It would be great if you had an option to check and alert, but don't update...and/or to designate which plugins would auto-update.

There are some plugins that I'd trust, but others not so much.

The config allows you to change the update types you want to allow, otherwise, it will warn you. Also, you blacklist plugins/authors from updating at all.

I'm not sure if the request was understood here since I see a "No Thanks" label on this thread currently, which I don't agree with.

The inherent problem with introducing an auto update mechanism to this plugin ecosystem is that many developers who publish content are essentially beginners. That means they don't know what semantic versioning is, how it applies to plugins in practice, or how to make changes backwards compatible even if they wanted to.

Given this context, auto updating/notifying has several use cases.

1. Auto download updates from trusted plugins or authors if those updates appear to be backwards compatible (only minor or patch version changed)
2. Notify about backwards-incompatible updates to trusted plugins so the server owner can manually update
3. Notify about updates to untrusted plugins so the server owner can manually update
4. Ignore updates to plugins hosted on other websites
5. Ignore updates to plugins that are privately maintained
6. Ignore udpates to plugins that are published by the server owner themself (since they may have a new version not yet released)

@WhiteThunder I wonder if #3 can be resolved by putting untrusted plugins on the blacklist and then opting to get notified about them?

My request seems a bit silly since this is called Automatic Updater, but it was to add the ability to turn auto-updating off completely and only get notified. I run so many plugins, I'd like to start off using this plugin in manual alert mode and then slowly ease into auto-updates. I'm a little cautious enabling it straight away.

So I was suggesting options in the config to override auto-updates and alert when updates are available.

  "Automatic Updates Enabled": true,
  "Notify on new version or automatic update": true,​

Bumfuzzler

@WhiteThunder I wonder if #3 can be resolved by putting untrusted plugins on the blacklist and then opting to get notified about them?

WhiteThunder

That's supported in v1.2.8 which was released yesterday. It allows you to opt-in to get notified about blacklisted plugins. IMO It's not the ideal solution since you can't do it selectively per plugin or author. For example, if I wanted to get notified about untrusted plugins, I would also have to get notified about my own plugins that I'm actively developing as well (which I would want to completely ignore).

Yeah understood.

I suppose this new feature solves my original concern, but I would simply have to blacklist all my plugins.

Bumfuzzler

I suppose this new feature solves my original concern, but I would simply have to blacklist all my plugins.

Yeah, and you would have to remember to blacklist all new ones you install. That's why maybe a whitelist is a good idea as well.

WhiteThunder

Yeah, and you would have to remember to blacklist all new ones you install. That's why maybe a whitelist is a good idea as well.

I agree. I want to use this plugin cause it has awesome potential to save me lots of time, but I am afraid I'll make a silly mistake.