and running code.
magebarf
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2012 11:53 pm

Re: Plugin Installer

Post by magebarf »

Yay! Movie info is great success now! :)

Will keep a look out once next version of Channels is released... And on a side thought; any plans of indicating what version currently is installed and what latest version is, or a simple upgrade notification stating you're not running the latest version?
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SharkHunter
Developer
Posts: 648
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:36 pm

Re: Plugin Installer

Post by SharkHunter »

magebarf wrote:Yay! Movie info is great success now! :)

Will keep a look out once next version of Channels is released... And on a side thought; any plans of indicating what version currently is installed and what latest version is, or a simple upgrade notification stating you're not running the latest version?
Automatic upgrading is in the very far future (if ever,unlikely as it looks now). Version indication is (at least for my plugins) seen in the trace log (like "Start channel 1.89" etc.). Maybe a version tag will be added to the plugin info and displayed somehow in the gui...
We reject: kings, presidents and voting.
We believe in: rough consensus and running code.
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S7eele
Posts: 75
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 8:12 am

Re: Plugin Installer

Post by S7eele »

Hey SharkHunter, when you get a moment I would like to get your thoughts on how reliable you feel the plugin installer as provided in version 1.5.0. In this thread I got the impression that alot of the automation and updating was quite a ways out. Now I am wondering how far down that road you guys have gotten us. How much is left to do? Hope you understand my questions. Guess I am just wondering if the GUI plugin installer is actually ready for primetime already or if it is in fact not up to the task yet. I have not had success using it yet when performing a couple different clean installs of 1.5.0. Still can't get channels to work but that is in another thread with my log and .conf files.
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