Plugin updater

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Revision as of 01:29, 21 August 2020 by Dart Raiden (talk | contribs)

Plugin:PluginUpdater
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Plugin updater
Plugin updater
Filename PluginUpdater.dll
Authors Mataes, George Hazan
Download links
Stable version: 32-bit, 64-bit
Development version: 32-bit, 64-bit

Note
This plugin should not be confused with IM Updater plugin for Miranda IM.
Important
Windows XP users should not enable "Use HTTPS" option if OpenSSL plugin is not installed .

Installs and updates plugins and other Miranda NG components (icon and language packs).

Version choice

You can choose among stable and development version in Options → Services → Plugin Updater under Files source section. There are the following settings there:

  • Stable version is released "when it is ready", about once in 1–2 months.
  • Development version (less stable) is updated more often so you'll be able to take advantage of new features sooner.
  • Development version with debug symbols – use this one if you are going to make a crash reportCrash reports.
  • Custom version is for pack creators: if you distribute your own Miranda pack, select this one and set your URL for PluginUpdater to download updates from. In this case you become responsible for keeping your repository of plugins up-to-date.
Component list

Adding plugins and components

PluginUpdater allows to download and install several plugins at once.

  • Go to Main menu → Available components list.
  • Select additional plugins, a langpack or icon sets to install (see the screenshot). Clicking on "Information" icon will open the plugin's wiki page in your browser.
  • Click Download button.

How it works

This plugin compares hashes of the installed plugins with those on the server and if they differ, downloads archived updates and replaces the local copy.

It should be noted that PluginUpdater doesn't check plugins' versions nor their compilation dates. So if you compile a plugin by yourself (or somebody does and shares it with you), PluginUpdater will still download its "older" version from the server. This was done on purpose to avoid problems with plugins from doubtful sources.

Special algorithm for calculating plugins' hashes ignores information about DLL compilation time (which is also written to DLL). Thus a plugin compiled from the same source code with the same compiler but at different time will have the same hash for PluginUpdater but different one for ordinary MD5 calculation tools.

Tips and tricks

  1. PluginUpdater remembers user's choice of the components in the list of updates. If you have a custom langpack or an icon set (e.g., Proto_Jabber.dll) which you don't want to update, uncheck the corresponding items in the list. You need to do this once, those components will remain unchecked during the next updates and thus won't get updated.
  2. If you set the key of Byte type PluginUpdater/RestartCurrentProfile = 0, the plugin will restart Miranda to Profile manager (revision aa4bd180f9). PluginUpdater restarts Miranda to current profile by default.
  3. If you set the key of Byte type PluginUpdaterFiles/path\to\filename = 2, PluginUpdater will hide the specified component from the list of updates and will not download it. Path is relative to Miranda root folder (e.g. "mdbx_dump.exe" or "icons\toolbar_icons.dll").