Plugin Update Reminder

[Lynx]

I'm currently working on a plugin update reminder plugin. This plugin does NOT actually check to see if plugins need to be updated. Rather, it will display a popup (configurable as to how often) to remind the root admin (and any Groups and / or Members specified in the plugin) that they should check to see (work done by them, not the plugin) if any of their installed plugins should be checked for updates. The popup itself will have some configurable options (height, width and content text). This was just started today, so there's no ETA on completion.

Does anyone think this would be a useful plugin?

(Note: I'll post images of the UI here as I progress, but the UI is still a WIP)

EDIT: To any other coders. This will also be my first attempt at using keys. Would I be correct that a private user key would suffice for this? The key will simply hold data (timestamp) that they have received the popup (key set on clicking OK on the popup). Since it's a private user key (if that's what I should use), do I need to save the member's ID as well? (Can't find those articles about keys - types, what info is needed for set, etc.)

[Todge]

Hi,

A Private User key is indeed the one you need, and no, you shouldn't have to supply the member's ID unless you are writing to another members' key.

[Lynx]

Thanks, Todge!

[Todge]

No worries..

[Lynx]

I'm guessing this is just another bad idea of mine for a plugin. Oh well, it was a thought. I should probably just leave plugin creation to the pros. :shrug:

[Todge]

Jun 20, 2016 21:57:52 GMT -8 Lynx said:

I'm guessing this is just another bad idea of mine for a plugin. Oh well, it was a thought. I should probably just leave plugin creation to the pros. :shrug:

May I ask where this came from?

Why have you suddenly decided it's a bad idea?

[aRMY83]

Hello Lynx

I say, "don't give up" and go for it! Just to add, it sounds like a plugin us admins (w/multiple plugins) can use to keep us alerted with a popup reminder.

[Lynx]

Jun 21, 2016 12:03:19 GMT -8 Todge said:

Jun 20, 2016 21:57:52 GMT -8 Lynx said:

I'm guessing this is just another bad idea of mine for a plugin. Oh well, it was a thought. I should probably just leave plugin creation to the pros. :shrug:

May I ask where this came from?

Why have you suddenly decided it's a bad idea?

A few stats on my support threads:

Plugin Name	Pages	Replies	Views
On This Date	9	121	1,744
General Notices	2	16	350
Random News	2	23	462
Forum Marquee	5	62	3,149
Banner Selection in Profile - Repack	1	0 (OP post only)	558

I see no interest compared to looking at threads done by you or Peter or Chris or Pastuleo23 or Quozzo or Brian or Richie and so forth. My plugins are small, probably badly coded - even though they function as intended - and just don't seem to generate the interest that you pros get with your plugins. I just lose hope that I'll never be able to make a good plugin that people will like. It just gets depressing and makes me ask myself as to why I'm trying in the first place. I'm an old school programmer who knows BASIC, not JS. It's easier for someone who doesn't know any programming languages to be able to learn a new one, and my biggest issue is trying to forget my BASIC programming knowledge to learn JS. It's an uphill struggle for me and I'm now questioning as to whether or not to continue after V6. I'm just not a programmer with JS like I was with BASIC - and BASIC has no place in a plugin.

[Lynx]

Jun 21, 2016 13:01:43 GMT -8 aRMY83 said:

Hello Lynx

I say, "don't give up" and go for it! Just to add, it sounds like a plugin us admins (w/multiple plugins) can use to keep us alerted with a popup reminder.

I'm still going to make this, as I need reminders, but this plugin - to be honest - just might be the last one I do. I don't know yet. I don't have the expertise that the pro coders here have and there's no way I can make anything that would be as useful and / or interesting that they do.

[Kitty Katt]

Jun 21, 2016 15:13:15 GMT -8 Lynx said:

Jun 21, 2016 12:03:19 GMT -8 Todge said:

May I ask where this came from?

Why have you suddenly decided it's a bad idea?

A few stats on my support threads:

Plugin Name	Pages	Replies	Views
On This Date	9	121	1,744
General Notices	2	16	350
Random News	2	23	462
Forum Marquee	5	62	3,149
Banner Selection in Profile - Repack	1	0 (OP post only)	558

I see no interest compared to looking at threads done by you or Peter or Chris or Pastuleo23 or Quozzo or Brian or Richie and so forth. My plugins are small, probably badly coded - even though they function as intended - and just don't seem to generate the interest that you pros get with your plugins. I just lose hope that I'll never be able to make a good plugin that people will like. It just gets depressing and makes me ask myself as to why I'm trying in the first place. I'm an old school programmer who knows BASIC, not JS. It's easier for someone who doesn't know any programming languages to be able to learn a new one, and my biggest issue is trying to forget my BASIC programming knowledge to learn JS. It's an uphill struggle for me and I'm now questioning as to whether or not to continue after V6. I'm just not a programmer with JS like I was with BASIC - and BASIC has no place in a plugin.

