Re: plugin dependencies

Andrew Kaspick
Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:51:30 -0000

I mentioned config.plugins in my OP...

"This can be resolved by specifying the load order with the
config.plugins option, but a user shouldn''t have to jump through those
hoops to get things working..."

and yes, PITA is right.

On 9/19/07, Pratik <pratiknaik@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> You can actually control the order of plugin loading with
> config.plugins array, but I''d guess that''d be PITA
>
> I believe require_plugin ( I''d prefer just "plugin" )
would be a good
> to have feature.
>
> On 9/19/07, Andrew Kaspick <akaspick@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hello all,
> >
> > The topic of plugin dependencies has come up before and it
doesn''t
> > seem to have been addressed by core or core doesn''t seem to
think it''s
> > an issue.  I''ve looked at the current edge code and
don''t see anything
> > new, so if I''ve missed something *please* let me know.
> >
> > The following article makes mention of a require_plugin
functionality...
> > http://www.pluginaweek.org/2006/11/05/plugin-dependencies-revisited/
> >
> > and the referenced article seems to make the point that such a feature
> > may not be required...
> > http://weblog.techno-weenie.net/2006/10/31/plugin-dependencies
> >
> > The reason I bring this up is that with many current core features
> > being moved to plugins, existing plugins that have been written to
> > improve functionality in some of those core areas may no longer work
> > since they will now be dependent on these "core plugins"
being
> > installed... and even if they are installed, there''s no
guarantee that
> > the load order will be correct.
> >
> > For example, I have written a plugin to improve the functionality of
> > the in_place_editor code.  This code works just fine with the current
> > public version of rails.  Now in edge this core code has been moved to
> > a plugin and my plugin will no longer work as expected since the core
> > plugin is now "required" by my plugin.  This is fine
(although a more
> > informational warning would be useful for the user) as the user simply
> > needs to install the "core plugin" as well.  This is where
problems
> > start to occur.  Since rails loads plugins in alphabetical order by
> > default, if my plugin comes before the core plugin in name, my plugin
> > code is overridden.
> >
> > With many rails features being deprecated and being moved to plugins,
> > this will cause many dependencies on any existing plugins.  This can
> > be resolved by specifying the load order with the config.plugins
> > option, but a user shouldn''t have to jump through those hoops
to get
> > things working... at least not before a fair amount of possible
> > debugging since there may be no indication of the underlying problem
> > of an existing plugin not working (a user may believe it''s
their own
> > code causing problems).  Another possible solution is making sure ones
> > own plugin is alpabetically higher than the one it depends on to force
> > the proper load order, but that would be rather nasty hack.
> >
> > So I''d like to know what people think about having a
"require_plugin"
> > type functionality in core?  Is there a valid workaround that exists
> > already?  If there isn''t, do people even consider this a
problem?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Andrew
> >
> > >
> >
>
>
> --
> Cheers!
> - Pratik
> http://m.onkey.org
>
> >