[QGIS Commit] r10662 - in docs/trunk/english_us/user_guide: . plugins_screenies

[svn_qgis at osgeo.org]

Author: cfarmer
Date: 2009-04-26 20:08:56 -0400 (Sun, 26 Apr 2009)
New Revision: 10662

Modified:
   docs/trunk/english_us/user_guide/plugins.tex
   docs/trunk/english_us/user_guide/plugins_screenies/plugininstaller.png
   docs/trunk/english_us/user_guide/plugins_screenies/pluginmanager.png
Log:
updates to plugins chapter: new plugin installer dialog (plugin manager altered to match), 
info on experimental plugins, general cleanup


Modified: docs/trunk/english_us/user_guide/plugins.tex
===================================================================
--- docs/trunk/english_us/user_guide/plugins.tex	2009-04-26 23:48:36 UTC (rev 10661)
+++ docs/trunk/english_us/user_guide/plugins.tex	2009-04-27 00:08:56 UTC (rev 10662)
@@ -15,20 +15,20 @@
 They are written in one of two languages: C++ or Python.
 More information about core plugins are provided in Section \ref{sec:core_plugins}.
 \item \textbf{External Plugins} are currently all written in Python.
-They are stored in external repositories and maintained by the individual author.
-They can be added to QGIS using the core plugin called \filename{Plugin Installer}.
+They are stored in external repositories and maintained by the individual authors.
+They can be added to QGIS using the \filename{Plugin Installer}.
 More information about external plugins are provided in Section \ref{sec:external_plugins}.
 \end{itemize}
 
 \subsection{Managing Plugins}\label{sec:managing_plugins}
 \index{plugins!managing} 
 
-Managing plugins in general means loading or unloading them using the \filename{Plugin Manager} plugin.
-External plugins need to be first installed using the \filename{Plugin Installer} plugin.
+Managing plugins in general means loading or unloading them using the \filename{Plugin Manager}.
+External plugins first need to be installed using the \filename{Plugin Installer}.
 
 \subsubsection{Loading a QGIS Core Plugin}\label{sec:load_core_plugin} 
 
-Loading a QGIS Core Plugin is provided in the main menu \mainmenuopt{Plugins} > \dropmenuopttwo{mActionShowPluginManager}{Manage Plugins...}.\index{plugins!manager}
+Loading a QGIS Core Plugin is done from the main menu \mainmenuopt{Plugins} > \dropmenuopttwo{mActionShowPluginManager}{Manage Plugins...}.\index{plugins!manager}
 
 \begin{figure}[ht]
    \begin{center}
@@ -37,10 +37,12 @@
 \end{center}
 \end{figure}
 
-The Plugin Manager lists all the available plugins and their status (loaded or unloaded).
-All available means all core plugins and all external plugins you added using \filename{Plugin Installer} plugin (see Section \ref{sec:external_plugins}). 
+The \filename{Plugin Manager} lists all the available plugins and their status (loaded or unloaded), 
+including all core plugins and all external plugins that have been added using the \filename{Plugin Installer} 
+(see Section \ref{sec:external_plugins}). 
 Figure \ref{fig:pluginmanager} shows the Plugin Manager dialog.
-Loaded plugins are "remembered" when you exit the application and restored the next time you run QGIS.
+When you exit the application, a list of loaded plugins is retained, and the next time 
+you run QGIS these plugins are automatically loaded.
 
 \begin{Tip}\caption{\textsc{Crashing Plugins}}\index{crashes}
 \qgistip{If you find that QGIS crashes on startup, a plugin may be at fault.
@@ -49,17 +51,17 @@
 \nix {For example, to prevent the Delimited text plugin from loading, the entry in \$HOME/.config/QuantumGIS/qgis.conf on Linux should look like this:\usertext{Add Delimited Text Layer=false}.}
 \normalfont 
 Do this for each plugin in the [Plugins] section.
-You can then start QGIS and add the plugins one at a time from the Plugin Manger to determine which is causing the problem.}
+You can then start QGIS and add the plugins one at a time from the \filename{Plugin Manager} to 
+determine which plugin is causing the problem.}
 \end{Tip} 
 
