Plugin Organization

[scoful]

First of all, I'd like to thank the Frey Gang for the great job on improvements that led to V7. The Plugin stuff is a VAST improvement over the old download and install methods we had to do before.

That being said, I'd like to offer a few suggestions and see what others have to suggest too.

1. Define and enforce some standards for naming. Right now there are a lot of plugins that start with 'Sage'. Perhaps standardizing the format so that the name starts with either the project group name (like 'Phoenix') or the author (ie 'Fuzzy's') would help. Also a subcategorization if it's attached to specific screens (ie Recordings/Imported Videos/Music etc.)

2. Dependencies would be separated as well - you'd only see them when specifically browsing 'Dependencies'

3. Add the option to deploy plugins to all clients (at least all clients of the same type) - have the client plugins push to the server and on client restart it would prompt about updating the client. It would also be nice to have some toggles for other client aspects to maintain uniformity across multiple clients without having to manually change them. Some checkboxes server size for themes and commands for example (if you have different remote controls on different clients you wouldn't want to screw up the commands, whereas if you use the same remote type on all clients they would all operate the same way.)

You guys now how it is - give as an inch and we'll ask for a mile. Great job so far!

[AzTech]

The confusion with the plugin system has been subject to many discussions on this forum. While I definitely agree that it could use some tweaking, it is such a vast improvement over the hassles prior to V7, I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth. My only suggestion would be to take an approach like Cydia does (for jailbroken iPhones). See screenshot attached.

photo.jpg

I think this would eliminate most of the confusion from us users as well as help out the developers so they don't have to field our questions "What does this plugin do?" or "Why are there x plugins that look like they do the same thing?" or "I installed this random plugin and I can't figure it out."

[GKusnick]

Regarding #1, try sorting by author instead of by plugin name.

[scoful]

Thanks Greg - it never dawned on me that there was even an option for that.

Also of note - you can sort by "Recently Changed"

[tonysathre]

Would be nice if there was an option to sort by most downloaded or most popular, etc.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by tonysathre

Would be nice if there was an option to sort by most downloaded or most popular, etc.

Why? That would make "most downloaded" a self-fulfilling prophecy, where the top few plugins get the most downloads, simply by virtue of being at the top of the list, whether or not they work reliably or do anything useful (which you often don't find out until after you've downloaded it).

[tonysathre]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Why? That would make "most downloaded" a self-fulfilling prophecy, where the top few plugins get the most downloads, simply by virtue of being at the top of the list, whether or not they work reliably or do anything useful (which you often don't find out until after you've downloaded it).

Then implement a rating system.

[scoful]

Originally Posted by tonysathre

Then implement a rating system.

I think that's a great suggestion. To augment this it would be great to have 'Rate This Plugin' from the plugins menu.

[Brent94Z]

Originally Posted by scoful

Also of note - you can sort by "Recently Changed"

That is how mine have been sorted for a long time... about the only easy way to keep track of what is new and what has changed. Once a week or so I click "All Plugins" and see what has been added. Plus, it recognizes updates as "new" too so it is easy to see what updates have just come out (I've caught some before the notification pops up). Sorting like this allows you to go through the list ONCE then just keep up with the newest changes at the top. WAY easier than trying to go through the long list each time