[Plug-In] Community Applications


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Updated to 2015.08.20

 

Primarily a maintenance update.  Many coding improvements, minor bug fixes (that nobody noticed yet  :D  ), better popup "searching / updating graphics when using 6.1 RC 4+)

 

unRaid template applications now show up as "Recommended Applications" to encourage their use over dockerHub applications

 

Better search results on icons when searching dockerHub...  (But, depending upon what you were searching for before, you may have to restart your server to clear the icon cache to display the better icons)

 

Added ability with the recommended applications to search for other applications from the same author (unification of the UI between templates and dockerHub)

 

Completely removed the help lines within the main plugin.  Before anyone jumps down my throat, since just about everything is clickable or does something, and I am a fan of context aware help files, the addition of dockerHub search results made the displays / coding a nightmare.  So instead of the inline help lines, pressing help within the plugin will display a link to a full manual for the plugin.  This allows me far more flexibility with the help (and tbh its actually something that I'm surprised that LT doesn't include within unRaid proper)

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After updating to the latest plugin, the docker tab disappeared. Had to restart docker to get it back. No biggie though, just thought of mentioning it.

Strange.  Because of the new help file included I did both updates and new installs on 6.0.1 and 6.1 rc5 and never saw anything amiss. 

 

Glad you got it going though

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After updating to the latest plugin, the docker tab disappeared. Had to restart docker to get it back. No biggie though, just thought of mentioning it.

Strange.  Because of the new help file included I did both updates and new installs on 6.0.1 and 6.1 rc5 and never saw anything amiss. 

 

Glad you got it going though

Yeah, as long as I didn't have to restart the server to get the tab back, I don't think there's anything to worry about :D

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We do want to incorporate and I've been in discussions with squid on this, but we need to make some other changes first. We also need to get away from having multiple copies of the same app showing up as its just confusing to users. That's a tough problem to solve, but I've been thinking we could adjust the XML schema for this to make it work where each container has an <appname> field that's different from the name of the container. E.g. binhex-plex would be Plex Media Server. So would anyone else's Plex container. Then we display Plex once on the community apps plugin, but when the user goes to add, they can select which container variant they wish to use.

 

The tricky part here would be what the default should be. Might need to set up some analytics so we can measure which variant is most popular based on total downloads and promote that as the default, but that's a little more sophisticated.

 

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Just an FYI, I'm stickying this thread.

As long as the OT banter doesn't have to stop  ;)  Saves me from continually talking to myself in here.

 

If this plugin (and docker hub) weren't such a moving target I would ask for this functionality to be incorporated into the base product like some other community contributions have been.

Sorry about that.  All because I'm not quite done yet on this...

 

...but we need to make some other changes first. We also need to get away from having multiple copies of the same app showing up as its just confusing to users. That's a tough problem to solve, but I've been thinking we could adjust the XML schema for this to make it work where each container has an <appname> field that's different from the name of the container. E.g. binhex-plex would be Plex Media Server. So would anyone else's Plex container.

And this is why I'm never quite done  :)  Always another good idea.  I have a thought of how to accomplish this without imposing another schema change upon the authors, at least initially.  (And maybe my thought will work well enough that it won't be necessary either)

 

Might need to set up some analytics so we can measure which variant is most popular based on total downloads and promote that as the default, but that's a little more sophisticated.

The original version of the appFeed actually had total downloads included in it per container.  So it was at least possible (Not sure if it still is since the revamp of dockerHub however - Kode would know).  But, personally I'm not a big fan of total downloads as a rating system as it would unfairly rate the older containers higher than the newer ones (ie:  needo's / binhex's plex would blow away linuxserver's / LT's out of the water, and for all I know linuxserver / LT has the better implementation).  Couple of threads buried within Docker Categorize, Community Repositories about this topic) 

 

My personal preference is for a rating system of sorts, but open to suggestions on everything.