 \subsubsection{Loading an external QGIS Plugin}\label{sec:load_external_plugin} 
 
-To be able to integrate external plugins into QGIS you first need to load the \filename{Plugin Installer} plugin as desribed in Section \ref{sec:load_core_plugin}.
-Then you can load external QGIS python plugin in two steps: 
+There are two steps required to integrate external plugins into QGIS: 
 
 \begin{enumerate}
 \item Download an external plugin from a repository using the \filename{Plugin Installer} (Section \ref{sec:python_plugin_installer}).
-The new external plugin will be integrated into the list of available plugins in the \filename{Plugin Manager}.
+The new external plugin will be added to the list of available plugins in the \filename{Plugin Manager}.
 \item Load the plugin using the \filename{Plugin Manager}.
 \end{enumerate}
 
@@ -75,13 +77,13 @@
 \end{figure}
 
 In order to download and install an external Python plugin, click the menu \mainmenuopt{Plugins} > \dropmenuopttwo{plugin_installer}{Fetch Python Plugins...}.
-The \filename{Plugin Installer} window will appear (figure \ref{fig:plugininstaller}) with the tab \tab{Plugins}, containing the list of all Python plugins available in remote repositories as well as installed ones. Each plugin can be either:
+The \filename{Plugin Installer} window will appear (figure \ref{fig:plugininstaller}) with the tab \tab{Plugins}, containing a list of all locally installed Python plugins, as well as plugins available in remote repositories. Each plugin can be either:
 \begin{itemize}
-\item \textbf{not installed} - it means the plugin is available in the repository, but is not installed yet. In order to install, select it from the list and click the \button{Install plugin} button.
-\item \textbf{new} - the same as before but the plugin is seen for the first time.
-\item \textbf{installed} - the plugin is installed. If it's also available in any repository the \button{Reinstall plugin} button is enabled. But if the available version is older than the installed one, the \button{Downgrade plugin} button appears instead.
-\item \textbf{upgradeable} - the plugin is installed, but there is an updated version available. The \button{Upgrade plugin} button is enabled.
-\item \textbf{invalid} - the plugin is installed, but is unworkable. The reason is explained in the plugin description.
+\item \textbf{not installed} - this means the plugin is available in the repository, but is not installed yet. In order to install it, select the plugin from the list and click the \button{Install plugin} button.
+\item \textbf{new} - this means that the plugin is newly available in the repository.
+\item \textbf{installed} - this indicates that the plugin is already installed. If it is also available in any repository the \button{Reinstall plugin} button will be enabled. If the available version is older than the installed version, the \button{Downgrade plugin} button will appear instead.
+\item \textbf{upgradeable} - this means that the plugin is installed, but there is an updated version available. In this case, the \button{Upgrade plugin} button will be enabled.
+\item \textbf{invalid} - this means that the plugin is installed, but is unavailable or broken. The reason will be explained in the plugin description field.
 \end{itemize}
 
 \minisec{Plugins tab}
@@ -102,20 +104,39 @@
 .qgis\textbackslash python\textbackslash plugins
 \end{itemize}
 
-If the installation is successful, a confirmation message will appear. Then you need go to the \mainmenuopt{Plugins} > \dropmenuopttwo{mActionShowPluginManager}{Manage Plugins...} and load the installed plugin. 
+If the installation is successful, a confirmation message will appear telling you to go to \mainmenuopt{Plugins} > \dropmenuopttwo{mActionShowPluginManager}{Manage Plugins...} to load the newly installed plugin.
 
-If the installation fails, the reason is displayed. The most often troubles are related to connection errors and missing Python modules. In the former case you'll probably need to wait some minutes or hours, in the latter one you need to install the missing modules in your operating system prior to using the plugin. \nix{For Linux, most required modules should be available in a package manager}. \win{For install instructions in Windows visit the module home page}. If you use a proxy, you may need to configure it under the menu \mainmenuopt{Settings} > \dropmenuopttwo{mActionOptions}{Options} on the \tab{Proxy} tab.
+If the installation fails, the reason for the failure will be displayed in a warning dialog. Most often, errors are the result of 
+connection problems and/or missing Python modules. In the former case you will likely need to wait before trying the install again, in the latter case, you should install the missing modules relevant to your operating system prior to using the plugin. \nix{For Linux, most required modules should be available via a package manager}. \win{For install instructions in Windows visit the module home page}. If you are using a proxy, you may need to configure it under \mainmenuopt{Edit} > \dropmenuopttwo{mActionOptions}{Options} on the \tab{Proxy} tab.
 
