Plugin update warning?

[Toxaris]

Perhaps it would be feasible to have Sigil check every now and then if there is an update of a plugin available. Just a check as far as I am concerned, no need for automatic download and install.
I often forget to update the plugins or even to check if there is a new version available. Could be that I am the only one though.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Perhaps it would be feasible to have Sigil check every now and then if there is an update of a plugin available. Just a check as far as I am concerned, no need for automatic download and install.
I often forget to update the plugins or even to check if there is a new version available. Could be that I am the only one though.

Your just used to Calibre telling you when a plugin has been updated. I do agree that would be nice if Sigil did the same thing.

[rubeus]

Doesnt require this a repository? Currently everything is "hidden" in Post's as an attachment,

[KevinH]

Yes, but each plugin developer's plugin code could query their own plugin's date or filename right on MR and download its updated self.

In other words, you do your own update check pointing to wherever you make your plugin available. This should be doable in python quite easily.

[rubeus]

Originally Posted by KevinH

This should be doable in python quite easily.

Not for me

[KevinH]

Once I get Sigil-0.9.2 out there (hopefully before the holidays), I will put together a code fragment that does this by example (unless someone beats me to it)

KevinH

[Toxaris]

Super Kevin, that would work as well of course.

[KevinH]

Hi,

Here is a little snippet of code to give the general idea. I put this together quickly to give you some idea of how to go about this. I am sure a simpler/tighter version is possible but this works in my testing for both python and python3

from __future__ import unicode_literals, division, absolute_import, print_function

import sys
import os
from quickparser import QuickXHTMLParser

try:
    import urllib.request as url_request
except ImportError:
    import urllib2 as url_request


def check_for_updates(site_url, plugin_path):
    plugin_name = None
    version = None
    ps = QuickXHTMLParser()

    try:
        # get the most up to date release version info
        # looks for the name of the current Mobileread Attachment
        # You could easily add current version info anyplace on the site
        req = url_request.Request(site_url)
        response = url_request.urlopen(req)
        the_page = response.read()

        # you could replace all of the parsing with simple regular 
        # expressions here as well
        ps.setContent(the_page)
        get_plugin_name = False
        for (text, tagprefix, tname, ttype, tattr) in ps.parse_iter():
            if text is not None:
                if get_plugin_name:
                    plugin_name = text
                    break
            elif tname == "a" and "href" in tattr:
                href = tattr["href"]
                if href.startswith("attachment.php?"):
                    get_plugin_name = True;
    except:
        pass

    # now get the current version of the installed plugin
    try:
        ppath = os.path.join(plugin_path, "plugin.xml")
        get_version = False
        with open(ppath,'rb') as f:
            data = f.read()
            ps.setContent(data)
            for (text, tagprefix, tname, ttype, tattr) in ps.parse_iter():
                if text is not None:
                    if get_version:
                        version = text
                        break
                elif tname == "version"and ttype == "begin":
                    get_version = True
    except:
        pass
    return plugin_name, version


SITE_URL = "https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2973066&postcount=1"
PLUGIN_PATH = "/Users/kbhend/Desktop"
plugin_name, version = check_for_updates(SITE_URL, PLUGIN_PATH)
print(plugin_name, version)

The path to the plugin directory would have to be properly determined inside the plugin (not my hard coded path here) and if I had bothered to put the current version someplace on the MR website I would not have had to parse to find the attachment name.

Using regular expression would probably make the code shorter. As I said, I just threw this together to illustrate how things could be done in a way that works on both python 2.7 and python 3.4.

After I get more time I will clean this up and add a specific current version info to the first post on the ePub3-itizer MR site to make this even simpler.

KevinH

[KevinH]

Hi,
FWIW, we could probably use the sigil_bs4 soup interface and find command to make this even easier.
KevinH

[JSWolf]

I think it would be better if Sigil did this instead of relying on the plugin makers to do it. We've seen some plugins for Calibre be killed off because they didn't get updated. I see the same thing happening (some not getting updated).

[KevinH]

Hi JSWolf,

Not a chance. Sigil is not in the plugin development business. The only exception is the flightcrew plugin which was previously part of Sigil. Sigil has no interest in controlling or centralizing plugins for plugin developers. As volunteer developers, we simply do not have the time to keep up or manage a repository for plugins.

The key for Sigil is to keep the interface as simple as possible and to allow plugin developers full reign in their own world to do what they want as long as they do not violate the plugin launcher interface.

As for plugins dying off, we only have 18 or so plugins, and as far as I know, they all still work. I have been careful to make the plugin launcher interface as backwards compatible as possible while still fixing bugs.

In other words, if you want to check for updates you do it for your own plugin with whatever code you want. It is only handful of lines in python to do the above.

KevinH

[KevinH]

Unless of course ... someone wants to volunteer their time and server space to manage all plugins and keep them up to date! Any takers?

KevinH

[JSWolf]

Why not use the plugin forum? Just check if there's an update in the given thread?

[eschwartz]

All Sigil needs to do is scrape a plugin index and then scrape individual threads for updates.
Or you can store the plugin index in the Sigil repository and scrape the individual threads.


Yes, I know calibre hosts the calibre plugin index. That doesn't mean Sigil needs to as well.

[KevinH]

Sigil is not going to do that. The plugin can do that just as easily and with much less web traffic since it will only check when your own plugin is run. It is still screen scraping either way.

In fact some smart person could write a screen scraper plugin that updates other plugins installed by the user.

As they say in textbooks, "this will be left as an exercise for the reader".