[geeklog-devel] Plugin Version Control and Dependencies (featurerequest #0001154)

[Randy Kolenko]

Just out of curiosity – why store anything in a table?

 

The information required to install a plugin is easily pulled back by the plugin admin page by querying each plugin, and populated on the screen.  If a plugin is missing a dependency, don’t allow it to be installed and simply show the dependency information below the plugin and the associated status of each dependency (installed, disabled, missing etc).

 

Like I noted before, we’ve done all this with Nexpro – the plugin page is all that really needs to be updated to support hiding the install button and showing the dependencies.  For Nexpro, each config file for each plugin has its own dependency list.  We do a version_compare and determine if the required plugin is there or not in the autoinstall.php file.  

 

 

From: Rouslan Placella [mailto:rouslan at placella.com] 
Sent: Friday, January 21, 2011 11:41 AM
To: Geeklog Development
Subject: [geeklog-devel] Plugin Version Control and Dependencies (featurerequest #0001154)

 

I'd like to implement the dependency checks for geeklog plugins (bug #0001154).
So below I wrote down some things that I think I'll have to do for this.
Feedback? Suggestions? Opinions? Tips?

Thanks,
Rouslan.

THINGS TO DO (or to keep in mind):
* Create two database tables: 
Store each plugin's dependencies in one table
and each plugin's log from the latest install attempt in the other table

TABLE plugin_dependencies
  pi_name      varchar(30) // Name of the plugin to which an entry belongs
  type         varchar(20) // 'geeklog', 'plugin', etc...
      require      varchar(30) // name of the required plugin (leave empty if $type is 'geeklog')
  version      varchar(20) // version of the required plugin
  operator     varchar(10) // type of comparison, e.g: ">=" or ">"

TABLE plugin_install_log   // here we save custom messages that are generated when a plugin's install function is called 
  pi_name      varchar(30)
  type         varchar(20) // 'notice', 'info', 'warning', 'error', etc...
  title        TEXT        // a title
  msg          TEXT        // a message


* Create a new plugin API call: plugin_dependencies_pluginname()
    The plugin can return a two-dimentional array containing its dependency information and it's install log.
Sample usage in the plugin would be:
<?php
// plugins/foo/autoinstall.php:
...
function plugin_dependencies_foo()
{
...
return array(
// This array says that the plugin 'foo' requires Geeklog version greater than or equal to 1.8.0
array( 'geeklog' => 'core', '1.8.0' => '>=' ),

// This array says that the plugin 'foo' requires the calendar plugin with version greater than 1.0.0
array( 'plugin' => 'calendar', '1.0.0' => '>' ),

// There can be multiple dependencies
array( 'plugin' => 'socnet', '1.0.0' => '>=' ),

// A message from the plugin regarding custom dependency checks
// $type can be 'notice', 'info', 'warning', 'error', etc...
array( 'message' => 'error', 'a title' => 'a message' ),

// There can be multiple messages
array( 'message' => 'info', 'another title' => 'another message' )
  
/*  The settings will be saved to 'plugins_dependencies' table and
                    the messages to 'plugins_install_log'  */
);
}
...
?>

* Introduce a function to update and resolve dependencies, as well as ensuring that the plugins are loaded in the correct order.
    Call this function:
* when enabling/disabling a plugin
* when installing/uninstalling a plugin
* when changing plugin load order
* when loading plugins?

* Add the "plugin editor" to uninstalled plugins.
* If there was an install attempt and it failed, show the entries from the "plugin_install_log" table there.
* When warning about unresolved dependencies. Offer the options to: "try to resolve", "proceed anyway" and "cancel operation".
* Add a clear_install_log($plugin) function and use it before each install so that there is only one log entry per plugin.
* In the plugin admin, make it obvious when there is a message that was saved during the install and it can be viewed.

* Show dependency information in the plugin editor for enabled plugins

* Show the install log in the plugin editor for enabled plugins
    It'll probably say: "Installation was successful." only, most the time, but it could be useful to add custom information messages.

* Keep backwards compatibility with all older plugins

* Should be easy to extend to dependencies for databases (maybe even themes and blocks, too?).

* Add a plugin_dependencies_* functions to the bundled plugins

* Document everything better than this 

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