We will give windy-plugins one more try

ivo

After enormous pressure from Windy users, we have decided to give Windy Plugin system one more try.

I will refactor Windy Plugin system, to new and modern technologies (Typescript, Svelte and ES modules).

But privacy issues still remain.

In order to solve them we have to see source codes, before any plugin will be offered to other users.

The best options is, that plugins are hosted on GitHub, and other plugin developers can see them also as inspiration.

If you are plugin developer let us know here in this thread.

balthasar

That's great news, dear Windy team - this functionality really sets Windy apart from the rest. And you are considered the secret weapon of the serious balloon pilots - WE NEED YOU!! Thank you!!!

flyhigh10783

@ivo thank you so much, we balloonpilots really appreciate this plugin!!!🐥Great news!

kenik

Thanks wery much...

rittels

Thank you @ivo !

Thanks everyone for all the posts supporting the trajectory plugin. It is a huge honour. I did not realize that so many are using it! It is quite intimidating.

Thank you @ivo for continuing the plugins. The plugins add value to Windy. It makes Windy more interesting. It provides a way for users and developers to present new ideas. If a plugin proves popular, the functionality can be incorporated in the core windy, as has happened with the radiosonde plugin.

I agree that the plugins have some inherent problems:

Plugins developers write plugins as a hobby, and may publish-and-forget. There have been several Windy client updates lately, which breaks the plugins. We cannot always keep up. This has frustrated some devs. It also proved impossible to maintain backward compatibility.
When a plugin becomes very popular, as has happened with Traj, and many users and even events become dependent on it, the responsibility increases for the developer to maintain it. Windy is not able to assist, and have no control over the code. I agree that the traj should be included as an internal plugin and that the trajectory calculations should ideally be done in the backend. Hopefully this can happen someday.
Security. I am guilty of not placing my plugins on Github. This is partly due to the fact that I use some functions that may be confidential. I agree that Windy must have the opportunity to see the code before allowing the plugin to be released to the users.

All the problems are insignificant as long as everyone understands that the plugins are fun, experimental and potentially unstable.