Version Checker for Plugins. R ur plugins up to date and the most recent. This will tell you.

peregrine

Don't know if any one wants to try this out - and see if it works for you.

Kasper

Really like the idea and it works a treat! However, instead of using Simple HTML Dom to get the latest version, have you considered using RSS? E.g: http://vanillaforums.org/addon/memberslistenh-plugin.rss. Should be much easier and much more efficient

P.S.: The RSS feed contains some pretty useful stuff

x00

why not json?

http://vanillaforums.org/addon.json/1077/version-check

Kasper

@x00 said:
why not json?

http://vanillaforums.org/addon.json/1077/version-check

There it was! Couldn't find the right URL for the JSON and XML feeds

x00

general format is

controller.json/somemethod/args

Alternatively

http://vanillaforums.org/addon/1077/version-check?DeliveryMethod=JSON&DeliveryType=DATA

Kasper

I actually thought it was controller/method.[json/xml]/args - thanks for pointing it out!

phreak

Yeah, peregrine is running hot, great thanx.

peregrine

thx for the tips - guys. I'll look in to changing it. Glad you like the idea.

peregrine

As an example - would I be retrieving this in a file_get and parsing or is there a better idea.

http://vanillaforums.org/addon/versioncheck-plugin.xml?DeliveryMethod=JSON&DeliveryType=DATA

businessdad

@peregrine said:
As an example - would I be retrieving this in a file_get and parsing or is there a better idea.

http://vanillaforums.org/addon/versioncheck-plugin.xml?DeliveryMethod=JSON&DeliveryType=DATA

There are several ways to get the data:

• file_get_contents(), which you already mentioned.
• cURL, also quite common, but it might be overkill.
• fsockopen() and fread().

I would do something like this, more or less:

• Loop through the installed plugins.
• For each, get the JSON from vanilla.org, using one of the methods listed above.
• Using json_decode(), transform the JSON into a PHP object.
• Read object's properties, and you're ready to go.

peregrine

thx. businessdad - By the time I read your message. I had already rewritten the program. just like you said. Maybe you were channeling thoughts. Now - what does that mean??? .

x00

use ProxyRequest, it is the native function for exactly this, and simplifies the connection and retrieval.

It is curl based, by the other methods are not requirements, curl is a requirement usually, so it is consistent.

for some reason vanillaforums.org does not allow for JSONP where as vanilla 2.0 and 2.1 automatically pick up the callback and turn he JSON into JSONP.

Otherwise you could connect directly with jQuery.

You could still do it on the client side, by proxying it through a local location and using ProxyRequest, then just sending the valid JSON back.

peregrine

.

peregrine

@x00 I used this
version 1.1 based on kasper's idea for speed and your further ideas up until the proxyrequest change.

$getlink = 'http://vanillaforums.org/addon/versioncheck-plugin.xml?DeliveryMethod=JSON&DeliveryType=DATA';

I'll have to study up on proxyrequest or if you can take a look at the program and pass on some pointers.

It is extremely fast using the file get
file_get_contents($getlink);

x00

file_get_contents external urls are often blocked on some hosts, especially php safemode.

x00

@peregrine said:

>

$getlink = 'http://vanillaforums.org/addon/versioncheck-plugin.xml?DeliveryMethod=JSON&DeliveryType=DATA';

You don't need the .xml bit

peregrine

@x00 said:

file_get_contents external urls are often blocked on some hosts, especially php safemode.

I grok you.

sooner or later I'll try another update if anyone has some issues with file_get_contents . meanwhile this will probably work for most.

You don't need the .xml bit

thx.

it works with .xml, but I will update if I do the proxryequest thing.

thanks for all the great ideas everyone.

x00

$Data = ProxyRequest($Url);

this function checks for curl, if not there it uses fsockopen, which has marginally more support than file_get_contents

x00

what I meant is it is json not xml, the xml bit isn't relevant.

x00

also these other functions have timeouts it is important to have sensible timeouts. The default is a second.

businessdad

@x00 said:
$Data = ProxyRequest($Url);

this function checks for curl, if not there it uses fsockopen, which has marginally more support than file_get_contents

That's good to know. The only thing I found odd is that cURL seems to be significantly slower than fsockopen(). I used them both when I developed my Advanced Logger, and I had to replace cURL because it was sluggish (it was for POSTing data, though, not for retrieving it).