 

 

Either way, give me a week and I'll get the situation with Plex, CP, Sab, etc sorted out.

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Just an FYI, I'm stickying this thread.

As long as the OT banter doesn't have to stop  ;)  Saves me from continually talking to myself in here.

 

If this plugin (and docker hub) weren't such a moving target I would ask for this functionality to be incorporated into the base product like some other community contributions have been.

Sorry about that.  All because I'm not quite done yet on this...

 

...but we need to make some other changes first. We also need to get away from having multiple copies of the same app showing up as its just confusing to users. That's a tough problem to solve, but I've been thinking we could adjust the XML schema for this to make it work where each container has an <appname> field that's different from the name of the container. E.g. binhex-plex would be Plex Media Server. So would anyone else's Plex container.

And this is why I'm never quite done  :)  Always another good idea.  I have a thought of how to accomplish this without imposing another schema change upon the authors, at least initially.  (And maybe my thought will work well enough that it won't be necessary either)

 

Might need to set up some analytics so we can measure which variant is most popular based on total downloads and promote that as the default, but that's a little more sophisticated.

The original version of the appFeed actually had total downloads included in it per container.  So it was at least possible (Not sure if it still is since the revamp of dockerHub however - Kode would know).  But, personally I'm not a big fan of total downloads as a rating system as it would unfairly rate the older containers higher than the newer ones (ie:  needo's / binhex's plex would blow away linuxserver's / LT's out of the water, and for all I know linuxserver / LT has the better implementation).  Couple of threads buried within Docker Categorize, Community Repositories about this topic) 

 

My personal preference is for a rating system of sorts, but open to suggestions on everything.

 

 

Either way, give me a week and I'll get the situation with Plex, CP, Sab, etc sorted out.

Always open to your ideas squidly. I'll let you have at it. You're going to love what we are working on behind the scenes. Let's just say we are working on making it so users don't have to specify any volume mappings, port mappings, or anything for that matter.  Getting pretty close to a true mobile app store type experience.  Stay tuned.

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Always open to your ideas squidly. I'll let you have at it. You're going to love what we are working on behind the scenes. Let's just say we are working on making it so users don't have to specify any volume mappings, port mappings, or anything for that matter.  Getting pretty close to a true mobile app store type experience.  Stay tuned.

Already saw the tentative changes to the templates (when the test templates caused havoc with the appfeed, which Kode then had to account for).  Put two and two together and figured out the rest.  I was impressed and think that it will be a huge boon for unRaid as a whole, and a welcome relief for everyone using containers that continually has those same problems.
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Just an FYI, I'm stickying this thread.

As long as the OT banter doesn't have to stop  ;)  Saves me from continually talking to myself in here.

 

If this plugin (and docker hub) weren't such a moving target I would ask for this functionality to be incorporated into the base product like some other community contributions have been.

Sorry about that.  All because I'm not quite done yet on this...

 

...but we need to make some other changes first. We also need to get away from having multiple copies of the same app showing up as its just confusing to users. That's a tough problem to solve, but I've been thinking we could adjust the XML schema for this to make it work where each container has an <appname> field that's different from the name of the container. E.g. binhex-plex would be Plex Media Server. So would anyone else's Plex container.

And this is why I'm never quite done  :)  Always another good idea.  I have a thought of how to accomplish this without imposing another schema change upon the authors, at least initially.  (And maybe my thought will work well enough that it won't be necessary either)

 

Might need to set up some analytics so we can measure which variant is most popular based on total downloads and promote that as the default, but that's a little more sophisticated.

The original version of the appFeed actually had total downloads included in it per container.  So it was at least possible (Not sure if it still is since the revamp of dockerHub however - Kode would know).  But, personally I'm not a big fan of total downloads as a rating system as it would unfairly rate the older containers higher than the newer ones (ie:  needo's / binhex's plex would blow away linuxserver's / LT's out of the water, and for all I know linuxserver / LT has the better implementation).  Couple of threads buried within Docker Categorize, Community Repositories about this topic) 

 

My personal preference is for a rating system of sorts, but open to suggestions on everything.

