improvement..? (1 Viewer)

GetWell

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First of all, this is great! It makes plugin handling easy, and i can't understand why this isn't better integrated with MP as default. (the in-MP plugin should be there by default)

One thing I think could be more easy, is the grouping of the plugins. The tag idea i great, but fast (already) it will be to messy and difficult to search.
Maybe its an idea to create some main categories, and then having the tags as secondary search? I think it would be more easy to find what you are looking for in that way.
 

Dadeo

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  • November 26, 2006
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    Hi GetWell

    Nice suggestion about categories. The tags work, but you are right, with 150 extensions for MP, once they all use MPEI it could be a mess especially if they use a lot of tags. I am not sure if here is a way, but perhaps we could auto add the categories where the extension appears in our Downloads Repository? Probably not! LOL

    As far as why the Extensions plugin was not integrated in MP - it was not ready yet for MP 1.1.x. So we left it as a plugin so we could continue development and testing. In some ways that offers advantages because we can do updates between MP releases. If we can shorten MP release cycles then I would agree it should be included in MP install, because I think not all users even realize the Extensions plugin exists or what it can do for them within MP.
     

    GetWell

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    in general the MP Download Repository and MPEI should be more combined.
    Fore example the plugin installed counter could be updated by the MPEI and so on.

    What comes to Extensions as a plugin, I can see your point, and it makes sense. but maybe it could stay as a plugin but a kind of pre-installed plugin which still can be updated regardless the MP releases? :)
     

    Dadeo

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    Fore example the plugin installed counter could be updated by the MPEI and so on.
    IIRC our Downloads repository does include installs via MPEI if you post your update.xml in your listing (there is an option to do that). I plan to try that for next release of aMPed, so I will let you know :p
    What comes to Extensions as a plugin, I can see your point, and it makes sense. but maybe it could stay as a plugin but a kind of pre-installed plugin which still can be updated regardless the MP releases? :)
    I wish for that too, not only for Extensions plugin! However, as I am sure you can understand there are many issues to implement that well without causing other issues, and several ways to do it.

    Our first goal has to been to make MPEI as useful as possible for extensions devs (so they will all use it!). I think we have made good progress. In 1.2.0 RC, version compatibility has been added to MPEI as well, plus a few other fixes, minor improvements (as you can see in the thread MPE Tools with Version Check community development) That should help even more. We are definitely trying to improve by getting more of our Team devs interested to help with MPEI, and documenting it more thoroughly (especially for developers to learn all the tricks it can do) etc.

    My personal wish is someday to have an option at the end of MP Install to ask if users wish to install extensions. If they answer yes, it opens MPEI for them and updates online list for stable extensions compatible with the version of MP they are installing. I am even pushing for a way to have separate tabs for skins and plugins so when you select a skin, the plugins tab displays only the plugins/versions compatible with that skin, and vice versa when you select a plugin. But we are not there yet!

    Step by step! ;) But support from users and devs like you definitely will help make it happen sooner. So thanks!
     

    GetWell

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    It sounds like you have anything under control ;-)

    I really appreciate the work you are doing with MPEI! I have just added my first plugin (NotificationBar) and are planning to help documenting/develop in this part of the project when I have learned more about how it all works.

    Its a little hard to start developing for MP... So this is a place where I can see myself helping :)

    another improvement suggestion is some kind of progressbar for updating through the Extensions plugin.

    another thing just came to my mind:
    when a user changes from one skin to another, some plugin will crash if the new skin is not supported by the plugin. Then maybe there should be some kind of disable/unload plugin?

    just a thought :)
     

    Dadeo

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    It sounds like you have anything under control ;-)
    'Control' might be stretching it a bit ;)
    I really appreciate the work you are doing with MPEI! I have just added my first plugin (NotificationBar) and are planning to help documenting/develop in this part of the project when I have learned more about how it all works.
    That would be awesome and much appreciated GetWell. I have been looking for extension developers to help document how to create an MPEInstaller for plugins, much like Bleazle did for skins (see Skins Installer in the wiki). So when you are ready just send me a PM if you need some help.
    Its a little hard to start developing for MP... So this is a place where I can see myself helping :)
    Absolutely, you can post patches and even send Dukus a PM if you are interested to help with the Extensions plugin.
     

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