And this table proves what, exactly? Has it not occurred to you that perhaps you don't have a lot of replies is because your plugins don't have any bugs or their functioning is such that people can't think of any requests to add to them? I think all of the PB Coders here do a wonderful job. But, even if your plugins are "small" (as you put it), one thing I do know about coding - the more code there is, the better chance for a bug to slip in - not intentionally, of course, but it can happen. Do you somehow think that a "small" plugin is less useful because it is small? That is like saying my forum is less useful because I have a small member-base. Even if this plugin you are working on is "small", it seems to me (as aRMY83 stated) that it would be considered useful. I have lost count of how many people post in a plugin's support thread stating there is a problem - just to find out all they needed to do was to update the plugin to the most recent version. My apologies for being blunt, but the real problem here is - you give up and / or get discouraged too easily. What do you think would happen if all of the PB Coders were to give up on an idea? I can tell you what would happen - we would all be without plugins.

[Todge]

Jun 21, 2016 15:13:15 GMT -8 Lynx said:

My plugins are small, probably badly coded - even though they function as intended - and just don't seem to generate the interest that you pros get with your plugins. I just lose hope that I'll never be able to make a good plugin that people will like. It just gets depressing and makes me ask myself as to why I'm trying in the first place. I'm an old school programmer who knows BASIC, not JS. It's easier for someone who doesn't know any programming languages to be able to learn a new one, and my biggest issue is trying to forget my BASIC programming knowledge to learn JS. It's an uphill struggle for me and I'm now questioning as to whether or not to continue after V6. I'm just not a programmer with JS like I was with BASIC - and BASIC has no place in a plugin.

If they function as intended and are not buggy, then there is NOTHING wrong with the coding or the way you have chosen to do it.

As for BASIC, that's exactly how I started, as a hobby programming for the VIC 20, then the Commadore 64 before getting a computer of my own, an Atari 130XE, with which I moved on to 'Turbo BASIC'.. No-one else, or very very few saw what I programmed, but I did it all the same.

I started using JS after I helped set up a PB forum, and I wanted some of the elements removed/changed, but way back then, I got very little help, or was told it simply wasn't possible, so I gave up asking and attempted it myself.. Guess what, I even managed to do the so-called impossible things, I say that not to gloat, but because their was no-one here willing to help back then, and all of the codes I wrote were for me only, and consisted of just a handful of lines. VERY basic JS that I picked up by looking at others codes etc.. By which time I was interested in this here support forum, and kept coming back.. I saw coding requests that were being ignored, and I thought 'hey, I can do that', so I did, and that set the ball rolling...

It didn't take long to realise that I was nothing compared to the few 'proper' coders that were here at the time, and started to get embarrassed by my pathetic little codes that just removed a button here, or moved one over there kinda thing, so I bought a book all about JS, which really opened my eyes, and I started taking on large requests.. But I never said I was attempting them in case I couldn't do it. A LOT of the time, someone else would make the requested code before I was finished, and I would never mention it here at all, but I usually pushed forward to finish it, just to see if I could, if I did get it done before the request was filled, I'd post it, and believe me, there were some coders here back then that would not hold back when telling you you had done something in a stupid way. It was one such scathing critic, I won't mention any names, that made me take a look at regular expressions, which confused me no end, but I stuck with it.

And here I am now, willing to take on larger requests, but am still not under any illusion as to my capabilities.. I am no where near the top of the ladder when it comes to the coders here, and I'm still learning, bit by bit, and sometimes I still take on requests without mentioning it, just in case I show myself up...

Long story short, you won't get anywhere unless you try, and the fact that you were even willing to LOOK at it, says heaps, and that you are taking requests, and making codes off you own back, such as this one, means, to me at least, that you have already crossed the hardest hurdle, all you have to do now is push yourself farther, try things you aren't sure you can do, and don't be afraid to ask for help if need be, even if all you want is a hint, or a nudge in the right direction.

[Lynx]

Okay.

I know I need a user-initiated action to set a key. Do I also need a user-initiated action to get a key's contents?

[Quozzo]

My first plugin I created for a different forum was... wait for it... one line long! I was just starting to learn JavaScript and thought I would try something easy. It added a description to categories. Afterwards I started to learn more and more, making more complex plugins as I went.

I was dabbling in AJAX and making some plugins that fetched data from other pages (not on here obviously) but I wanted to take it further and soon enough JavaScript just wasn't enough. I needed some backend server and a database to play with so I learned PHP and MySQL.

Soon afterwards I heard of a game engine that supported JavaScript. I jumped at the opportunity to make games in JavaScript but it was some bastardised version that needed data types and a whole other stuff which threw errors left, right and centre at correct JavaScript that it didn't recognise. It was actually easier for me to learn c# and start on clean slate instead of trying to learn the different nuances between the two JavaScripts.

Wow, these really do get long. My point is that every journey starts with a first step. You can't get experience in something unless you experience it first. That takes time.

One of my favourite phrases is that; Those who ask questions know more than those who don't.

[®i©hie]

Jun 22, 2016 14:06:49 GMT -8 Lynx said:

Okay.

I know I need a user-initiated action to set a key. Do I also need a user-initiated action to get a key's contents?

nope, you can grab the key's content whenever you want.

[Lynx]

Would this setting:



make it so only 1 member can be added? If so, I'm guessing that I need to set that to "Yes" so more than 1 member can be added?