Plugin installer: repo file for my plugins

[peterw]

I've just created a repo file for my 14 plugins, including my hacked version of AutoDisplay that works with SC 7.01+:

http://www.tux.org/~peterw/slim/slim7/repodata.xml

If anyone's interested, I've posted the Perl script I threw together to create this XML. It looks at a couple local directories to find my plugins, and makes some assumptions about the varius things like
- names of the string tokens needed for the localized title and desc elements
- names of the info web pages for the link elements
- how to extract the "base" plugin name and version from a zip file name
- that you've got 'sha1sum' installed (I'm too lazy to install Digest::SHA1, but if you search for "SHA1" you'll see what to change if you're less lazy than I)
- that you only have plugins to offer
- that all plugins work on SC 7.0 through 7.3, all platforms

Hopefully some of you will find it of some use.

http://www.tux.org/~peterw/slim/slim7/mkrepo.pl.txt

-Peter

[Triode]

>
> I've just created a repo file for my 14 plugins, including my hacked
> version of AutoDisplay that works with SC 7.01+:
>
> http://www.tux.org/~peterw/slim/slim7/repodata.xml
>

Looking good and thanks for the wiki entries. Do we need more info on the
wiki to explain the xml format or where you happy with the comments in the
code?

I will post on the 3rd Party plugins page to let people know this is
available and get people using 7.3 to start trying it. (From my BBCiPlayer
plugin I see 130 downloads of the 7.3 version, so I think enough people are
using 7.3 to publish this now)

[peterw]

Looking good and thanks for the wiki entries. Do we need more info on the
wiki to explain the xml format or where you happy with the comments in the
code?

Good question. I think the wiki repo page ought to at least link to sample XML, but explaining the format in a developers' section on that page would be great.

Some thoughts on the current setup -- requests for 7.3.1 and 8.0:

web UI browsability: I'm concerned the plugin list could get really long, really fast. Suggest organizing by repo, and within a repo, by status. Javascript hyperlinks in place to expand/collapse status or repo sections.

web UI search: make it easy to search through the info in plugins' name, title, and description info.

repo XML: "suggestions" to allow repo maintainers to recommend other repos, e.g.

<suggestions>
<suggestion url="http://herger.net/blahblah.xml">
<name lang="EN">Michael Herger's plugins</name>
<commment lang="EN">Music Info Screensaver is a must-have for
Squeezebox players with screens. Michael, now a Logitech
employee, has a bunch of other interesting plugins available.</comment>
</suggestion>
</suggestions>

In the SC web UI, suggestions for repos not yet subscribed to would offer simple hyperlinks to add those repos. This would build a "web of recommendations" to help users could find lots of good stuff after only cutting and pasting one repo URL.

[erland]

repo XML: "suggestions" to allow repo maintainers to recommend other repos, e.g.

In the SC web UI, suggestions for repos not yet subscribed to would offer simple hyperlinks to add those repos. This would build a "web of recommendations" to help users could find lots of good stuff after only cutting and pasting one repo URL.

I'm not sure I like to have this kind of information in the repository xml files, it could be a mess to maintain if some developer for some reason needs to move his repository xml file to another host or path. You will then have a lot of other repository xml files pointing to the wrong place.
(Yes, I understand it isn't recommended to move the repository xml file)

Listing the repositories on the wiki page should be enough until we have a central repository.

[schiegl]

I've just created a repo file for my 14 plugins, including my hacked version of AutoDisplay that works with SC 7.01+:

http://www.tux.org/~peterw/slim/slim7/repodata.xml

Peter,

i took a test ride and removed your previously installed plugins (namely the settingsmanager) so i can use the new extension framework. On SC-startup i get the following message

[08-11-08 17:22:53.5051] Slim::Utils::Strings::string (410) Error: missing string SETUP_AUTOBRIGHTNESS_CHOOSE
[08-11-08 17:22:53.5056] Slim::Utils::Strings::string (410) Backtrace:

   frame 0: Slim::Utils::Log::logBacktrace (/opt/SqueezeCenter_svn/7.3/trunk/server/Slim/Utils/Strings.pm line 410)
   frame 1: Slim::Utils::Strings::string (/home/control/squeezecenter/cache/InstalledPlugins/Plugins/SettingsManager/Plugin.pm line 574)
   frame 2: Plugins::SettingsManager::Plugin::nameCorePrefs (/home/control/squeezecenter/cache/InstalledPlugins/Plugins/SettingsManager/Plugin.pm line 98)
   frame 3: Plugins::SettingsManager::Plugin::initPlugin (/opt/SqueezeCenter_svn/7.3/trunk/server/Slim/Utils/PluginManager.pm line 524)
   frame 4: (eval) (/opt/SqueezeCenter_svn/7.3/trunk/server/Slim/Utils/PluginManager.pm line 524)
   frame 5: Slim::Utils::PluginManager::enablePlugins (/opt/SqueezeCenter_svn/7.3/trunk/server/Slim/Utils/PluginManager.pm line 140)
   frame 6: Slim::Utils::PluginManager::init (/opt/squeezecenter/slimserver.pl line 430)
   frame 7: main::init (/opt/squeezecenter/slimserver.pl line 482)
   frame 8: main::main (/opt/squeezecenter/slimserver.pl line 1046)

Does this make sense?

nevertheless: great work you've all done so far regarding this repository approach. In my opinion this will bring the "SC is (easy) extendable with plugins" to a much broader audience. Remains the challenge how to do platform independent SC restarts...

keep up the good work,
Markus

[MrC]

I can confirm the same SETUP_AUTOBRIGHTNESS_CHOOSE error with Settings Manager.

I had an error also with SyncOptions also:

[12:10:07.0083] Slim::Control::Request::execute (1887) Error: While trying to run function coderef [Plugins::SyncOptions::Plugin::SyncOptions_syncComm and]: [Can't locate object method "slaves" via package "Slim::Player::Receiver" at C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SqueezeCenter\Cache\InstalledPlugins/Plugins/SyncOptions/Plugin.pm line 730.
]

When this occurred, I was never able to sync. Moving right would keep repeating the same Sync with PlayerName menu. I disabled SyncOptions, and re-enabled later, and now it seems to work (and very well!).

[peterw]

I can confirm the same SETUP_AUTOBRIGHTNESS_CHOOSE error with Settings Manager.

I had an error also with SyncOptions also:

Thanks. Neither of these is related to the installer framework. The SETUP_AUTOBRIGHTNESS_CHOOSE strings warning is harmless & I will take care of that. The SyncOptions problem is serious (duh!) & will require some investigation.

-Peter

[peterw]

I can confirm the same SETUP_AUTOBRIGHTNESS_CHOOSE error with Settings Manager.

This is a SqueezeCenter bug that does seem to be related to the extension manager. SettingsManager only tries to use that string if $::VERSION is 7.0.x. If I manually install the code to server/Plugins/, it sees "7.3" for $::VERSION and there's no string() error. But if it's installed by the extension manager, it doesn't work right.

This may also explain the SyncOptions trouble -- SyncOptions looks at $::VERSION to determine whether to use APIs from SC 7.0 through 7.2, or the "new-streaming" APIs in 7.3. If it can't see the correct value, it won't work right.

[Triode]

On what platform?

My plugins are reading $::VERSION ok when installed by extension downloader on linux. I can't see why it would be different.

[peterw]

On what platform?

My plugins are reading $::VERSION ok when installed by extension downloader on linux. I can't see why it would be different.

Linux. Ugh, my published version isn't up to date. False alarm. Seemed darn weird. Grr. Sorry.