Plugin Version File Format
Plugin developers should publish a file conforming to this file format in order to enable Plugin Manager to detect whether upgrades are available for the related plugin. When a user clicks the “Find Updates” button Plugin Manager checks this file to see if a newer version of the plugin is available. If there is Plugin Manager will surface an “Upgrade” button for the user to upgrade the related plugin.
All plugin authors should publish a file conforming to this format for every plugin they create.
Elements
The Plugin Version Information format describes the most recent version of a plugin and points to all the relevant resources for Plugin Manager to check for updates as well as install and upgrade plugins.
<plugin>
The plugin element is a containing element for the meta data of the most recent version of the plugin.
<name>
The name of the plugin.
<version>
The most recent version of the plugin. The value of this element must be an integer or a floating point number. It is used by Plugin Manager to compare an installed plugin’s version to the most recent version of the plugin. If the most recent version is greater than the installed version then Plugin Manager will surface an “Upgrade” button to enable the user to grab the most recent version of the plugin described by this file.
<download_url>
The URL where Plugin Manager can download the most recent version of the plugin can be found.
Example
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<plugin xmlns="http://majordojo.com/schemas/pluginmanager/v1">
<name>Plugin Manager</name>
<version>1.0</version>
<download_url>http://www.somedomain.com/TestPlugin.tar.gz</download_url>
</plugin>
Comments
I really like this idea, and am ready to add support for Plugin Manager to my plugins, but I am unsure as to what the naming convention should be for the XML files.
Posted by: Jon Tillman | April 11, 2006 9:50 AM
I believe (although am not entirely sure) that you can name the output file anything you like and put it anywhere as long as you refer to it in the link relationship in the autodiscovery step.
So for example, if you make the output file 'plugin_manager.xml' in the main directory of your plugin's blog (if you have such a thing), you would use:
Of course, you could specify the full URL if you are just throwing it somewhere on your site.
Posted by: Jay Allen | December 14, 2006 9:25 AM