[Qgis-developer] Re: ideas for developpers)

[Tim Sutton]

Hi


>
> I was writing about makeshift free moving the plugin items inside  
> the menus
> and toolboxes, but now it's not so important, since Carson has  
> promised to
> put all his plugins in order :DD
>
> Categorisation is not hard to implement technically, but it's much  
> harder to
> elaborate good (clear and sufficient) categories :) I think we need  
> the
> vision of future QGIS tools structure and fit all the plugins into  
> it, but
> even ArcGIS doesn't bring me many good ideas. Maybe it's time for huge
> brainstorm. Then the category mechanism will be even unnecessary,  
> if plugin
> developers swear to keep the rules ;)

After 1.0 goes out we will hold such a brainstorm and plan the vision  
for generation 2.0 of QGIS and how we can adapt it to make it more  
than a GIS viewer but rather a GIS with analytical capabilities. The  
original idea for 1.0 was originally to buld a competent data browser.

>
>
> Sebastien Vial wrote:
>> - database oriented plugins
>> - raster oriented
>> - import/export
>> - selecting
>> - statistics...
>
> These ideas are good for a start.

Yes these seem like a good start.

>
>> * and about the plugin manager : adding a column to know the  
>> installed
>> version of the plugin (like some linux package manager), in order to
>> compare the version number, and to know if the plugin needs to be
>> re-installed --- and perhaps a warning when there is a new version  
>> of a
>> plugin
>
> I don't know C++ yet, so now I can improve Plugin Installer and add  
> the
> features:
>  - the version column as you said
>  - the column with status indicator: upgradable/new in repository
>  - checking for updates and for news in repositories on demand and  
> also
>    when QGIS is starting.

I prefer to move away from column style UI which I think is not so  
friendly. To me it would be better to expand the detailed item  
delegate I wrote for the C++ plugin manager to include a place next  
to each plugin title to indicate if new versions are available. When  
QGIS starts we should check background thread when qgis starts go off  
and see if new plugins are available and give the user a 'soft  
notification' (like an indicator on the status bar that when clicked  
will open the manager and download updates).

>
> Someday this code might be attached to the Plugin Manager (when I  
> learn C++!),
> but before 0.11 release I can implement this only in the Plugin  
> installer.
> So what do you think about it? And what about removing the Plugin  
> Installer
> item from the Plugins menu and launching it directly from the Manager?
> Tim, can you implement this and do you think it's suitable?

I would very much like to unite the C++ and python managers. As  
Martin says the main issue is .zip extraction support in Qt, but Im  
sure this can be resolved with a bit of googling.

Regards

Tim

>
> And one question. There are two branches in the QSettings:
>       Plugins/$PLUGIN_NAME        = bool
>       PythonPlugins/$PLUGIN_DIR   = bool
>
> What they mean? They don't correspond with actually enabled plugins  
> at mine!
>
> Regards,
> B.
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Tim Sutton
QGIS Project Steering Committee Member - Release Manager
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