Hi, It’s been a while since I’ve been active in addons development.
I’ve know there’s many addons I have created and or maintained in
Blender 2.7 series that need updating for the 2.8 series.
As updates are filtering through I’ll be looking at restoring or removing the currently broken addons before the 2.80 release. I have noticed several people already helping with updates and would like to say thanks.
I’ll be more active in the coming weeks and intend to again see the successful porting of addons to match the new api. For those that don;t know me, I’ve been working on addons in blender for over 10 years now and have helped with and seen through the development of new addons and the maintenance of addons through the changes from 2.4 series to 2.5 and so on up until the 2.79 release. I look forward to again ensuring a stable addons release for 2.8. Thanks. Feel free to ask any questions you may have.
Hi As 2.8 is getting ever closer it’s time to look at making some decisions about addons and the addons list in Blender 2.8.
First, it should be made clear that all of the 2.79 addons release list was never intended to be the 2.8 addons release list. The 2.79 addons list was extended to mark the end of the series and to showcase, show code, show ideas and concepts that addons had provided
This is my proposal and plan to handle the addons list transition to Blender 2.8
Preparing the Blender addons and addons_contrib repo’s for 2.8 release
Addons Developers
1: Actively encourage and help new and old developers to participate in the updating of addons to 2.8
1.1: Help new addons developers to join the addons project and participate in addons development within the Blender git environment.
2: As an addons developer within reason your welcome to fix/update the addons repo to fix api changes. If you fix your addon and notice other addons with the same issue, your welcome to fix. Updates to 2.8 api are fine without a task. Please create a task here https://developer.blender.org/maniphest/project/3/type/Patch/ if you wish to make more substantial changes to another authors addon. If you are not yet an addons developer but have fixed some built in addons you need yourself, you are most welcome to submit a task with the fixed addon and we will test and make use of it.
Addons Contrib
Addons Contrib needs a revamp. There’s several issues to address.
1: Contrib was initially designed as a platform for new Blender addons devs to get used to committing and working on their addons until they were ready for the move to release addons.
1.1:This worked only up to a point, some addons authors made good use of it, some addons were not ready for release but working and maintained. Some addons ended up abandoned or orphaned and unmaintained and some had good concepts and different code methods that may have been useful in developing further addons.
2: Revitalizing Contrib
2.1: Addons Contrib needs to be largely cleaned out.
2.2: Addons that are still actively mainlined with the goal of inclusion in 2.8 series and addons fully working/updated in 2.8 nightly builds are acceptable.
2.3: Orphaned, unmaintained, broken, non 2.8 compatible addons should be removed. The Author will and should retain the right to add his/her addon back to addons contrib once updated to 2.8 and after creating a new task here: https://developer.blender.org/maniphest/project/3/type/Patch/
Addons Contrib Summary
Contrib is still a useful section for addons, with 2.8 on the horizon, and the removal of non viable addons, we can free up space for the next and new generation of addons devs. It can also provide a place to repair and rebuild addons from 2.8 beta that are not updated and returning errors.
Addons 2.8 Release
Working Release
1: All addons released with Blender 2.8 should be working at the time of release. With such major api changes, some addons are no longer viable, many are unmaintained and will take time to fix if they ever are. We should not release with these addons.
1.1: Known reported bugs in working scripts are ok.
1.2: Non updated to 2.8 api and non maintained addons should be removed from release and added to the cleaned up Addons Contrib repo until they are updated and added back to release.
1.2.1: Addons removed from release into contrib should have a lifespan of 6 months after which they should be removed from the contrib repo and a new task crated if/when they become maintained.
Addons Release Summary
With the 2.8 series we are presented here with a good opportunity to clean up and reduce the number of addons in Blender and make room for new addons with new developers and new concepts. As noted above some addons may take time to repair and return. During the transition from 2.4 series to 2.5 series, many addons did not come back. Most of the nest and popular “most used” addons eventually made a return but this was over a long period of time and some did not return until the 2.6 series and 2.7 series. Keeping this in mind we can now start to clean up and make a solid foundation addons 2.8 release.
summary
To summarize quickly. We take out the broken unmaintained addons from contrib and replace them with the broken non updated addons from release and have an error free as possible release for Blender 2.8.
Any removed addons have the opportunity and time to come back later in the 2.8 series.
I believe this proposal to be fair. It’s simply not possible to fix all the addons and a clean up will commence shortly, over time and on a per addon basis.
I’ve started a task here: https://developer.blender.org/T63750 for reference once removal starts.
-
So will there be some sort of table listing all addons with their inclusion/removal decisions?
-
What time frame is this planned to be for? (or is it coming soon™)
I ask as I’ve held off reporting bugs in addons (for my edge case uses), I would like to make sure I’m testing what’s going to be included and not deprecated.
hi, If your testing addons in nightly builds, the addons that are affected will not activate and have the message “Update to 2.8 required” These are the addons that need to be fixed or removed before Blender 2.8 release. Bug reports are always welcome, don’t hold off.
Grand! Thank you.
Adding compulsory character limit here