Simply awesome "extensions" index
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It's a work-in-progress.
We knew the index wasn't quite ready, but made the decision to launch with the rest of the main site anyway. It's not bad, but there's room for improvements (which I am working on.) If you have suggestions, I want to hear them.
The data in the index is already aging. I have since changed the way author information is generated for consistency, and the new data file has around 650 entries including all the most recent - quite a few more than are currently in there. There may be a few duplicates in there since I did automate much of the initial input.
Unfortunately I have not been able to upload the new data, and only Coen can help but he's on a holiday (I think) and won't be back for a few days.
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@ecuadorian said:
@xrok1 said:
thats sweet. now we need someone to scour the net and find ALL the other useful rubies for us.
Rubymon - Gotta catch 'em all!
But so far, it seems every ruby known to man is already indexed.cline?
dline?
quickselection?and that's just ones i have there must be tons more.
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Wow great stuff!! thanks!! I'm finding my IE browser is having a struggle with the formatting of your new pages. Some parts aligning out of sight and other layers overlapping. Don't panic as it could be my own browser configuration. I will try opening it on some other clients.
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i really think that the ruby's should have animated gifs of them in action like the visual ruby's thread AND a user rating system.
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@xrok1 said:
i really think that the ruby's should have animated gifs of them in action like the visual ruby's thread AND a user rating system.
If any rating system is added, I recommend that it's kept simple such as users making their favourite plugin with a start. Any system that has from 1-5 tend to not get used as it should. people either do all or nothing. deviantArt, biggest art site on the net, used to have rating system, and during the years they tried many different solutions, but now they're all gone.
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Yesterday, I updated the index with about 300 additional entries, and corrected the author information. There may be some duplicates because I automated a lot of the initial database input. If you find any repeats, let me know.
Authors, please have a look to see if I got your all of your plugins listed and all information correct.
@xrok1 said:
i really think that the ruby's should have animated gifs of them in action like the visual ruby's thread AND a user rating system.
I can't make animated gif's for all the plugins - and it wouldn't make sense for many of them. However, if the images already existed (here), I think I can embed them in the details area. Good idea.
@thomthom said:
If any rating system is added, I recommend that it's kept simple such as users making their favourite plugin with a start.
A rating system is a definite possibility. I am wary of creating something awful, like the 3D Warehouse 5-star system.
Do you mean a star? That is what I was thinking. You either give a plugin a star or not. The rating then comes from the star-count of the plugin. One vote per person per plugin and you can change your vote. Your starred plugins are your "Favorites"
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@unknownuser said:
Do you mean a star? That is what I was thinking. You either give a plugin a star or not. The rating then comes from the star-count of the plugin. One vote per person per plugin and you can change your vote. Your starred plugins are your "Favorites"
i think the star thing would be good but there should be three choices instead of two;
bad/buggy
good/useful 
or excellent/must have 
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Now here's an idea: make the 'search index' a ruby within sketchup.
We could have some kind of second VCB box where you just type in some letters and it will suggest rubies you can choose.
Either you already have them in your plugins folder and it will simply activate the ruby, or you can download it from within Sketchup.Wouldn't that be nice?
In Rhino, there is a similar approach to activate a command. Type in some letters and a list with suggested commands will pop up.
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@kwistenbiebel said:
Now here's an idea: make the 'search index' a ruby within sketchup.
We could have some kind of second VCB box where you just type in some letters and it will suggest rubies you can choose.
Either you already have them in your plugins folder and it will simply activate the ruby, or you can download it from within Sketchup.Wouldn't that be nice?
In Rhino, there is a similar approach to activate a command. Type in some letters and a list with suggested commands will pop up.
a 2d warehouse of sorts.
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I think I want to add an image of the Toolbar (if any) sooner rather than later.
And yes, running and installing certain plugins directly from the index page is a possibility I'm discussing with a script writer here on the forums.
I want to add that these things take time, and I'm not promising anything at this point. I'm just throwing out ideas to see what sticks.
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I am interested in creating a short list of Categories for organizing the extensions listed in the Extension Index.
Categories are meant to be broad, general classifications. For example:
Texturing, Math/Science, Terrain, Animation, Rendering, Selection, Layers, File converting, Randomizing, Cleanup, CAD, User Interface,etc.I want to have enough terms to include all extensions, but no more. Some extension may fall under multiple categories, too.
How do you categorize your plugins?
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@xrok1 said:
@kwistenbiebel said:
Now here's an idea: make the 'search index' a ruby within sketchup.
We could have some kind of second VCB box where you just type in some letters and it will suggest rubies you can choose.
Either you already have them in your plugins folder and it will simply activate the ruby, or you can download it from within Sketchup.Wouldn't that be nice?
In Rhino, there is a similar approach to activate a command. Type in some letters and a list with suggested commands will pop up.
a 2d warehouse of sorts.
come to think of it, doesn't smustard have something like this for plugs you've purchased. i remember last week when i bought booltools it (smustard) asked if i wanted to install smustard.rb or something so i could DL my purchased scripts directly to SU... i can't remember the details.
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i was just searching the index and found a ruby i didn't know about, but was wanting for a while (projection).
when i found it i noticed that the description wasn't really a description, but more of, well here take a look:
@unknownuser said:
Here is an update (major revision) of my projection toolbar. What's new: ? More user-friendly commands: click points instead of selecting objects for plane definitions and vectors ? Better selection errors checkings ? Project faces along Z and along vector gathered in one command. ? ExtrudelineTool included ? lines2cyl and credits commands suppressed ? Construction line at intersection of faces enhanced: multiple selection supported ? New icons ? PDF doc included
anyway my point is maybe you could add a link in the descriptions to the original thread that the ruby is from (if it exists), that way the user may be able to get a better understanding and also join a more comprehensive discussion with other users and the author.
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oops, ijust clicked the link. sorry, i guess you're way ahead of me. 
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I think that if there is a thread, you can click on the ruby name and it will take you to the thread. That is how it has worked for some of them for me
Chris
EDIT: Oh, looks like you found it now
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just curious why you would list older versions off ruby's along with the new ones? i think it just causes clutter, its not likely someone is going to say hey it says ver.1.3 but i think i'll try ver.1 first in case its better.
and since ver.1 is sometimes not called ver.1, only the plug name :
bounce.rb
bounce.rb 1.2
it can cause confusion and make you think maybe there different rubys? -
@xrok1 said:
:oops: oops, ijust clicked the link.
sorry, i guess you're way ahead of me. No, I don't like it either - I think a more clear link is appropriate instead of clicking the plugin name. I have fields for separate download and discussion URLs that just need put on the page. I am thinking a navbar would work well:
[ download | discussion | support | license | etc ]
@xrok1 said:
when i found it i noticed that the description wasn't really a description, but more of, well here take a look
That is the text written by the author of the plugin. It would have taken me forever to write suitable descriptions for every plugin out there. I cut and pasted most of them, and automated the rest.
@xrok1 said:
just curious why you would list older versions off ruby's along with the new ones?
Because the versions are still available for download.
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Rubymon - Gotta catch 'em all!
But so far, it seems every ruby known to man is already indexed. -
That would be too much work for the mods. Perhaps if those gifs you want could be user-submitted, it'll work.
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And my ie, too, and my Google Chrome, and my Firefox... But I'm sure they'll sort it out.
EDIT: It was my own stupidity... I should have been clicking on the "Forums" button instead of scrolling down to see the forums...
I figured it out some days ago.
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