TGM Updater

Note: This class is a work in progress and should not be used on live sites just yet. I will announce when it is at a stable 1.0.0 release.

It's time that the private and commercial plugin world inside of WordPress get serious about automatic plugin updates. With the newly minted TGM Updater library, you now have no excuse. :-)

The TGM Updater library is a modification of the automatic updater class used inside of Soliloquy, my own (and the best) responsive WordPress slider plugin. It has been tested, refined, used and abused on over 10,000 WordPress installs. To put it short - this class simply works. Just follow the instructions correctly and you will be up and running with your own automatic plugin updates in no time flat!

1. Setup

The TGM Updater library consists of 3 files inside of a directory entitled updater: init.php, class-tgm-updater-config.php and class-tgm-updater.php.

The init.php kickstarts the library by loading the two main class files.

The class-tgm-updater-config.php file handles and parses the configuration array. This includes things like your plugin name, plugin slug and remote URL.

The class-tgm-updater.php file handles the bulk of the processing work for automatic updates on the WordPress end.

2. Installation

The library is a piece of cake to install. Drop the updater folder into the root of your plugin and use one of the two methods below to load and instantiate the updater.

Simple Installation

This is the most basic way of loading the library. Drop the following code somewhere inside your main plugin file. If you are executing this code inside of a hook, the hook must be fired at or before the init hook to properly hook into WordPress' update system.

require_once dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/updater/init.php';
$args = array(
    'plugin_name' => 'Soliloquy',                  // Your plugin name (e.g. "Soliloquy" or "Jetpack")
    'plugin_slug' => 'soliloquy',                  // Your plugin slug (typically the plugin folder name, e.g. "soliloquy")
    'plugin_path' => plugin_basename( __FILE__ ),  // The plugin basename (e.g. plugin_basename( __FILE__ ))
    'plugin_url'  => WP_PLUGIN_URL . '/soliloquy', // The HTTP URL to the plugin (e.g. WP_PLUGIN_URL . '/soliloquy')
    'version'     => '1.0.0',                      // The current version of your plugin
    'remote_url'  => 'http://soliloquywp.com/',    // The remote API URL that should be pinged when retrieving plugin update info
    'time'        => 42300                         // The amount of time between update checks (defaults to 12 hours)
);
$config            = new TGM_Updater_Config( $args );
$namespace_updater = new TGM_Updater( $config ); // Be sure to replace "namespace" with your own custom namespace
$namespace_updater->update_plugins();            // Be sure to replace "namespace" with your own custom namespace

Advanced Installation

Ideally, this library should be integrated seamlessly into your plugin workflow. If you are integrating this updater into a class, it would be best to pass the Updater object through your class constructor and store it in a property, like this:

// Assuming you are working inside of your __construct (or other appropriate instantiation) method, store the Updater object as a property
$this->updater = $namespace_updater;

// You can then control and fire the update process like this
$this->updater->update_plugins();

That's it. You've now integrated the library into your plugin.

Miscellaneous

I am working on making a distributable version of my own remote API plugin for use - stay tuned as it will be out soon.

TO DO List

Create the remote API plugin that syncs with Amazon S3 for plugin updates.
Create WordPress-centric unit tests (found under the tests branch) and merge them into the master branch.

Credits

This class was developed and is maintained by Thomas Griffin with a special thanks to Gary Jones.

SmashingDevelopment / TGM-Updater