Update Mechanism to automatically pull updates from GitHub (see #596)

[smileBeda]

@crftwrk please find here v1-alpha of the updater classes both for theme and plugins:
https://github.com/TukuToi/github-updater/

They should be functional, as I tested during development, but as usual made some minor changes prior to uploading to git, that why currently it is alpha.

Description of the intended usage in the readme.

As it is late for me here I will rest and test another round tomorrow also with your more particular setup of -main in the names to ensure it all works.
Further I want to:

• try to use update_plugins_{$hostname} (for if WP Install > 5.8) in the plugin updater
• try to narrow down the screens in the theme updater where we check for updates
• ensure that I truly cover all capability checks as necessary
• Do some QC in a "test to break" attitude.
• Do some more due diligence with code style and format - I saw that specially the lsat submitted theme updater had some indents messed up

However, you can already very well see how it would be intended to work, how you would include it in your software, and of course, feedback welcome (there is a lot of additional stuff one can do with GitHub api, like show off related software, download counts, Yada Yada. But I think that is out of scope. Leaner is better).

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I thought to use this discussions format rather than an issue ticket, so we can also decide how we handle the code, whether you will just clone the repo or if you prefer a PR for each plugin/theme etc etc.

[crftwrk]

Created a simple plugin https://github.com/crftwrk/bs-simple-notice and did some releases, but I can't get updates to work. What I'm doing wrong?

[crftwrk]

Played around with some libraries and understand your problem with -main now. The thing is, that it's impossible for us to remove it, because it will crash the entire system. Unfortunately we have to live with that.

I always end up with PUC. This has the most advanced options such as manage private repos, even it is a larger library and must included in plugin/theme.

Git Updater seems to be a good option to manage updates in the backend. The integration in theme/plugin is just a single line and $19,95/year is fair.

[smileBeda]

Right. Just to make sure: you do not need to rename it in the current updater proposed at the repo.

I understand this cannot be done anymore at this point as it would require more user awareness which is usually not something a developer can rely on.

To be sure, you will continue using the updater you mentioned?

[crftwrk]

Thanks, got it. Installed v1.4.0 and updated successfully to v1.5.0 with TukuToi updater.

But is there a way to include -main suffix in zip file?

Having the v in tag is the common usage and recommended by GitHub, but we can skip that. See example https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap/releases/tag/v5.3.2

To be sure, you will continue using the updater you mentioned?

No, I'm open to any updater, just testing different options. Think Justin doesn't want to have another larger library in the theme, so simplest way should be the best option.

[smileBeda]

Right.

you do not need to remove the -main
As mentioned I got your plugin to update - and it uses -main. As long the suffix matches it’ll work.

the v- prefix is not an accepted valid php standard version. Neither a semver, I believe. Not sure why GitHub recommends that. In any case, if you want, it’s easy to update the code I made to consider such prefix (or any prefix). It’s just need an additional function call to “sanitize” the tag we receive from git.

However I’d personally recommend to stick with just x.x.x Format. But as said, no problem at all to make the code a bit more “versatile” towards other formats.
As it was intended for a “tailored” purpose I didn’t add in fallbacks for all possible edge cases, simply to keep it as lean as possible.

[crftwrk]

I'm very busy right now and haven't played around with the updater any further. But it seems to work well. However, we first have to check the theme for possible trouble-makers before we implement it. Here are two candidates which have to be solved first:

• Filter refactor #575 has to be merged
• Some Irritations concerning the favicon docu: #419 has to be fixed, means links deleted

I think version 5.4 is the earliest version where we can add an auto-updater.