Plugin Library: Feature request

[kookma]

Feature 1: Important
Assume you open Get More Plugin from $:/ControlPanel. You see list of plugins. No assume there is an update for a plugin you already have it. There is no sign to indicate your installed version is old.

See the below pic

Also it is good to show the plugin version instead of Tiddlywiki release number. One solution is to use something different instead of reinstall with blue color (e.g orange color with some suitable message)

I understand, the plugin library is updated per new release, but if it is used by other publisher then their plugin release number may be different.

Feature ii
The plugin library when open shows every plugin using a panel with an arrow to open the readme. It is good the panel shows more information like a link to publisher site (here I like a link to demo site for documentation and tutorial)
By the way this is a small improvement and not important as one can click the double arrow and open the readme.

[Jermolene]

Hi @kookma I understand feature 1, and agree it would be better to mark out of date plugins more prominently, but I may not be understanding feature 2 properly -- could you kindly make a sketch to show what you mean?

[kookma]

@Jermolene
Right now Plugin library shows each plugin on a panel with this information

• description e.g: BibTeX: BibTeX importer
• plugin tiddler name e.g: $:/plugins/tiddlywiki/bibtex
• Tiddlywiki release number e.g: 5.1.22prerelease

Feature ii says, the panel can contains more information like

• link to code e.g.: https://github.com/Jermolene/TiddlyWiki5/BibText
• rank (based on the number of install, or stars people give)

I know the last one is difficult.

[pmario]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the "reinstall" button code has info about the "old" version. So it may be possible to write "update" instead of reinstall.

[pmario]

or even better "update from: <<old version>>"

[kookma]

or even better "update from: <<old version>>"

That is much better update from ...

[kookma]

@Jermolene
Is there any chance to add this feature into 5.1.22? An indicator shows there is an update for installed plugin! The current reinstall does not have enough indication and user confuses if he/she can reinstall the current plugin release or a new update.

[kookma]

@Jermolene
I noticed on open the slider (arrows left of plugin title) a line appears shows the installed version!
While it is helpful but I recommend a more clear way to show an update is out there

[Jermolene]

Hi @kookma one confusion might be that the core plugins are automatically assigned the same version number as the core. So, although it looks like the core version that is highlighted in the image in the OP, it is actually the plugin version number.

[Jermolene]

Hi @kookma I've just committed some updates that address some of the issues you've identified.

There's now an "Updates" tab in the "add plugin" dialog. It brings together all the plugins that have available updates, and provides a button to click to update all of them at once:

In the "add plugin" dialog there's now a clearer indicator of which plugins contain listings of sub-plugins:

There are a couple of notable shortcomings:

• An update is flagged if the version of the plugin in the library is different than the installed version, regardless of whether the available version is actually a lower version number
• The CSS needs some work to make things look more consistent between tabs

[kookma]

Thank you @Jermolene!
This is really more informative! Some minor comments

• Displaying the current version versus available is very informative
• The reinstall when there is a new update is misleading! I may propose the badge shows reinstall if the available version is equal to installed version and update if the the version is different!
• The update all button is great and lets one update all his plugin without hassles.

I noticed also plugin uses a new field to store name, this is good as this field is used later to show the plugin name in bold in the list of installed plugin, two small suggestions:

The plugin uses the naming rule as $:/plugins/publisher/name so

1. we already have the plugin name why use a new field, The plugin library can extract name to display it as bold like <$text text={{{ [[$:/plugins/publisher/name]split[/]last[]}}} />
2. The plugin library table shows $:/plugins/publisher/name under name/description what is the benefit of displaying "$:/plugins/publisher/name"? I may propose to remove it and use it for other purposes like publisher name (also can be extracted) or other information link link to demo page, ...

[kookma]

There are a couple of notable shortcomings:

• An update is flagged if the version of the plugin in the library is different than the installed version, regardless of whether the available version is actually a lower version number

Isn't it possible to use $reveal widget here to compare the versions and find which version is smaller?

• The CSS needs some work to make things look more consistent between tabs

Quite true! specially the black div shows there sub-plugins.

