Extensions Platform

Operations involving network access were written to be non-blocking from the beginning. So making them blocking was a choice - to avoid having to deal with additional issues users managed to find, although I never liked it being blocking.

Committed support for non-blocking operations.

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Thank you! Much appreciated! :tada: :partying_face:

Before you do anything like this, please read up on how to do it properly from ethical perspective. There are articles online which describes how security researches can do experiments like this without causing disruptive harm.

I also suggest read up on the University of Minnesota and Linux incident, to understand why following those commonly expected protocols is important.

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Is there a reason why this
firefox_JDbEAVL5xp
is shown and then this
firefox_SRvGtY5SUt
appears after the first one is clicked? Wouldn’t it make sense to just directly show the second one?

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For the records, meeting notes from today: 2024-06-10 Extensions Project

Is there a way to show only legacy addons installed by me? Since legacy is the only way to install paid addons, I need a clean way to list those installed paid addons to check out for updates. Currently extension iteration doesn’t allow it? I’d like to request for adding filter that does do that. I also would love to have “install from disk” button on main interface, instead being hidden by dropdown menu - most advanced blender users rely on paid addons and I think current extension platform GUI is leaning too much towards free extensions.

EDIT: showing only addons installed by me was possible in 4.1 and older versions - I really need a simple listing of those addons to see what addons I have and manually check on their websites/githubs if there were updates in meantime.

5 Likes

I think current extension platform GUI is leaning too much towards free extensions.

Not just free extensions; it leans away from anything that is not on the extensions website.

Perhaps it’s improved in the latest alpha; the last one I looked at a few days ago seem to be just a random collection of things. It felt like the software was trying to punish me for using add-ons that were not coming from the extensions website… A virtual “How dare you…”

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Am I mistaken on this…? Is the Extension pref tab now showing me EVERY SINGLE EXTENSION that’s on the extensions website?

Somehow, I thought that the plan was for one to browse the Extension website, pick what I might want. After installing, it would be added to this list. I’m seeing things in this list that I’ve never used and will never use. POV addon, Export Paper Model, something called “Forts Map Importer” which apparently relates to some Steam game i’ve never even heard of.

Eventually this prefs page will scroll for days…

And on a related/unrelated note:

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Do you mean this ?

…
No, I don’t.

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I think it’s fairly obvious that “sort alphabetically” and “show only enabled” are not the same thing

Not what he said though, he said “sorting by alpha” and disabled extensions are dimmed, i can easily see how @filedescriptor got there, so perhaps things are not as obvious as they seem and spending a little bit more time explaining the problem that is seen seeing and explaining how people think it should be solved, wouldn’t be a bad thing.

“is this what you mean”, “No” with no further explanation, is also about the least productive way one would get their ideas implemented though.

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There is work happening in this area:

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Honestly, it felt like very little effort was taken to read my post, take the full context of the situation, and ponder on it for a moment.

I could have typed “no that’s not what I mean, please read my post again”… But I have a feeling that would have come off as unpleasant.

Get outta here…someone read your post, didn’t understand what you were trying to say, but hey, this is the internet, misunderstandings happen, thought he saw a way to help, took the effort to make a screenshot even highlighted the checkbox he thought may help, and you took all of this as “low effort” ?

My suggestion was to do a better job explaining the issue, not superficially increase the word-count by adding additional unpleasantness, cause that we indeed could do without.

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Everyone please keep things constructive and polite (and on topic).

To the question …

Is the Extension pref tab now showing me EVERY SINGLE EXTENSION that’s on the extensions website?

It always did. The “discovery” (figuring out which extension you want) is possible from within Blender, as well as from the respective repositories.

After installing, it would be added to this list.
Do you mean this ?

Either the “Enabled Extensions” or the “Installed Extensions” would indeed prevent you from being overwhelmed there. As Brecht pointed out, this is also tackled by the changes to bring the Add-ons tab back.

1 Like

Is it possible to access the same repository from different accounts simultaneously?
E.G. I have a personal account and a company account on Blender Market; can I access to all the addons purchased on different accounts?

Hi!
I’ve tried the beta after the split between extensions and add-ons, and I have some feedback. For reference, now, Extensions and Add-ons are split in two sections:


As far as I understand, the logic behind this split is the following:

  • “Extensions” serves as an access point for the extensions platform, where you can download and install extensions.
  • “Add-ons” serves as a way to set the preferences of add-ons, and uninstall them.

I think there are some issues that are very confusing:

  • every single application that exists in the world uses the terms “extension” and “add-on” interchangeably. Users cannot get the difference of functionality of the two tabs just between their names, or even by opening them. The distinction in meaning is very confusing. Even more so because from the Extensions tab you can install add-ons that then end up appearing in the add-ons tab. This is confusing!
  • the two tabs look the same. Somehow, the UI must point out what is the difference!

I see why this was done: because extensions can also be other things (themes) and because you want to split the “store exploration” logic from the “add-ons management” one. However, currently, it is definitely weird.

Can I recommend taking a look into probably the application that pioneered extensions, Firefox? It is quite clear. When you click on “Add-ons and themes” from the main menu, you end up here:

  • The first tab allows you to find popular extensions and install them, and search for other one.
  • The second tab manages said extensions, allowing you to update them, uninstall them or set their preferences.
  • The third tab manages themes.
  • Etc.

I think this is similar to what you’ve done, but its naming is clearer.
What I suggest is:

  • rename “Extensions” to “Install Extensions” or something with a similar meaning. Users will immediately understand what it does.
  • rename “Add-ons” to “Add-ons Preferences”. Similarly, its function will be apparent.

Moreover, I think Install from Disk should not be in a hidden tiny menu:

Can you add a button for it? It’ll probably be the most important button for users in that whole section. Hiding it like that almost feels like hostile architecture :smile:

I hope my points can be useful.

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I respectfully disagree with your line of thought on the new format for the add-on tab. BF listened to feedback and gave us what everyone was asking for… to split the manual installs and listing of add-ons away from the Blender extensions website repository tab. It doesn’t make it confusing, the first implementation was what was confusing. You can now install and filter everything you have installed from the add-on tab just like the “old school” way. Added bonus is now you have the extension tab to search the extensions from the BF extension repository separate if you want to go that route. This is actually now a cleaner add-ons tab compared to the old school way. I think naming the add-ons tab to something else would just confuse things even more. If anything maybe name the extension tab to “extension repository.”

The new format is now inline with how it was with the older add-ons tab with form and function minus the install button and the clutter of unwanted add-ons. You can still install add-ons from the add-on tab now just like the old school way, minus there being an actual button for it (see image). You don’t need to install “legacy” add-ons from the extension tab.

I do agree we should have a visible install button like in the older add-on tab. But as of right now this almost matches prior Blender add-on tab function with the extension tab now being separate. :slight_smile:

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Perhaps, but in the context of Blender:

An addon is a plugin for 4.1 and earlier versions.
An extension is a plugin for 4.2 and later versions.

They are two different things, with different scopes on how to be easily installed, updated, managed, etc.

1 Like