only partially on topic, but I still don't think the contributions folder makes sense until there's a good (automatic) way to include all plugins/effects etc used from there, local to the project when you want to make the project portable (which is most of the time, at least for me)

my general idea:

Resources

We define a resource as a folder. The resource's name (e.g. 'OpenCV') is the name of the folder. That folder contains:

• Plugins
• Templates
• Help
• Modules
• Effects
• Resource.xml (contains author, description, changelog)

By putting the resource's folder into the NodeList search path, then a user can use this resource.

For a developer

They've been developing their resource inside a folder locally.

They get to the point they're happy to upload it, and do so using the VVVV interface.

During upload:

• Developer logs in
• If first time resource uploaded, then the resource name is registered on the server
• Each resource's name must be unique (that's its identifier)
• The version number for this upload is incremented (previous versions are automatically kept on the server)
• Each upload has a changelog comment
• Developer can edit some other aspects of Resource.xml in GUI (e.g. credits, usage notes)
• Upload (vvvv zips up the resources folder, stores as a version somewhere on vvvv.org)

For a user

NodeBrowser enumerates local and remote (i.e. in NodeContributions) nodes whenever you create a new node.

If you select a remote node, VVVV automagically downloads the dll or v4p, puts it into a folder 'e.g. vvvv\downloaded resources\EmguCV\'
and puts it into your graph (as if you'd selected a local node)

VVVV stores the version number and resource name against the DLL/v4p node in the patch

The NodeBrowser would also provide options for

• Download all missing resources for the loaded graph (i.e. all red nodes)
• Highlighting nodes in the list where updated versions are available / performing those updates automatically

Trying this out

i suggest creating this in its most simple sense as a demo to start with (especially since NodeBrowser is already open source / user editable)

On another note. Github works great for source code
but i think for users (e.g. dll's) i think contributions works better for users

Further possibilities

• Thumbnails
• Comments / Tips (issues should generally go into github against the source)
• Alternative repositories (i.e. private). This may be useful for bigger companies who have lots of in-house nodes.

The resource idea is quite nice actually, since lot of distributions might include more than just plugins (often you need a plugin + a few shaders for example). In some ways that would not be incompatible with the addonpack, they could work well together.

I still like the idea of a "static" pack, since auto download sounds good on first instance, if i need an addon in a place with no internet (that still exists ;) , then there's no way to download it.

Doing an internet check is fun for developing, but on a permanent install i got a stable release and I want to leave it as it is, so having internet check for version would just slow down startup time a lot (having it as a global option is cool tho).

The biggest problem i see with addonpack is not really knowing what's inside, i'm sure some people (including me) coded a plugin for something to realize afterwards it was already done. Eventually having some form of installer with a description for each plug would be useful (like standard installer does, you can select features).