-The \button{Uninstall plugin} button is enabled only if the selected plugin is installed and it's not a core plugin. Note that if you have installed an update of a core plugin, you can still uninstall this update with the \button{Uninstall plugin} and revert to the version shipped within Quantum GIS install package. This one cannot be uninstalled.
+The \button{Uninstall plugin} button is enabled only if the selected plugin is installed and is not a core plugin. Note that if you have installed an update to a core plugin, you can uninstall this update with the \button{Uninstall plugin} and revert to the version shipped with Quantum GIS. This default version however, cannot be uninstalled.
 
 \minisec{Repositories tab}
 
-The second tab \tab{Repositories} contains a list of plugin repositories available for the Plugin Installer. By default, only the QGIS Official Repository is used. You can add some user-contributed repositories, including the central QGIS Contributed Repository and a few author repositories by clicking the \button{Add 3rd party repositories} button. Those repositories contain a huge number of more or less useful plugins but please note that they aren't maintained by the QGIS Development Team and we can't take any responsibility for them. You can also manage the repository list manually, that is add, remove and edit the entries. Temporary disabling a particular repository is possible clicking the \button{Edit...} button.
+The second tab \tab{Repositories}, contains a list of plugin repositories available for the \filename{Plugin Installer}. By default, only the QGIS Official Repository is enabled. You can add several user-contributed repositories, including the central QGIS Contributed Repository and other external repositories by clicking the \button{Add 3rd party repositories} button. The added repositories contain a large number of useful plugins which are not maintained by the QGIS Development Team. As such, we cannot take any responsibility for them. You can also manage the repository list manually, that is add, remove, and edit the entries. Temporarily disabling a particular repository is possible by clicking the \button{Edit...} button.
 
-The \checkbox{Check for updates on startup} checkbox makes QGIS looking for plugin updates and news. If it's enabled, all repositories listed and enabled on the \tab{Repositories} tab are checked whenever the program is starting. If a new plugin or an update for one of installed plugins is available, a clickable notification appears in the Status Bar. If the checkbox is disabled, looking for updates and news is performed only when Plugin Installer is being launched from the menu.
+\minisec{Options tab}
 
-In case of some internet connection problems a \textit{Looking for new plugins...} indicator in the Status Bar may stay visible during whole QGIS session and cause a program crash when exiting. In this case please disable the checkbox.
+The \tab{Options} tab is where you can configure the settings of the \filename{Plugin Installer}. The \checkbox{Check for updates on startup} checkbox tells QGIS to automatically look for plugin updates and news. By default, if this feature is enabled all repositories listed and enabled in the \tab{Repositories} tab are checked for updates each time the program is started. The frequency of update checking can be adjusted using the dropdown menu, and may be adjusted from once a day right up to once a month. If a new plugin or update is available for one of the installed plugins, a notification will appear in the Status Bar. If the checkbox is disabled, looking for updates and news is performed only when the \filename{Plugin Installer} is manually launched from the menu.
 
+Some internet connections will cause problems when attempting to automatically check for updates. In these cases, a \textit{Looking for new plugins...} indicator will remain visible in the Status Bar during your entire QGIS session, and may cause a program crash when exiting. In this case please disable the checkbox.
+
+In addition, you may specify the type of plugins that are displayed by the \filename{Plugin Installer}. Under \textit{Allowed plugins}, you can specify whether you would like to:
+
+\begin{itemize}
+\item Only show plugins from the official repository
+\item Show all plugins except those marked as experimental,
+\item or Show all plugins, even those marked as experimental.
+\end{itemize}
+
+\begin{Tip}
+ \caption{\textsc{Using experimental plugins}}
+\qgistip{
+Experimental plugins are generally unsuitable for production use. These plugins are in the early stages of development, and should be considered 'incomplete' or 'proof of concept' tools. The QGIS development team does not recommend installing these plugins unless you intend to use them for testing purposes.
+}
+\end{Tip}
+
+
 \subsection{Data Providers}\index{data providers}
 
 Data Providers are "special" plugins that provides access to a data store.

Modified: docs/trunk/english_us/user_guide/plugins_screenies/plugininstaller.png
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Modified: docs/trunk/english_us/user_guide/plugins_screenies/pluginmanager.png
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(Binary files differ)