 

 

Either way, give me a week and I'll get the situation with Plex, CP, Sab, etc sorted out.

Always open to your ideas squidly. I'll let you have at it. You're going to love what we are working on behind the scenes. Let's just say we are working on making it so users don't have to specify any volume mappings, port mappings, or anything for that matter.  Getting pretty close to a true mobile app store type experience.  Stay tuned.

 

i foresee bucket loads of xml changes, thanks obama.

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Always open to your ideas squidly. I'll let you have at it. You're going to love what we are working on behind the scenes. Let's just say we are working on making it so users don't have to specify any volume mappings, port mappings, or anything for that matter.  Getting pretty close to a true mobile app store type experience.  Stay tuned.

Already saw the tentative changes to the templates (when the test templates caused havoc with the appfeed, which Kode then had to account for).  Put two and two together and figured out the rest.  I was impressed and think that it will be a huge boon for unRaid as a whole, and a welcome relief for everyone using containers that continually has those same problems.

And a welcome relief for people trying to support everyone using containers. I get the impression there are a lot of docker users who still don't really get the whole mapping thing, but somehow got it to work by copying from others.
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Always open to your ideas squidly. I'll let you have at it. You're going to love what we are working on behind the scenes. Let's just say we are working on making it so users don't have to specify any volume mappings, port mappings, or anything for that matter.  Getting pretty close to a true mobile app store type experience.  Stay tuned.

Already saw the tentative changes to the templates (when the test templates caused havoc with the appfeed, which Kode then had to account for).  Put two and two together and figured out the rest.  I was impressed and think that it will be a huge boon for unRaid as a whole, and a welcome relief for everyone using containers that continually has those same problems.

And a welcome relief for people trying to support everyone using containers. I get the impression there are a lot of docker users who still don't really get the whole mapping thing, but somehow got it to work by copying from others.

I agree. for users, docker is one of those puzzles that once you truly understand it, its super easy, but getting to that point of understanding can be a trying experience.  If we would have renamed volume mappings to share shortcuts, we probably could have saved a lot of that headache, but who knows at this point.

 

The goal for us longer term to to make all the tech transparent to users. In the end, users want an APP, not a container, VM template, or even a plugin. Those elements are just different delivery vehicles for apps.  Other than differences in hw requirements, why should they care? The point is they shouldn't have to.

 

First phase towards this goal is to iterate what we have so its easier to work with the tools we have made.  Longer term, we want our unify app management in a single manager.

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i foresee bucket loads of xml changes, thanks obama.

Small price to pay to rule the world....  My quick and dirty experiment with filling out of the host paths proved that schema changes were required to do it correctly.  I'm sure that LT / gfjardim will post the official changes once they are finalized so that authors can get a head start on the modifications.  Even seeing a quick peek at the changes, I haven't yet updated CA to pass them through to dockerMan until something is announced.
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In the end, users want an APP, not a container, VM template, or even a plugin. Those elements are just different delivery vehicles for apps.  Other than differences in hw requirements, why should they care? The point is they shouldn't have to.

Good summary of why I started Community Repositories / Applications in the first place.  One of my biggest problems in every post of mine here is referring to everything as an application not a container.  I'm forever typing container and then having to correct myself...
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... but I've been thinking we could adjust the XML schema for this to make it work where each container has an <appname> field that's different from the name of the container. E.g. binhex-plex would be Plex Media Server. So would anyone else's Plex container. Then we display Plex once on the community apps plugin, but when the user goes to add, they can select which container variant they wish to use.

Went through all the thought processes on this, and its going to wind up on the back burner for a bit.

 

The issue is that #1 - Sure, Plex would only show up once in CA.  Clicking on it would then bring up the list of all the different Plex's to let the user choose.  Now we've just made the user do an extra click for no real fundamental reason.  They are still going to have to choose from which Plex to install.  While it would clean up the display a hair, the confusion for the user still exists.  Which one to use.

