Shoutbox

Why restricting it to the scripts-DB? Any restriction like that will again result in many not-checkable scripts, actually just like it is now... Thus seriously flawed, imho.

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Me thinks that what is needed is a new version tag in the ScriptInfo.xml. With a pure numerical value with whole numbers; exactly like how Plus! itself does it. And also a unique scriptID number tag.

Now, if a developer could login somewhere in a central DB (this is not the scripts-DB; let's call it an update-DB; the DB is located on one of the Plus!-servers of course). In that DB you can set a few things:

1) The script's unique value, the scriptID. This number is generated by the update-DB upon request of the developer and is of course unique. With this number you identify the script for which you can set the following update-data:

2) the latest version number (this is the pure numerical whole number value talked above, not the already existing version number)

3) the URL where the new update is located. Now this can be a link to the scripts-DB, but can just as well be a link to a 3rd party site.

this could even be moderated if security is a concearn. URLs which point to the scripts-DB are automatically accepted, while other URLs will be checked from time to time. If anything bad is detected, the script's update-data can be disabled temporarly or the developer's login can even be banned. whatever.

Also, it could automatically checked that the URL points to a webpage and not to a direct download, I think, no?.

4) the name and/or visible version number (the existing version number) of the script so an updater can show something more meaningfull if it reports that there is a new version available.

All this is actually pretty similar to how Plus! checks for an update of itself...

And this can even be made more complex by allowing scriptIDs to point to another ScriptID. In case the developer want to merge two different scripts into one with the new release for example (although this merging could be done without a "ScriptID forwarding" too).... You can do all sorts of things with a system like this, once it is in place. eg: connect the update-DB account of the developer to an account on the forum (if there is one)... etc...

With this system you give the chance to every developer to have an auto-update system for their scripts, since Plus! can check everything automatically, people could write their own updater program, etc etc. And most importantly, you do not restrict it to only scripts in the scripts-DB. On top of that you even solve the problem of having scripts with old, depricted URLs where the update is located (this is an already existing problem for some scripts btw!).


Again, any system which would limit the auto-update to only a select few scripts is not good and goes past the point of having a versatile global update system in the first place.