Ideas for improving the 5.2 Addon Manager

Ideas
1

Installed OK cannot get Forms or Graph View to work Plugin Manager says
they are installed will look for more detail why. I am on Ubuntu 22 Mate
Phil

2

Sorted

Forms was a typo in Attributes was "From2 now “Form” slapped wrist

Graph View forgot need to install dot however I did not see it coming up
as a required dependency maybe missed it
Phil

1 Like
3

These are the requirements I see for Graph View in the Addon Manager:

graph_view_req

4

There are now too many things that interact when installing Addons with prerequisites. It is far too many variables to resolve one-by-one with any confidence.

There are:

  • the prerequisites in the plugin registrations
  • the Install (or Update) button selection in the Addon Manager
  • the Preferences switch for showing explicit addon registering failures dialog at startup (Dunno if this works. Have to figure out how to exercise it since the Addon Manager won’t install
    a failure example)
  • the switch that allows the Addon Manager to install Python Modules (which seems to be OS dependent? Does only Win have the necessary installer?)
  • the hiding of Install button if the prerequisites are not met and the Install Python Modules option is disabled
  • the absence of positive feedback when the addon list is found for a project
  • the “not installed” filter in the Addon Manager
  • there’s no Prerequisites (… nor “unmet” prerequisites …) filters for the Addon Manager

Personally, I think it is counterproductive to be unable to install addons with unmet prerequisites when the Install Python Modules option is disabled.

If the startup warning dialogs for Addon Registrations exist, I can whittle away at the problem. Just install some of the listed Python Modules and start Gramps again.

So far, I have had ZERO success trying to install requisite Python Modules with Gramps on Window10pro or Fedora 39.

5

The automatic installation of prerequisites was written primary for Windows users. It works on Linux, but it probably makes more sense to install the dependencies using a package manager.

I agree. The Addon manager should not allow this. In fact the “Install” button should not be displayed if the addon prerequisites are not met.

We do however need to account for some unusual circumstances. It is always possible for a user to install an addon manually, even if the prerequisites are not met. It is also possible for a user to remove a dependency after the addon has been installed. I anticipated some of these cases and put a check for prerequisites at the point the addon is loaded. Unfortunately, I didn’t foresee all such cases and I expect a few bug reports in this area.

Bug reports and feature requests are always welcome, especially for new features. We can also remove functionality in future releases. For example, I’m not convinced that the automatic installation of dependencies is a success yet.

Sorry - I’ve gone off-topic here. Shall I delete this or move it elsewhere?

6

Moved (from where the thread diverged) to new topic in Ideas

7

On macOS, a few of us install Gramps via MacPorts [1] for the same reason. I can install any required dependencies for addons via MacPorts and then get updates for them alongside the rest of the stuff that MacPorts is managing. Personally, I don’t want pip involved since that is just one more update process that I have to remember to operate.

Craig
[1] gramps | MacPorts

1 Like
8

I agree. The automatic installation of prerequisites only really makes sense for Windows.

Automatic installation would hardly have a use if we just included the prerequisites in the Windows AIO. I suppose that a new addon my introduce a new prerequisite and we don’t know about other third-party projects. We could consider removing the functionality, but it is disabled by default and some people might find a use for it.

1 Like
9

A question regarding the Addon Manager. Is there some reason why some things arent in the Addon manager but is in the Plugin manager (I got the enchanted one but still)?
(One example for me was the GetGOV, tried it out but didnt end up liking it for my country)

10

Change the filter that says ‘Everyone’ to ‘All Audiences’.

You might also want to change the filter ‘Stable’ to ‘All Statuses’

1 Like
11

The Addon Manager only lists third-party addons, the plugin managers also include the core plugins.

I can see GetGOV in the Addon Manager. It is listed under “Expert”.

12

‘All Audiences’ will include ‘Developer’. Is that what most people want included in the default list?

Likewise ‘All Statuses’ will include ‘Experimental’ and possibly ‘Unstable’ (I don’t think that there are any at the moment.) Again, probably not a good default setting.

1 Like
13

Oh, I had no idea bout that setting was set to something by standard that would hide it. Weird.

14

The grumbles about Addons was growing deafening. These changes are intended to make Gramps more ‘friendly’ for people who refuse to read help files or are 1st-time users. (Both of which describe Reviewers.)

The loudest complaint was about Addons with Prerequisites causing cascades of Warnings on each startup. Since there are more than a dozen dozen addons, most users just add EVERYTHING and expect magic.

When reality hits, Gramps starts to look really flakey and it bogs down. (I may love the insights offered by the Deep Connections gramplet but it kills performance.)

It is reasonable that the new defaults avoid these pitfalls until a User gets their feet wet. But the implementation may need tweaking.

For instance, the default Addon Manager filters reset instead of being remembered. So that makes the feature better for novices by penalizing most of the community.
And the filters don’t indicate that addons are affecting the results. The Filter gramplet benefits from the Status bar showing a found/total indicator in the Status Bar. It helps a lot… once you realize that it is there. Had you noticed that the Citations Filter gramplet defaults to “Normal” confidence citations? So the Low and Very Low confidence items are omitted? (Changing that default was on the 5.2 targets but didn’t make the cut.)

image
image443×861 46.3 KB

Obviously, the constraining filters in the Addon Manager need some form of indicator to show that they are limiting some results.

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15

May not be the solution, but maybe the wiki for those that require you to switch to “Expert” should have a message at the top of the wiki, where it says you need to switch it to expert to see it?

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16

And after reviewing the “Running the prerequisites checker - installing prerequisites” thread, perhaps the mere existence of unfulfilled prerequisites should boost an addon from “Everyone” audience to “Expert”? (So, if in the future, an addon is created that installs a prerequisite, then any Addon that requires that prerequisite python module might fallback to a lower audience.)

1 Like
17

@Nick-Hall
The general feedback seems to be that the default Audiences and Statuses filters not being “All” level is not obvious.

How about changing the color of Filters that are actively filtering?

For instance:

image
image756×441 34.8 KB

It would also be useful to have a selection to filter for “Requires” in the “All addons” menu.

1 Like
18

Let’s talk about the defaults for the Addon Manager ?

  • The Projects default is to check the Gramps 5.2 addon list. Gramps polls the URL upon startup, before the Addon Manager GUI is opened. (This makes Gramps look like an application with risky Internet policy.) It seems like Gramps should not check for updates without explicit permission.


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