[Qgis-developer] plugin repository: release notes in plugins.xml

[Borys Jurgiel]

Monday 02 February 2009 09:34:15 Andreas Neumann napisał(a):
> Hello Borys and other QGIS developers,
> 
> I have a suggestion for the python plugin installer and the plugins.xml file:
> 
> Wouldn't it be useful to have a "release_notes" tag, next to the
> "description" tag, indicating what changed from the last release(s)? It
> would be useful to see if a problem I had might have been fixed with this
> release of the python plugin, or what new feature is now available.
> 
> The python plugin installer could expose the release notes in a separate
> dialogue, if the "release_notes" tag is present.

A separate dialogue is good solution for now. In the future I can put a text 
(html?) browser to the main Installer window. It would display plugin details: a 
longer description, clickable links, the changelog, screenshots etc.

> The question is if such a tag should be just unstructured text or if there
> should be further child nodes for each release.
> What do you think?

I believe that it's essential to keep metadata as simple as possible. A chain of 
separate nodes for each release causes a need of storing obsolete metadata. It's 
of course feasible, but complicates the repository structure.

Much simpler is only one node designed for a longer description (say one or more 
paragraphs) + whole changelog. It would accept html formatting. Author just has 
to extend the changelog. It's also easier to correct old entries. Of course it's 
also less automagic...