 

#2 - It looks like previous to August 6, you could get the number of downloads for a container for docker.cloudbrain.io  However since August 6, I don't believe that is working anymore, as every query I try keeps telling me that it can't find the container.  (As part of the reorganization of dockerHub, the urls of the containers switched from ...../u/reponame/containername to .../r/reponame/containername.  No idea if/when cloudbrain will fix this issue.

 

So # of trackings on downloads is out as a metric.  (Not particularily useful anyways since it would assign greater weight to the older containers vs the new ones)

 

So that now brings us down to two other options.

 

DockerHub's star ratings.  Easy to implement.  (And in hindsight should have been included with CA since the get-go)  Will be on the next release of CA.  After that release, I will further look into whether the star ratings are useful enough to use to differentiate containers, and may implement only displaying Plex once at that time.

 

The absolute ideal solution would be someone (read that as "not me") setting up a SQL server on their public webserver so that a user generated feedback / ratings system could be introduced.

 

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The absolute ideal solution would be someone (read that as "not me") setting up a SQL server on their public webserver so that a user generated feedback / ratings system could be introduced.

 

I suspect you're not going to get a massive queue of people for that task..  ::)

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The absolute ideal solution would be someone (read that as "not me") setting up a SQL server on their public webserver so that a user generated feedback / ratings system could be introduced.

 

I suspect you're not going to get a massive queue of people for that task..  ::)

It was a nudge to two people in particular.  They'll know who they are...  Personally, I don't expect it to happen
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Updated to 2015.08.23  (Yes I know I'm starting to ignore my once a week update rule archedraft  :'(  )

 

Big change would be that the recommended applications (ie: templates) will now display their dockerHub star rating.

 

A little bit of the goings on under the hood:

 

The only way to get the star rating (best rating system possible right now, without a full blown SQL server running on someone's webserver)  is to issue searches for each and every template.  No other way around it ATM. 

 

What this means is that when you go to the docker tab, as soon as its finished downloading the latest / greatest applications from the feed, it will start a background process which will grab the star ratings for every application.  This process takes about 1 minute to complete (You can still use CA normally in the meantime).  After the process is complete, you will notice that certain applications will have a star rating associated with them.  Note:  The star ratings are persistent between loads of this plugin.  IE: Only on the initial load of this update will you see no applications with any stars until about a minute after loading.  On all subsequent loads of this plugin, you will see the stars right away, and after about a minute, the ratings will automatically update themselves.

 

 

Take this rating with a grain of salt.  It doesn't necessarily mean that (for example, Plex from user A is better than Plex from user B).  All it means is that someone on dockerHub took the time to register a star against the container...

 

Its not the type of rating system that I want in CA, but its a start... 

 

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How would you want the "full blown" one to work?

 

How would you stop people "gaming" the system?

Without really sitting down and thinking about it,

 

Rating of 1-5.  Comments.  Perhaps ability to edit your own rating / comments.  Definitely the ability for a moderator to remove inappropriate posts, etc.

 

Ultimately I guess it would be no different than dockerHub, but a hell of a lot more convenient.

 

I'm sure that a lot of people here will pipe in with their thoughts also...

 

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I'm pretty sure we talked about this before, the issues you would have is either you would need to make it a completely seperate stand alone system where people have to sign up / register to use, or you would have to tie it somehow to a unique identifier, perhaps the GUID or a md5/sha1/sha256 hash of the GUID, but then you also need some way to verify that the GUID being passed is real and not made up, that's not to say it's not possible, it just needs thinking about.

 

My preference would be an API feed that integrates with, for example, CA, so a user could click a rating and put a comment directly in CA and that is pushed to the the service, that would allow them to change it if they wanted as well and would be transparent to the user, but we would have to work out some way of verifying that they belong to a real system.

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