[RFC|Merged] Extension Admin

[MichaelC]

Admin:
After a discussion on IRC it was decided that Extension Manager would be the name for the backend extension stuff and Extension Admin would be the name for the UI.
Main page. Shows three blocks. Enabled, disabled and available extensions.

Enabled show disable and purge buttons.
Disabled show enable, purge and delete buttons.
Available show enable and delete.

The enable/disable buttons will all go to the same primary function which will check its current status before then 'change status' to whatever it isn't.

It would all call the extensions manager so only almost nothing will be done in the admin as it is just the UI for the manager.

After initial implementation, if we have time before 3.1 is released:
Details page includes:
Extension Name, Version, phpBB Version, Authors, Notes and Description from the manifest.
Extension History (how many times it has been enabled before, Extension ID and of course the status).
Note: The name would be from the manifest, not from the DB as in the DB the name will be clean, in the manifest it will have a clean name and normal name.
Then there will be enable/disable buttons.

When installing and uploading it will provide a go back to main page option and an option to go to the next step (install and enable respectively)

There will be an upload extension option on the main page too if ext/ is writeable, if not a warning will be displayed and the upload form won't appear down the bottom.

Manifest:
Extension Name
Extension Human Name
Extension Author
Extension Version
Extension phpBB version
Extension Notes
Extension Description

I'll add a more detailed specification after the main UI is done.

PR: https://github.com/phpbb/phpbb3/pull/608

[MichaelC]

Ticket for Extension Admin:
http://tracker.phpbb.com/browse/PHPBB3-10631

IRC Discussion:
https://gist.github.com/1805729

[rxu]

Some time ago I suggested to add ext_id column to the phpbb_ext table to handle (mostly to sort) extensions, but it was denied by the dev team. OK, anyway:

Shows three blocks. Enabled, disabled and un-installed extensions.

Active show enable and purge buttons.
Inactive show disable and purge buttons.

Thus, we have uninstalled extensions block, but there's no uninstall button anywhere. And there's no 'install' one as well.
Also, uninstalled block should have some button to install. Again, if that is 'install' button, it's not paired by uninstall one.
While I figured out what the 'purge' button would mean from IRC log, I think it'd be pretty confusable for regular admin, a kind of bad UI usability.
So, I would suggest to make install/uninstall enable/disable processes UI more understandable.

Details page includes:Extension Name, Version, phpBB Version, Authors, Notes and Description from the manifest.Extension History (how many times it has been activated before, Extension ID and of course the status.

Probably, installation (activation? I don't understand the difference for now) time would be handy.

[MichaelC]

Some time ago I suggested to add ext_id column to the phpbb_ext table to handle (mostly to sort) extensions, but it was denied by the dev team. OK, anyway:

Shows three blocks. Enabled, disabled and un-installed extensions.

Active show enable and purge buttons.
Inactive show disable and purge buttons.

Thus, we have uninstalled extensions block, but there's no uninstall button anywhere. And there's no 'install' one as well.
Also, uninstalled block should have some button to install. Again, if that is 'install' button, it's not paired by uninstall one.
While I figured out what the 'purge' button would mean from IRC log, I think it'd be pretty confusable for regular admin, a kind of bad UI usability.
So, I would suggest to make install/uninstall enable/disable processes UI more understandable.

Details page includes:Extension Name, Version, phpBB Version, Authors, Notes and Description from the manifest.Extension History (how many times it has been activated before, Extension ID and of course the status.

Probably, installation (activation? I don't understand the difference for now) time would be handy.

Sorry, I was editing the post numerous times while talking with Oleg (and others) on IRC.

When something is purged it is removed from the database but exists in the file system. I referred to this as un-installed but it should be 'available'.
Something that is 'available' can be enabled.

Oleg agreed about ext_id (and imkingdavid might have too but I can't remember if he was still around then).

Activation - I was originally using the terminology activation/deactivation but then was corrected to enabling/disabling. I obviously missed that when changing this in my post, thanks.

Why would install time be handy? It would always be the same as it can't be installed manually, in fact, they can't be installed at all. They are uploaded and enabled.

For reference this is how it does things:

Extension is uploaded to ext/ directory (or a sub-directory). This will be possible to do with an upload form later on (maybe).
The extension is then Available and does not exist in the phpbb_ext table.
The extension is then enabled.

What can you do in each state:
Available:

• Delete - Remove from file system
• Enable - Its enabled and now works etc.

Enabled:

• Disable - "Switches it off" but data remains in tact might make and files remain intact.
• Purge - Removes all data and removed from phpbb_ext table but files remain in tact

Disabled:

• Enable - Enable - Its enabled and now works etc. But because it has been previously enabled the DB still contains the data so the DB changes are not run.
• Purge - Removes all data and removed from phpbb_ext table but files remain in tact
• Delete - Remove from file system

[rxu]

This will be possible to do with an upload form later on (maybe).

Just a thought: if an extension is available from our MODDB, it would be nice to install it from it directly. But it's probably Extension Manager part.
As for the related UI, there would be an information about if an extension exists in phpBB's MODDB and what version does. In this case the extension's name would be a link to its MODDB page. But this is not implemented in backend for now obviously

Purge - Removes all data and removed from phpbb_ext table but files remain in tact

Well, I'm still thinking it's unclear. We don't purge an extension but the database entries actually. I'd better use "Uninstall" term still, but it can be hard to distinct between 'Uninstall" and 'Delete" then. May be better to use "REmove" instead.
We'd have "Uninstall" and "Remove" then, which sounds more sensible imo.

[MichaelC]

This will be possible to do with an upload form later on (maybe).

Just a thought: if an extension is available from our MODDB, it would be nice to install it from it directly. But it's probably Extension Manager part.
As for the related UI, there would be an information about if an extension exists in phpBB's MODDB and what version does. In this case the extension's name would be a link to its MODDB page. But this is not implemented in backend for now obviously

Purge - Removes all data and removed from phpbb_ext table but files remain in tact

Well, I'm still thinking it's unclear. We don't purge an extension but the database entries actually. I'd better use "Uninstall" term still, but it can be hard to distinct between 'Uninstall" and 'Delete" then. May be better to use "REmove" instead.
We'd have "Uninstall" and "Remove" then, which sounds more sensible imo.

viewtopic.php?f=108&t=42483 - Although I haven't updated it for extensions (yet).

Regarding un-install and remove, to be honest a lot of the terminology needs going through and checking. At the moment you have extension managers, admin, purging, available, installing, uploading, downloading etc. I'll post up some sort of 'glossary' at some point.

[MichaelC]

Just an idea, should it throw a warning (not preventing enabling, just an information warning sort of thing) if the phpbb version in the composer.json is different from the current phpBB Version installed?

[imkingdavid]

Just an idea, should it throw a warning (not preventing enabling, just an information warning sort of thing) if the phpbb version in the composer.json is different from the current phpBB Version installed?

It should probably display a notice on the install confirmation page, but no it should not disable installation, IMO.

[brunoais]

Just an idea, should it throw a warning (not preventing enabling, just an information warning sort of thing) if the phpbb version in the composer.json is different from the current phpBB Version installed?

It should probably display a notice on the install confirmation page, but no it should not disable installation, IMO.

I agree. And I emphasize that the warning should be quite visible. Should appear in such way that the user may install but will only do if he is really sure that he wants to do such thing.

[naderman]

Closed [RFC]MOD Installer in 3.1 in favour of this RFC.