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A better way to list plugins?


Do we need a searchable plugins database  

23 members have voted

  1. 1. Do we need a searchable plugins database

    • Yep, 'bout time.
      18
    • Are you crazy? Use the plugins forum!
      2
    • What's a plugin?
      3


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I run into the same problem that many brand-new PDN users run into, namely searching for (and finding) a specific plugin that does a specific thing.

True, the plugins forum has a number of stickies for the most stable/oldest/most widely used ones, but it'd be nice to have a place to go where you could browse through a list or search by the category *and* keywords of the effect (distort, color, render, lens, tree, etc).

I can't help with writing plugins themselves (yet), but I could definitely help put a searchable database of plugins, links, and before/after screenshots online somewhere.

If anyone has hosting (asp, asp.net, php, I can do any of those) with either SQL Server, mysql, or the ability to read/write xml files from web scripts, and is interested in seeing a plugins database, let me know and I'll write it.

In the meantime, I'm off to look for free hosting that provides that without too many ads.

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I just get every plugin. Its a lot easier than searching for them only when you need them. Also, as a place to get a ton of great plugins, check out usedHONDAs paint.net plugin pack (ppp). You can find it here.

http://usedhonda.110mb.com/pdnstuff/pai ... ackzip.zip

Well, yes, it's a good idea to get every plugin, generally speaking, but even if you have them all, you might not know off the top of your head which ones do what, or (more likely) which one of several is best suited for what you're trying to accomplish.

I've tried to make sure I have them all, but I use two different PCs and discovered that I didn't really have everything I thought I had.

Also, it'd be nice to have someplace where somebody didn't have to tell you "hey, usedhonda made a plugin pack that has a bunch of plugins in it", but you were browsing plugins and noticed that the pluginpack includes X (don't know the current number) of plugins that do A, B, C, and D.

I know I've gone searching for "dents" three times now, and I just want to make that process easier for everyone, especially the n00bs (like me).

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The end goal would be to have some kind of built-in browser and updater within Paint.NET itself. That is to say, that's what we (myself and Tom) really want. How long that will take is subject to how much time we have available, other feature prioritizations, etc.

The Paint.NET Blog: https://blog.getpaint.net/

Donations are always appreciated! https://www.getpaint.net/donate.html

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The end goal would be to have some kind of built-in browser and updater within Paint.NET itself. That is to say, that's what we (myself and Tom) really want. How long that will take is subject to how much time we have available, other feature prioritizations, etc.

How about this for an idea, then (and it would fit in nicely), a web page that spits back xml with a nodelist of plugins that match the specified search criteria. Choose a category or keyword or both and get back something like:



Conditional Hue/Saturation
1.7.2618.31817
evanolds
http://www.evanolds.com/dl/CondHSAdj.dll
http://www.evanolds.com/images/gorges.jpg
http://www.evanolds.com/images/gorgesafter.jpg
Color
color, hue, saturation, brightness, conditional, range, shift, colorize


Color Balance
1.0.0.0
boltbait
http://boltbait.googlepages.com/ColorBalance.dll
http://...
http://...
Color
color, hue, complementary, wheel, correction


...or whatever pieces of information you think would be important to the browser/updater to know about.

It's easy enough to get an xml page like that to use xslt so it shows up in some readable form for people and is still easily parsed by an application that understands xml, as a result of a given search.

What do you think? It'd be easily usable as the repository for your internal plugin browser...

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YES, why didn't you say this in my request for this before! Now I am happy.

The end goal would be to have some kind of built-in browser and updater within Paint.NET itself. That is to say, that's what we (myself and Tom) really want. How long that will take is subject to how much time we have available, other feature prioritizations, etc.
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...

Yes although that doesn't do anything to solve the problem of installation. Stay tuned.

"I has a dll. What I do wif it?"*

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http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/05/30/i-has-a-money/

* (not to disparage the many people who have posted questions about this, the picture is just awesome)

The Paint.NET Blog: https://blog.getpaint.net/

Donations are always appreciated! https://www.getpaint.net/donate.html

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I ask this because right now search is my main problem using the forum.

Each night before going to bed I stick pins in voodoo dolls representing PHPBB's search engine developer.

Hope it works.

No. Way. I've just seen Bob. And... *poof!*—just like that—he disappears into the mist again. ~Helio

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Well, I thought about this serveral times since PDN 3.0 (I think since that Version we got the button "Plugins" under "Help") came out. And first I thought "Hey, it would be cool if this button would open a window with a list with all plugins(and a small descrimtion) in it."

Then I thought that this List have to be in multiple languages, because non-native speakers don´t understand everything and so they have to try out to find what they search.

The pluginpackageis a bit better, because they are already on your machine andyou can test them, but the problem is, that you (like Rick said somewhere in the Pluginforum) need the permission of the author to put it in the package, and some authors seems to be dead meanwhile.

In my opinion the best soloution would be a mediawiki, with a list like in my first thought, but you can klick on the names(what a cool idea, Indy ;)) and come to a page only for this one plugin with one or two sample-pics and a good explanation(like the first post of a plugintopic shoulf be), but without all the comments, bugreports an versionchanges.

The End

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Yeah, I think that the way Firefox handles extensions is great. This type of solution would of course hinge on a single plugin repository, most likely controlled by Rick, to which everyone would upload their plugins.

I dun't know what you've got planned Rick, but I hope it's pretty! :D

I am not a mechanism, I am part of the resistance;

I am an organism, an animal, a creature, I am a beast.

~ Becoming the Archetype

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If it matters, I can host plugins on my 110mb account. I haven't even used 1% of my server yet (2GB storage).

I thought I was the only one that posts pics from that site!

"The greatest thing about the Internet is that you can write anything you want and give it a false source." ~Ezra Pound

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I think that you would fry your bandwidth.

v An excellent open–source strategy game—highly recommended.

 

"I wish I had never been born," she said. "What are we born for?"

"For infinite happiness," said the Spirit. "You can step out into it at any moment..."

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100GB? :shock:

Don't forget the page, too.

v An excellent open–source strategy game—highly recommended.

 

"I wish I had never been born," she said. "What are we born for?"

"For infinite happiness," said the Spirit. "You can step out into it at any moment..."

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That's a light site you got there!

Mine's going to be about 60KB for the index.

v An excellent open–source strategy game—highly recommended.

 

"I wish I had never been born," she said. "What are we born for?"

"For infinite happiness," said the Spirit. "You can step out into it at any moment..."

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hang on a sec. UNCOMPRESSED plugins average around 40K. If you zip them, they're more like 10-20, so we'lll go with 15K. So that would be around 6.7 million downloads a month. Plenty sufficient, even factoring in pageloads.

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Wow

v An excellent open–source strategy game—highly recommended.

 

"I wish I had never been born," she said. "What are we born for?"

"For infinite happiness," said the Spirit. "You can step out into it at any moment..."

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On second thought, I would suggest creating a new account to place the files in so the address would be like "paint.net.110mb.com" or "pdn.110mb.com", though I'm not sure if it would allow me because I already have an IP with them.

"The greatest thing about the Internet is that you can write anything you want and give it a false source." ~Ezra Pound

twtr | dA | tmblr | yt | fb

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