Documentation Proposal: How to integrate extension configuration into bin/configure

...The documentation has been transferred to TWiki.SpecifyingConfigurationItemsForExtensions, this topic here is for discussion and further development of the interface

Motivation

http://koala.ilog.fr/twikiirc/bin/irclogger_log/twiki?date=2006-11-24,Fri&sel=280#l276, Bugs:Item3187

Discussion

Note that currently you can stick your settings anywhere by creating the appropriate section markers. Probably there should be some limitation on that. -- TW, in Bugs:Item3187

In an initial reaction, I suggest to change TW's heading from "Contrib" to "Contribs", but this needs to be agreed upon. I found "Contribs" more logical, especially since there is "Plugins", on the other hand, the directories in the TWiki lib are called Contrib and Plugins, respectively.

Should Contrib settings be collected under a common heading? MailInContrib, for example, has one screenful of documentation, which may justify a "foldable" section for this contrib as is. However, if in the long run many plugins and contribs are using this feature, the "folded" view of the configure UI may become even more unwieldy as it is today.

-- HaraldJoerg - 25 Nov 2006

It should be either

• Contrib (as this is the name of the directory), strangly different from Plugins (which is plural), or
• Plugins (as on TWiki all that is in the Plugin web.

I would suggest Plugins for simplicity. If we have Contrib or Contribs, there should definitely be a special section.

Personally, I think we should not give the plugin writers freedom of where they stick it, but do that in the configure script. That is, the plugin writer could only define subsections.

To your issue above, we can define also subsections (i.e., MailInContrib should be pushed into a ---++ level heading and it will be foldable there.

-- ThomasWeigert - 26 Nov 2006

Personally I strongly prefer Extensions for everything. We are stuck with Plugins because of my lack of foresight, but from the perspective of an admin, all these things are extensions. However they are not all Plugins, because "Plugin" is a loaded term (an auto-discovered piece of code that interacts with TWiki via the Func interface only). Not to be confused with a Skin, AddOn, or TWikiApplication, which are also extensions.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 26 Nov 2006

I don't think we are stuck with Plugins, as this is not changing an API or user data. It is just a different twisty the user opens. We can put a note in the top saying "don't forget to activate and configure Extensions (Plugins, Skins, Contribs) in the Extensions section".

If you feel that this should be Extensions, by all means, change it now before it is too late and Plugin writers are putting Plugins into their .spec files!

-- ThomasWeigert - 26 Nov 2006

Plugins is fine for Plugins. It's Contribs, Skins, AddOns etc that need to be in Extensions.

There is another reason for this. .spec files can contain 'UI markers' (not documented above) that inject specialist UIs for classes of add-ins. The PLUGINS marker specifically loads a UI specifically for Plugins. For this reason, I want to keep "Plugins" and "Everything else" as separate top-level blocks.

I amended the documentation above appropriately.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 27 Nov 2006

It might be confusing for the users that on TWiki.org we refer by "Extensions" to the totality of plugins, skins, contribs, and addons. If we now split these into "Plugins" and "Extensions", it would be best to do the same on TWiki.org. However, it might be confusing what is really the differentiator here.

-- ThomasWeigert - 27 Nov 2006

As I said, the differentiator is that plugins are auto-discovered code that can be independently enabled. Plugins have their own UI in configure, which generates the Enabled flags, so have to be in their own section.

Yes, there's a risk of confusion, but I think it's pretty low compared to trying to explain why you can enable plugins but not Contribs!

-- CrawfordCurrie - 28 Nov 2006

I agree with Crawford here. For plugins it is necessary that you call configure to enable them after installation, while many contribs will go without any configuration. I'll check in "Extensions" as a common top level heading for the Config.spec files of MailInContrib and CliRunnerContrib for Bugs:Item3187.

-- HaraldJoerg - 29 Nov 2006

Agreed.

-- ThomasWeigert - 30 Nov 2006

Thanks Harald. BTW, where is this documentation going to go?

-- CrawfordCurrie - 30 Nov 2006

Good question. Basically it doesn't matter unless it is easy enough to find it again. I suggest that the documentation, after stripping the discussion, goes to the Plugins web, alongside Plugins.ReadmeFirst, and we leave the discussion here in Codev. Links to the documentation topic would be appropriate from Plugins.ReadmeFirst, but maybe from TWiki.TWikiPlugins and Codev.PluginsApiPolicies as well. If this were a bug item, I'd set the status to "Actioning"

-- HaraldJoerg - 01 Dec 2006

PeterThoeny suggested to move the contents to the TWiki web, and that's where you'll find it: TWiki.SpecifyingConfigurationItemsForExtensions

-- HaraldJoerg - 02 Dec 2006