Evolve plugin management

[matryer]

As plugins grow, we will consider a better solution for plugin management that:

• bundle supporting files with a plugin
• makes plugins more visual (images)
• makes them searchable
• makes it easy to activate/deactivate them
• maybe has its own UI
• puts plugins in their own repo

Considerations

• would using an existing platform (like brew) solve this?

[daturkel]

Stop-gap plugin update solution is just to accept and use PR #114 and pull upstream changes to plugin folder regularly.

[jcaille]

Awesome !
Now we just need some way of maintaining configuration (see #88) in between updates so that updates are mostly seamless for users.

Afterward, we can start to think about automating the behaviour of the enabled folder. In #103 I proposed a solution to automate plugin management without a heavy GUI.

Bitbar could managed installed plugins by itself. For example :
By defaults, Bitbar looks for plugins in an ApplicationData/Bitbar/Plugins folder. This folder can be changed.
Drag and dropping a script on the Bitbar status menu item symlinks this file to the plugin folder (thus "installing" it in Bitbar)
Additional options (Remove plugin, Set refresh time, ...) should be added to the plugin dropdown. Those options either remove or modify the name of the symlinked executable file (thus keeping the legacy API)

[seripap]

How about how packagecontrol.io or npmjs.com works? Would like a simple json manifest with each plugins

[matryer]

Another option is to package plugins with a .bitbar extension which, when executed, 'installs' the plugin. Might be a bit too fancy.

[matryer]

NOTE: Plugins now live in a different repo: https://github.com/matryer/bitbar-plugins

[dkvdm]

Thanks @matryer, excellent.
Let me know if you need help managing/approving plugins.

[LaurentFough]

I've actually incorporated Sparkle into the project, and have compiled successfully.
I need to test updating by appcast url, and also updated package signing.

• The latter being something that we'd need to thread carefully with, as it appears as though if not done properly it breaks app delivery.

[matryer]

For anybody interested in a plugin browser, please see matryer/xbar-plugins#53

[shepazon]

From my perspective, the biggest issue is the lack of ability to bundle support files into a plugin. That limits the capabilities of plugins substantially.

[matryer]

Hey Eric, What kinds of support files are you thinking about?

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On Tue, 26 Jan 2021 at 17:07, Eric Shepherd ***@***.***> wrote: From my perspective, the biggest issue is the lack of ability to bundle support files into a plugin. That limits the capabilities of plugins substantially. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#112 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAAY2G4X3PUFSLHT5BTNVUDS33ZGRANCNFSM4BX6HI6A> .