[Jermolene]

Thanks @kookma

The reinstall when there is a new update is misleading! I may propose the badge shows reinstall if the available version is equal to installed version and update if the the version is different!

The reason the text says "reinstall" is because we don't actually know whether it's an upgrade or a downgrade, because we don't have the means to do greater than/less than comparisons with version numbers.

we already have the plugin name why use a new field, The plugin library can extract name to display it as bold like <$text text={{{ [[$:/plugins/publisher/name]split[/]last[]}}} />

We do something similar as a fallback, but in general plugins are not required to fit that naming convention (e.g. the $:/core plugin), so it's better to use the name field (we were already using it for themes and languages, so it's consistent anyway).

The plugin library table shows $:/plugins/publisher/name under name/description what is the benefit of displaying "$:/plugins/publisher/name"? I may propose to remove it and use it for other purposes like publisher name (also can be extracted) or other information

We show the full title of the tiddler because it's the unique identifier. At the moment the title is too prominent because more work is needed on the CSS layout.

Isn't it possible to use $reveal widget here to compare the versions and find which version is smaller?

It's quite complicated because of the major.minor.revision format. I plan to add a filter to do the comparison.

[kookma]

Thank you @Jermolene

It's quite complicated because of the major.minor.revision format. I plan to add a filter to do the comparison.

So, when this issue resolved, it may be possible to use a better words instead of reinstall.

Great!

[kookma]

Hi @Jermolene

It's quite complicated because of the major.minor.revision format. I plan to add a filter to do the comparison.

It seems the below code (https://helloacm.com/the-javascript-function-to-compare-version-number-strings/) works great!

function compareVersion(v1, v2) {
    if (typeof v1 !== 'string') return false;
    if (typeof v2 !== 'string') return false;
    v1 = v1.split('.');
    v2 = v2.split('.');
    const k = Math.min(v1.length, v2.length);
    for (let i = 0; i < k; ++ i) {
        v1[i] = parseInt(v1[i], 10);
        v2[i] = parseInt(v2[i], 10);
        if (v1[i] > v2[i]) return 1;
        if (v1[i] < v2[i]) return -1;        
    }
    return v1.length == v2.length ? 0: (v1.length < v2.length ? -1 : 1);
}

Also see this:
https://www.npmjs.com/package/compare-versions

[Jermolene]

Thanks @kookma. In fact there's already a utility function in the core to parse and compare version strings: https://github.com/Jermolene/TiddlyWiki5/blob/master/boot/boot.js#L411-L449

[kookma]

Great! I just thought I may be of little help! I know very little JS :-)

[Jermolene]

Hi @kookma I've just committed an update that includes the new "compare" filter operator, and the updated plugin chooser with different buttons for install, reinstall, update and downgrade. It'll be available at https://tiddlywiki.com/prerelease in about 8 minutes.

[kookma]

Thanks @Jermolene
Sure, I will give a try and give my feedback here!

[kookma]

Hi @Jermolene
My comments of first trail

• Looks good
• Old, new plugins are displayed with proper badges

Plugins tab

• Installed plugin card has extra information now and displays the information of installed plugin like: "This plugin is already installed at version 4.4.0". On drop down menu, you see again this line of info. I may recommend to remove repeated info

• On the installed plugin card, the title seems like name:description and name is extracted from plugin tiddler. I may recommend to display the name only as sentence case like
  Example:
  Trashbin: A plugin resembles OS recycle bin

• If you have several plugin libraries, then when you click on a tab of say "Updates" of one library all other Plugin library switch to that tab. It seems the tabs macro uses the same stateTiddler here.

Updates tab

• number of updates are shown correctly
• fonts and color looks great BUT font size is different comparing to other tabs. I myself prefer the new size and the new table
• when there is no update an empty table is shown. I recommend to do not display the empty table
• The background color for Update all x plugin is green while the badge for updates are orange. I may recommend use the same color everywhere

Small suggestion
Just a raw suggestion: in Update tab, official plugin may have different color or format to let user distinguish third part plugins from official ones

Question
When there is several Plugin Libraries, I may recommend always Official Library displayed first or let user decide on the order.

