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Opened 3 years ago

Last modified 2 months ago

#53384 new defect (bug)

External plugins who can auto-update are always listed under "auto-updates" disabled

Reported by: nekojonez's profile NekoJonez Owned by:
Milestone: Awaiting Review Priority: normal
Severity: normal Version: 5.7.2
Component: Plugins Keywords: reporter-feedback
Focuses: ui, administration Cc:

Description

On my site, I have four plugins who can auto-update yet in the plugin screen they are shown under "auto-updates disabled".

I think it would be better if those come under a list that has the name: "external updating" or something of that nature. OR a way for devs to tell WP their plugins can auto update so it doesn't appear on that list...?

In it's current implementation, it can give the wrong idea to a site admin.

Attachments (2)

image_2021-06-13_122249.png (88.8 KB) - added by NekoJonez 3 years ago.
Screen
premium-auto-updates.png (77.4 KB) - added by pbiron 3 years ago.
screenshot showing that premium, externally hosted plugins and the auto-updates UI

Download all attachments as: .zip

Change History (13)

#1 follow-up: @pbiron
3 years ago

All plugins (and themes), whether they are hosted on wordpress.org or elsewhere, have auto-updates disabled by default.

If I understand what you're reporting, all you have to do to have plugins that are not hosted on wordpress.org be auto-updated is click the "Enable auto-updates" link next to them (or click the checkbox next to them, choose "Enable Auto-updates" from Bulk Actions, and click Apply.

If I'm misunderstanding what you're reporting, please explain in more detail (screenshots might help).

#2 in reply to: ↑ 1 ; follow-up: @NekoJonez
3 years ago

Replying to pbiron:

All plugins (and themes), whether they are hosted on wordpress.org or elsewhere, have auto-updates disabled by default.

If I understand what you're reporting, all you have to do to have plugins that are not hosted on wordpress.org be auto-updated is click the "Enable auto-updates" link next to them (or click the checkbox next to them, choose "Enable Auto-updates" from Bulk Actions, and click Apply.

If I'm misunderstanding what you're reporting, please explain in more detail (screenshots might help).

I attached a screenshot of what I meant.
I preformed the actions you said and sadly enough, I didn't saw a change. :(

Even when I know for a fact that these external plugins auto-update!

@pbiron
3 years ago

screenshot showing that premium, externally hosted plugins and the auto-updates UI

#3 in reply to: ↑ 2 ; follow-up: @pbiron
3 years ago

Replying to NekoJonez:

I attached a screenshot of what I meant.

Thanx for the screenshot, that does help.

I've also added a screenshot showing that some externally hosted plugins "play nice" with the auto-updates UI that was added to WP in 5.5.

It is know that a number of externally hosted plugins only work correctly with the auto-updates UI when they have updates available. I don't have access to any of the plugins in your screenshot, so I can't test this, but I suspect this is the case with them.

That is, it is the responsibility of the authors of externally hosted plugins (and themes) to do certain things when they hook into the Updates API and, unfortunately, not all do everything they need to work correctly with the auto-updates UI.

I suggest you contact the authors of the plugins in your screenshot and ask them to make sure they are hooking into the Updates API in accordance with the Recommended usage of the Updates API to support the auto-updates UI for Plugins and Themes in WordPress 5.5 dev-note.

#4 in reply to: ↑ 3 @NekoJonez
3 years ago

Replying to pbiron:

Replying to NekoJonez:

I attached a screenshot of what I meant.

Thanx for the screenshot, that does help.

I've also added a screenshot showing that some externally hosted plugins "play nice" with the auto-updates UI that was added to WP in 5.5.

It is know that a number of externally hosted plugins only work correctly with the auto-updates UI when they have updates available. I don't have access to any of the plugins in your screenshot, so I can't test this, but I suspect this is the case with them.

That is, it is the responsibility of the authors of externally hosted plugins (and themes) to do certain things when they hook into the Updates API and, unfortunately, not all do everything they need to work correctly with the auto-updates UI.

I suggest you contact the authors of the plugins in your screenshot and ask them to make sure they are hooking into the Updates API in accordance with the Recommended usage of the Updates API to support the auto-updates UI for Plugins and Themes in WordPress 5.5 dev-note.

I will do that.
But now I don't know if it's a good idea to close this ticket or recycle it for thinking on a sort of method to make a it less confusing that auto updates are disabled for these plugins while they aren't because they don't play nice with the code standards...

#5 @pbiron
3 years ago

I definitely would not close this ticket just yet. It is certainly possible there is a problem in core that is causing the behavior you are seeing (but I suspect not). When you've heard back from one or more of the plugin authors then a decision can be made whether to close this ticket.

When you contact the plugin authors, not only should you reference that dev-note I linked to, but you can also point them to this ticket.

The most common thing I've seen developers do that allows their plugins to auto-update when updates are available but to not work correctly with the auto-updates UI (i.e., allow site admins to enable/disable auto-updates for their plugins) is to not populate the no_update property when they hook into the Updates API.

To quote the dev-note linked to above:

The no_update property is a requirement for the auto-update UI to work correctly for externally hosted plugins.

Some are already populating the no_update for their plugin. Any that are not should update their code accordingly for the best user experience.

#6 @NekoJonez
3 years ago

I'm going to send out mails to the devs now (sorry for the late reply but my job has me swamped.)
I'll keep this ticket updated...

Then again, I'm still in the opinion that plugins that don't play nice with the Update API, shouldn't be on the list of "Disabled auto-updates" but more on a list of "Update status unknown" or something... That might push users more to report this kind of things, since it might look unprofessional. But that might be my brutal honest opinion.

#7 @NekoJonez
3 years ago

  • Focuses accessibility added

Today I had a "1" next to updates while my update page was showing that there were no updates. It turned out that one of the updates I talked about earlier in this ticket, had an update but didn't show it...

Thankfully, I found this amazing script online: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22137814/wordpress-shows-i-have-1-plugin-update-when-all-plugins-are-already-updated

It helped me solve the problem, but it's not to accessible to non techy folks.

This ticket was mentioned in Slack in #accessibility by ryokuhi. View the logs.


3 years ago

#9 @ryokuhi
3 years ago

  • Focuses accessibility removed

We reviewed this ticket today during the weekly accessibility team's bug-scrub. The team agrees that this is probably not an accessibility issue (that is, a problem that might prevent people with disabilities from using WordPress). As such, I'm removing the accessibility focus from this ticket.

#10 @desrosj
3 months ago

  • Keywords reporter-feedback added

It's been a big of time, and since others have not added on to this ticket, it does not seem like this is a widespread issue affecting all 3rd party plugins.

@NekoJonez could you provide an update when you have a moment?

#11 @NekoJonez
2 months ago

I still have a few 3rd party plugins with this issue. And funny enough, I have one that does auto update but you can't disable-enable it... --> Because of that, you get a strange thing in terms of UX. The 3rd party plugin says auto updates are disabled while they are enabled.

It's the WPVivid Pro plugin that does this.

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