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David @ buzztouch
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01/19/17 07:54 AM (7 years ago)

BT_ Plugins removed from the download screen

Most of you already figured this out. But this may clarify some things... 1) The Plugin Market no longer shows any plugins I made. This is intentional. BT is now including many of these in the Xcode and Android Studio projects automagically. 2) When you download a project using your BT control panel, or a Self Hosted control panel (assuming you apply the self hosted patches made available) you will no longer see the BT_ plugins on the download screen. This is the screen where you select all the checkboxes to "include" the selected plugins. BT_ plugins are gone. They are included in every download and appear in the BT_Screens folder. Just sayin'
 
FunkyMonkey
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01/19/17 08:33 AM (7 years ago)
Where are the patches David :) Its ok found them, Thanks
 
AlanMac
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01/19/17 11:28 AM (7 years ago)
Hi David, not sure if I posted this elsewhere, but I have a hopefully simple suggestion to help avoid confusion on what plugin goes where, espcially for new users going forwards. Could you segregate the plugins differently when adding a new app screen in the control panel? If you had a dedicated category (e.g. BT Core Screens) that listed all your core plugins (e.g those that are supplied in the folder BT screens), then people will develop a clearer distinction to 3rd party plugins. Alan
 
miku
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01/19/17 11:49 AM (7 years ago)
David, I applied self hosted patches, but still can see BT_plugins download screen. I also have BT_plugins directory in project, but it is empty. I tried with Share Menu plugin which is 4.0 compatible, but can't find it anywhere in my project, so I get error message Missing plugin.
 
David @ buzztouch
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01/19/17 11:57 AM (7 years ago)
Hi @miku, 2 things... 1) The BT_Plugins download screen isn't a "screen" per say. It's not a webpage. I was referring to the screen you use to prepare your project for download. That's one of the files that changed and needs to be replaced in your self hosted install. This file is called bt_appPackage.php bt_v15/bt_app/bt_appPackage.php Visit an app and load the Prepare Project Download screen, you should see that in the address bar. 2) I'll wait for you to replace this file (and the others in the .zip) with the latest and we'll see if you get the Share Menu files included in your Xcode project. You should. It's a matter of getting your self hosted panel to package projects properly, that's what the patch is for. Monitoring this thread...
 
miku
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01/19/17 12:51 PM (7 years ago)
I've replaced all 4 files already, included bt_appPackage.php. I just wanted to tell you that during preparing project for download, I still see, as you say: "This is the screen where you select all the checkboxes to "include" the selected plugins.". As I understand, this should be obsolete in new version.
 
MadRod
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01/19/17 02:06 PM (7 years ago)
Hey guys, what self hosted patches are you talking about? Thanks
 
bigPaul
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01/19/17 02:34 PM (7 years ago)
@miku, Whilst I have not had the time to try any of the new changes, my understanding is: only David's original BT plugins (the ones that were free and generally the basics needed to get an App made) will be now be automatically included in the core download for any App. (these were pre-fixed as BT_pluginname) You will still see the 'selection' screen prior to download so that you can still decide which third party (purchased, developer) plugins you may want include in the App.
 
Kaybee
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01/19/17 04:01 PM (7 years ago)
@bigpaul, that is correct. Put in another way when you go through the process to compile & download an app package, you only need to select the third party plugins you require for that project. The core plugins or what we call features are already included in the base code. Thanks @david for the update and support. Kristen
 
Kaybee
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01/19/17 04:04 PM (7 years ago)
@madrod, the patches can be found here: http://www.buzztouch.com/BT-server/BT-server-patches-4.0.zip Also have a look at the forum post about Self Hosted 4.0.1 for more info Cheers Kristen
 
miku
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01/20/17 01:31 AM (7 years ago)
Fot test I did all this: installed new patches, installed new Share Menu plugin (ver. 2.6). Before preparing for download, I looked in "“Choose Plugins to Include. Pre-selected plugins are required.” Share menu is not present on list, but I think it should be. Also BT_plugins folder is empty. I also checked permissions for new patches, and they are 0755.
 