[Jermolene]

Thanks @kookma

Installed plugin card has extra information now and displays the information of installed plugin like: "This plugin is already installed at version 4.4.0". On drop down menu, you see again this line of info. I may recommend to remove repeated info

Great, I've fixed that.

On the installed plugin card, the title seems like name:description and name is extracted from plugin tiddler. I may recommend to display the name only as sentence case like

The "name" field is used if it is present, falling back to extracting the name from the title.

I f you have several plugin libraries, then when you click on a tab of say "Updates" of one library all other Plugin library switch to that tab. It seems the tabs macro uses the same stateTiddler here.

Great, fixed.

when there is no update an empty table is shown. I recommend to do not display the empty table

Yes, it's surprisingly hard to do because the table is generated by three nested list widgets, and there's no easy way to get a sort of collective emptyMessage.

The background color for Update all x plugin is green while the badge for updates are orange. I may recommend use the same color everywhere

Great, that's fixed.

Just a raw suggestion: in Update tab, official plugin may have different color or format to let user third part plugins from official ones

The update tab only shows updates from that plugin library, so official plugins won't be intermixed with third party plugins.

When there is several Plugin Libraries, I may recommend always Official Library displayed first or let user decide on the order.

The ordering is determined by the order of the $:/tags/PluginLibrary tag. I've added a default list field which should do the job.

[kookma]

The "name" field is used if it is present, falling back to extracting the name from the title.
Great! all old plugins now are displayed correctly, I just though is it good to show name for a plugin like $:/plugins/kookma/trashbin as trashbin or Trashbin? Of course for cases like codemirror this may not wor to show CodeMirror!

[Jermolene]

Hi @kookma

Of course for cases like codemirror this may not wor to show CodeMirror!

That was my thinking. Instead, the presence of a lower case name acts as a prompt that the name field needs updating.

[kookma]

Question: In the second update it seems red and orange color has been removed!
Also I don't see the update badge and seems reinstall has been used? Am I right or something goes wrong in my side

[kookma]

Hi @kookma

Of course for cases like codemirror this may not wor to show CodeMirror!

That was my thinking. Instead, the presence of a lower case name acts as a prompt that the name field needs updating.

Agree, this is kind of hint!

[kookma]

Hi again @Jermolene

Question: In the second update it seems red and orange color has been removed!
Also I don't see the update badge and seems reinstall has been used? Am I right or something goes wrong in my side

I just testing online https://tiddlywiki.com/prerelease/ seems you are working at the same time!
ignore above question. I will wait and then give try

[Jermolene]

Hi @kookma none of the recent changes should have affected the colours, let me know if it fixes itself.

[kookma]

Hi @kookma none of the recent changes should have affected the colours, let me know if it fixes itself.

Sorry @Jermolene
I was testing at the same time your were working updating :-)
It works! beautiful colors for upgrade/downgrade/reinstall

[kookma]

Some more comments.

Please see comments on this image.

[kookma]

@Jermolene
What do you think if each library has its own tab, scrolling and intermixing reduces.

[kookma]

@Jermolene
It seems the name or its fallback does not work on Currently Installed Plugins and it only works on the Get More Plugins
See below pics

Fig 1. Get More Plugins

Fig 2. Currently Installed Plugins

[Jermolene]

Thanks @kookma

different font styles for official and third party plugin libraries

That's just the usual rendering of links: the official plugin library is defined in a shadow tiddler.

Is the missing link required

It's showing the underlying URL of the plugin library HTML file.

What do you think if each library has its own tab, scrolling and intermixing reduces

That's a great idea, I'll investigate.

It seems the name or it fallback does not work on Currently Installed Plugins and it only work on the Get More Plugins

Great, fix coming up.

[Jermolene]

Great, fix coming up.

See 84eaee8

[kookma]

Many Thanks @Jermolene
I will test the new update and will back if there is any comment