On Aug 11, 2013, at 8:51 PM, Rob Weir <robw...@apache.org> wrote: > On Sun, Aug 11, 2013 at 8:40 PM, Simon Kornblith <si...@simonster.com> wrote: >> >> On Aug 11, 2013, at 8:02 PM, Rob Weir <robw...@apache.org> wrote: >> >>> On Sun, Aug 11, 2013 at 7:48 PM, Simon Kornblith <si...@simonster.com> >>> wrote: >>>> As I wrote in a previous post to openoffice-dev, this is not just about >>>> having to modify the extension, which I would be happy to do. It's also >>>> about having to modify the way we install the extension. But it's mostly >>>> that our extension will break on upgrade from AOO 3.4 to AOO 4 for 100% of >>>> our users no matter what, and the best we can do is to pop up a dialog >>>> telling the user to update or reinstall it. >>>> >>>> If we can get a promise that future updates to AOO will always allow a >>>> single extension to work with both previous and current AOO versions (even >>>> if updates to the extension are necessary to do so) then I'd feel better >>>> about supporting AOO 4. >>>> >>> >>> The goal now, as always, is to preserve compatibility within a major >>> release series. So extensions for AOO 4.0 should be run fine on AOO >>> 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, etc. However, at major version updates, e.g., AOO >>> 5.0, then you can expect extensions will need to be updated. Such >>> major version releases happen at long intervals, longer than (I >>> assume) your regular maintenance updates in your extension itself. >> >> To be clear: we are happy to make changes to our extension to accommodate >> new AOO versions. We make frequent changes to our Firefox extension to keep >> up with Firefox releases, and we realize that API changes are sometimes >> necessary to build a stable and competitive product. >> >> What makes us unhappy is that it is impossible to build an extension that >> works with both AOO 3.4 and AOO 4, and there is no change that we can make >> to our extension that will prevent it from breaking when a user upgrades >> from AOO 3.4 to AOO 4. No matter what we do, our users need to install a >> different extension after upgrading to AOO 4 to make Zotero work again. >> >> From our standpoint, this not acceptable. It doesn't just take our time; it >> takes our users' and our community support's time as well, and it's >> unprecedented in 7 years' experience developing add-ons for Firefox, Word, >> and OpenOffice.org. Again, it would be fine if the extension needs changes >> to work with 5.0, as long as the same extension can still work with 4.x. >> There are a lot of ways to do this, the easiest of which is just to allow >> loading different versions of files for different AOO versions. >> > > It is not my role to tell you what to do. Zotero is working under the > sponsorship of a non-profit organization, like we are. We're all > trying to do what is best for users. We'll all working hard at what > we do, trying to bring value to users. I'm not going to argue what > you should do, though I am happy to answer any questions you might > have about how to update your extensions.
Well, my basic question is: How can I build an extension that works after upgrading from AOO 3.4 to 4.0 without requiring intervention on the part of the user? I have the feeling that there must be a way to do this, either by creating a toolbar dynamically instead of using Addons.xcu or by making the extension modify itself after the upgrade is complete, but it's beyond my knowledge of the AOO API. Auto-update is not an option, since we need to ensure that the the extension installed in AOO matches the installed version of Zotero, and in any case most of our users won't notice the "Updates for extensions are available" bubble or understand its relationship to Zotero. It would also be useful to know the best practice for determining the version of AOO that is installed, assuming we know the path to the AOO directory. Simon