Kaybee
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01/20/17 03:01 AM (7 years ago)
@miku, I think I have found the issue here, will check it out some more and come back to you on this thread. Kristen
 
David @ buzztouch
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01/20/17 04:27 AM (7 years ago)
A few different things are surfacing here, and a few things to clarify. @miku raised an interesting and surprising point...try to get your head around this... ## EDIT. SEE MY NEXT POST ABOUT THE QUICKEST FIX ## Firstly: As you're all noticing the "Actions" section on the download page does not show anymore. This is the area where you selected plugins to include in your project. These are things like "Send email" and other simple actions that do not load a new View Controller. They do not load a new screen, they just perform and action. There are not extra plugin files to load so there is no reason to show a checkbox or whatever. The code needed to perform these actions in the Core project. Have a look at the BT_viewController.m class if you're interested in seeing the code. Search for something like "sendEmail" or "placeCall". With that understood, the next thing to understand is WHY were there checkboxes and a plugin in the market for these types of things in the first place. A plugin package was needed, even if it didn't load any screen on the device, because the control panel depended on it. When you're building apps and working with the drop down list of "things to choose" like screens and features you need those types of items to show up. The choices come from the database. So, a plugin was used to a) populate the database and b) drive the list of choices in your control panel. Complicated I know! Moving on...when @miku raised this issue it seemed there was a plugin package or something not right in his control panel. Turns out he's discovered something. THERE ARE SOME THIRDY PART PLUGINS IN THE MARKET THAT ARE "ACTIONS" and not "SCREENS." I didn't realize this when updating / changing all sorts of things. Example: The "Share Menu" plugin is an Action and not a Screen. We've been working on the idea that Third Party Plugins were always "Screens" and not "Actions." This means the Share Menu won't show up in @miku's control panel when packaging an app because it's not a Screen. Hope you're following. The fix: Thinking out loud here a bit but the quickest fix will be to just change the "category" of this plugin (and others?) from "Action" to "Screen." This would make it appear in the list of checkboxes. Plugin Package/config.txt > category: Action becomes category: Screen Database: bt_plugins.category becomes "screen" instead of "action" for this plugin Sounds like we'll need to find and update this on on our end too, this plugin won't be showing in the BT Hosted Panel's either, for the same reason. There could also be other plugins in the "Action" category we didn't realize. We'll get a look and find them. Isn't this fun!
 
David @ buzztouch
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01/20/17 04:38 AM (7 years ago)
Duh, there's an easier way! The code to show the "Action" type plugins on the Package screen still exists. It's simply commented out. You can uncomment the code that shows the checkboxes in the bt_appPackage.php file. Have a look at line 634 on bt_appPackage.php, you'll see where it's commented out through line 682. Changing this file means you won't have to change anything in your plugin or in your database. Thinking this is the easiest way. I'm doing that now on the BT Self Hosted Panels.
 
bigPaul
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01/20/17 05:03 AM (7 years ago)
Just an idea for this on a future version update; Maybe rather than showing the required plugins as 'pre-selected' you could just list them on the initial screen as 'The following required plugins will automatically be included in download: CR_xx, CM_yy, etc'. (And of course make sure they are included!) Then only the non required (purely optional) plugins are listed in the 'Include optional plugins' selection pane. This would mean unless you do want to add any extra's there is no need to view it and can proceed straight to downloading.
 
Kaybee
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01/20/17 05:12 AM (7 years ago)
@bigPaul, Currently you don't need to do anything on the plugins view, all the needed plugins are ticked and added to your download already. So you can proceed without even looking into that screen.
 
AussieRyan
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01/21/17 03:56 PM (7 years ago)
Just a quick Q. Now that David's Screens are auto included in the download, can we remove all of David's Plugins previously downloaded into our self-hosted setups?
 
bigPaul
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01/21/17 05:02 PM (7 years ago)
@AussieRyan, I am not 100% sure but I would suggest No. The self hosted package is a 'shortform' of BT so that you construct and manage your Apps without too much reliance on BT servers. The only times you particularly need the BT server is to compile your project code and download. Whilst David's plugins have been removed from the plugin market, they(the code) are now just automatically available to use whilst constructing an App on the BT server. Hence with your self hosted, in order to construct an App that includes those screens, you will still need the existing underlying code that enables you to set the data etc for those screens/actions during that phase before you actually compile it via BT. So dependent on what has been done in the self hosted BT4 patches, I would suggest keeping them until otherwise advised.
 

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