Go to main content

Textpattern CMS support forum

You are not logged in. Register | Login | Help

#1 2017-01-15 19:31:38

bici
Member
From: vancouver
Registered: 2004-02-24
Posts: 2,071
Website Mastodon

Plugins Meta data

Regarding plugins:
Is there a format rule that Dates be included in the comments area?

for example:

# Name: pre_ywz_name v0.1 
# Type: Admin plugin
# some brief explanation
# Author: Firstname Surname
# URL: http://www.example.com/  
# Recommended load order: 5
# Create Date: 2017-01-24
# Revised Date: 2019-11-04

I think this would be most helpful


…. texted postive

Offline

#2 2017-01-15 23:33:09

Bloke
Developer
From: Leeds, UK
Registered: 2006-01-29
Posts: 11,250
Website GitHub

Re: Plugins Meta data

People are free to write anything they want in the comments area. The only reason I think that info is not widely supplied is because it’s not in the template compiler. And Plugin Composer also doesn’t put it in.

If the dates were to be useful (I think dependencies and version of Txp that it’s been tested to work on would be more useful), we’d have to agree on what the dates meant. For example, is that when this version was created? Or when the plugin was first released? And would the revised date therefore be the date on which the version you have downloaded was released?

Most authors bump the version number with each release, so two dates don’t seem that helpful, imo. A single release date might be.


The smd plugin menagerie — for when you need one more gribble of power from Textpattern. Bleeding-edge code available on GitHub.

Txp Builders – finely-crafted code, design and Txp

Offline

#3 2017-01-16 04:49:22

bici
Member
From: vancouver
Registered: 2004-02-24
Posts: 2,071
Website Mastodon

Re: Plugins Meta data

As i see it. It would be nice to know if the plugin was released 10yrs ago or this year. The version number alone is meaningless.

Version 0.1 could mean 2008 or 2017. or any other Version X.X – without the date it fails to tell me if it will work with the latest version of TxP. I guess in theory any update to TxP could make every plugin inoperable.


…. texted postive

Offline

#4 2017-01-16 10:51:32

maverick
Member
From: Southeastern Michigan, USA
Registered: 2005-01-14
Posts: 976
Website

Re: Plugins Meta data

I like the idea of all the additional data being included:

Bloke’s suggestions of dependencies and the latest know version of Textpattern that the plugin works.

Bici’s suggestion refined by Bloke’s comments – an initial release date and the version release date to help for informational/historical purposes.

All such information aides in supporting the user, and also could be used to in conjunction with a plugin repository.

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB