Add-ons

Instead of a direct feature into Digsby, I just wanted to know if adding alot of new features would slow down or cluster the basic operations of the program.

Would there be addons that users can install disable and enable?  Some may want a whole set of new stuff, some may just want to use a messenger.

Yeah.. cool idea. A moderator at Neowin also suggested this idea. Nudges for example can be added via a add-on instead of incorporating it to the core of the program.

Yeah, add-ons would be great!

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greetings from Portugal

I think a Pidgin-like plug-in system would work pretty well for this program, even if you had the option to turn off some core components such as social network support.

Yea, my point exactly, reason for this, alot of request for different companies to be added like skype calling or something, a plugin would be suited for something of this magnitude.

Definitely should be a top priority. Once you get all the basic functionality that satisfies the vast majority of users, everything else should move off to add-ons like Firefox does. When you get the browser you can do everything you'd expect from a Web Browser but without much extra bloat. Everything else you desire personally is done via add-ons.

Only problem is that the add-on system should be very tight and stable so crappy written / bad behaving add-ons will have less of a chance of bogging down the whole app.

But yes, definitely a good idea.

plugins i think are a great idea. not everybody for instance wants music integration. but i know i would and several others. give us the music plugin and others can choose not to install it to save memory.

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I don't have a signature because they turned the [img] tag off

I vote for an open API so those of us with programming skills could make our own plugins and share them with the Digsby community.

Turn the facebook & myspace stuff and the email checkers into plugins which are supplied by default with Digsby, and then share out that API.

I wouldn't mind taking a crack at a last.fm plugin, or a what I'm listening to plugin for WinAmp or Windows Media Player.

Sounds like a great idea Bytor!

Bytor, thats what I was going to recommend.  I would love try to make my own plugins for things.

Yes! Please Digsby, please! Share that API!! (so I can mooch off of other people's plugins since I can't code for beans)

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I don't have a signature because they turned the [img] tag off

ok, well, we've had a whole bunch of discussions about how to go about it.  We haven't yet reached a conclusion.  We're certainly not opposed to doing this, in fact we'd love to.  As to how to protect digsby from external code, we're not sure yet.

As to the idea of turning plugins on/off in digsby, this wouldn't be hard, and some might even be trivial.  A lot of the time, protocols aren't even loaded into memory if you're not using them.  Jabber is always loaded, as it is used by the digsby connection.  But stuff like AIM, MSN, etc, don't get loaded until you log in with one.  So, for things like that, it doesn't matter.  For others that might show up elsewhere in the program, it wouldn't be hard to keep a list of things to load/not load.

On the topic of an API.  Basically, right now, it hasn't stabilized internally.  Python has great flexibility, and we've (ab)used most of it.  We're not fully satisfied with the API, and so there's no way we're going to let anyone else see it until it's top notch and easy to use (just like digsby!).

I hope that answers some questions.

I have been sent to Digsby by someone who asked me to build a plugin for Digsby (see http://www.k23productions.com/e107_plug … c.php?3535 ) as I do it already for Pidgin (see http://tlhan-ghun.de/?q=node/22 ).

So I now created an account here at Digsby and voted for the possibility of Plugins. I would like to draw your attention that plugins should not only provide the possibility to enable additional protocolls but to have a hooks at many different places in Digsby. In my case I would need hooks e.g. for new messages coming in or if buddys are signing on and off to display them as wished by the guy in the forum using Snarl http://www.fullphat.net/ ).

Looking forward for your great new piece of software

MozillaSnarls wrote:

I have been sent to Digsby by someone who asked me to build a plugin for Digsby (see http://www.k23productions.com/e107_plug … c.php?3535 ) as I do it already for Pidgin (see http://tlhan-ghun.de/?q=node/22 ).

So I now created an account here at Digsby and voted for the possibility of Plugins. I would like to draw your attention that plugins should not only provide the possibility to enable additional protocolls but to have a hooks at many different places in Digsby. In my case I would need hooks e.g. for new messages coming in or if buddys are signing on and off to display them as wished by the guy in the forum using Snarl http://www.fullphat.net/ ).

Looking forward for your great new piece of software

Sounds like you know what you're talking about. Looking forward to seeing what you might come out with!

Go vote on this on the digsby wishlist btw: http://digsbies.org/site/node/20

eia wrote:

Go vote on this on the digsby wishlist btw: http://digsbies.org/site/node/20

I did

people, seriously, I think this one is the priority (PLUG-INs, ADDONs) !

+1

JohnnyPea wrote:

people, seriously, I think this one is the priority (PLUG-INs, ADDONs) !

+1

I'm sure this is high up on their list, but remember that Digsby is still beta.  It'd be bad practice to release a plugin framework that had to change constantly for the internal updates to the core application.  Plugins would be compatible with only a certain range of builds, and would need to be updated and re-released every time a core change was made.

I like the idea of plugins and or addons, make this the #1 feature to be added.

I know that this feature isn't high on the dev's priority of features which for now I think is fair, better to get out of beta and into stable releases before they start letting people from 3rd parties adding possibly unstable functionality to digsby.