Would you do a little work to make your plugin easier to install?

My plugin manager, Lick is getting closer to a beta release. It can now search dev.bukkit for plugins and show the user search results, show them descriptions of plugins, and install plugins directly.

I'd like to make it support "direct install". This would involve the user using one command:

Code:

/lick install pluginname

pluginname would be the slug for your plugin on dev.bukkit. The next part is where you come in.

Lick downloads the "main" file found on the plugin info page, as long as its a jar file it can be installed right away. If you don't have a jar file as your main download you can add a page to your project on dev.bukkit called lickinstall that would contain information for lick to find the correct files, and also could include instructions or information you would like to show to the user before or after they install your plugin via lick. It could also contain preferences for lick, for example you could tell it not to enable to plugin right away but ask the user to do something first, like edit a config.

SO my question is, would you as a plugin dev be willing to add these little extras to make this possible?

 

As all my plugins are only jar files... Yes.
But could you show an example lickinstall?

 

I like the look of this.

 

i probably will when i get a chance, always good to open up to a broader audiance

 

Wait, doesn't BukGet already do this? (I've never used BukGet, so I could be wrong)

 

Never seen BukGet before, Didn't know something along these lines already existed. I'm still going to keep on with it though because Lick uses dev.bukkit so doesnt need another repo to work and should be less agro for devs to support

@V10lator I'll hack something together really quick to show you - probably do a demo on the Lick project or something

 

This does sound interesting
There are some plugins that need configs to be set up before they are enabled
and dependancies, like spout etc.

 

Yeah, the lickinstall page would enable the plugin dev to alert users ~(and Lick) to things like that, Lick could even check that the dependency is installed, if not - get it.

 

me gusta. Sounds great.

 

I don't mean to be rude, but is it really so hard for users to download a .jar into a folder? I question the necessity of this.

 

There are some people which God hasn't been so kind as to give them brains.
I agree it is a small majority.
But they are there... lurking.

 

It's not so much that it's HARD to do, but can sometimes be effort, download jar, upload it via ftp/sftp go back to game/console, reload

Lick just means that issue one command from inside the game and have the donky work done for them.

 

@pmx Well I recently had someone that asked where my plugin.jar file was. He said he downloaded it and couldn't find the plugin INSIDE...DÓH!

Yes, he actually opened the jar using WinRar and thought the jar file was in there...
So, now a nice archive download link sits there...23 downloads for realz...lol

I do like the simplicity of this, but how exactly does it work? I have my jar file on github, how exactly do you add a file to the dev page so your plugin can download it from github?

 

If it doesn't take too long, then of course I would do that little work.

 

Bukget supports this already:

www.bukget.org

 

@silthus it lacks information on that site...no wonder I never heard of it. I see you can submit stuff to THEM, that is the downside here, newer plugins that don't know of that site will never get added. This, however, uses the dev page, which increases the amount to 80% or so.

 

The lickinstall page would be able to specify a jar file location if you wanted to host it somewhere other than on dev.bukkit - it could even specify support files like example configs and stuff like that.

@silthus, I look at their site, they have like 10 plugins available.

 

Wow i would definitely use this for my plugins, very good idea!

 

@pmx you could not make your plugin read files on the dev page, lik Google does? It would be a lot simpler to have, for example, a 'lickinstall' file on the dev page with the required info in there. Yaml, raw, doesn't matter.

I would not suggest using your site as resource base, learn from BukGet...

 

That's exactly what i mean, the lickinstall file would be a page on your dev.bukkit page

 

Then...what format? I better prepare it already then.

 

I think Yaml would make the most sense since most bukkit devs will have experience with it already to some degree

 

Or they don't believe in God. *me*

 

I... i am honored by your presence almighty one

 

I think he was referring to the fact that he doesn't believe in God, not that he is God.

 

I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT HE doesnt believe in god

 

@iPhysX
I don't believe in any particular God either. I feel that there is some 'greater power' out there, but I think most religions are silly (and athiests, too).

*runs away before religion debate starts*

 

Both. (get it?)

The thing is, atheism is a lack of religion. But yeah, this isn't a spot to debate that (I don't mind debating it, just not in the wrong spot).

EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.

 

Sure I don't mind working a bit more for this

 

Neither do I. I believe in the big bang. I'm not afraid to say it. The religious people are welcome to argue their case.. just not here.