Rename "purge" to "uninstall", differentiate between "install" and "enable"

[Jacob]

There is no installation at all. After you upload files you can enable and disable the extension. We will not introduce the concept of an installation process simply because some people are used to it from Windows applications.

"Some people" meaning 95% of computer users... But that's ok.

Anyaway, I'd prefer Activate and Deactivate instead of Enable and Disable. The terms are correct and widely used.

[MattF]

I'd prefer "Activate/Deactivate" as well. I've seen a lot of MODs that have, for their first setting, an on/off toggle which is usually called "Enable". Not to mention "Enable" is used throughout the core of phpBB for turning a setting or feature on/off. So theoretically, the term "Enable" could be misconstrued to mean that it is turning on the extension. Enabling/Activating an extension does not necessarily mean you are turning it on, you are just making it active and available on your board (some install in a disabled state, for example). Saying "Activate" may be slightly different enough, and very familiar to wordpress plugin users, in that it says you are making the extension active and ready for usage on your forum.

[imkingdavid]

I'd argue that you are "turning on" an extension. While some extensions may simply be made active and require further set up before they start working, other extensions will be tools that just need to be told to start working. For instance, you might add an extension that keeps track of how many users are browsing your board at specific times. There isn't necessarily any configuration that you need to set up before it can start working, so by enabling/activating the extension, you're effectively just turning it on.

Semantically, "enable" and "activate" are virtually identical in meaning in my mind. I'm okay with leaving it as "enable" since that's what we already have.

[DavidIQ]

There is no installation at all. After you upload files you can enable and disable the extension. We will not introduce the concept of an installation process simply because some people are used to it from Windows applications.

Windows? Far as I know the same concept applies to pretty much any other platform including Android, iOS, and your favorite Distro
It's fine to just leave it as enable I guess but the purge terminology sounds a bit off. We already "purge the cache" and everyone is used to that terminology so it is inevitable that the two will be considered related, even though they're not.

[bantu]

There is no installation at all. After you upload files you can enable and disable the extension. We will not introduce the concept of an installation process simply because some people are used to it from Windows applications.

I completely agree.

[MattF]

I think there is still room to improve here. I'm not a fan of the latest changes.

- I miss having Both the Disable and Delete options available at the same time. Now it's a 2-step process to uninstall.

- The "Disable" function is a little problematic, inelegant. If I disable an extension, then you are left with artifacts from it, such as raw language vars if it has ACP/UCP/MCP modules i.e.: {MY_EXTENSION_TITLE} will show up in your ACP where its module used to be. This gives the impression of something broken (I can already see the support topics flooding in about this to all extension authors). Disabling should make the extension's footprint totally disappear for the user experience...not leave behind footprints.

- Also, and this is a BLOCKER type issue: If you have an extension with modules in the ACP_CAT_DOT_MODS tab, and you disable the extension, the ACP_CAT_DOT_MODS page is totally broken, preventing access to any other still-enabled extensions that may also have their settings on that same ACP_CAT_DOT_MODS page! This condition occurs when the extension that was disabled is also the first or top-level module on that page. I'm sure this means it could happen on any ACP/UCP/MCP page depending on whether the extension's module is placed at the top of the modules tree. (Gonna make a ticket for this issue now: http://tracker.phpbb.com/browse/PHPBB3-12006)

[EXreaction]

The modules are an issue and will need to be removed or handled properly.

We required disabling the extension first to prevent people from accidentally deleting all of the extension's data when they only meant to disable it. Deleting all of an extension's data should be an extremely rare case, so I do not really think the extra few seconds is too much of a hassle to prevent problems.

[MichaelC]

A separate table for extension's modules?

[EXreaction]

That wouldn't work, modules are a tree.

[MichaelC]

That wouldn't work, modules are a tree.

Get the values from both tables, purge the disabled extensions' entries, merge the two table's rows together and use that where the modules from the core table would normally be used.