GSoC 2019: Plugin Manager (Week 5)

What I've done

This week I focused on the multi-thread facility and relevant features. Now, multiple downloading, installing and checking for update processes can run simultaneously. This greatly improves the speed, as shown in the demo below:

A demo

The implementation uses a thread pool that Qt provides, and allows a certain number of threads working for each plugin. The number of threads depends on your CPU's thread count.

There're also some other small feautres I've added:

• Abort install when there're no qml files in the archive(this can only be checked after downloading)

• Change the plugin installing directory the user's plugin directory.

• Check for update when the resource manager starts

This week

I plan to go on to the local plugin management part. The local plugin management part is essentially the scope of the original plugin manager, which covers enabling/disabling plugins, configuring shortcuts, showing plugins' info, and reloading plugins. Most features have already been implemented properly and I just need to adapt them to support for plugins from the store.

A design choice

I have been hesitating about the following design choice: should we move those features above to a subtab in the resource manager(①), or simply keep it as is in the plugin manager(②)?

I originally liked ① because it makes the whole workflow for a plugin in a single dialog, which seems more convenient. But later I realized this indicated removing the original plugin manager, and maybe I shouldn't change that much...

Your opinion on the decision is welcomed.