Automatically notify plugin authors about outdated plugins

[juho-jaakkola]

Lets add a cron handler to notify plugin author if the plugin is outdated.

We could check e.g. whether:

• The plugin hasn't received a release n months
• The recommended version is n minor versions behind the latest stable Elgg release
• Has the Elgg compatibility setting been updated (this might actually be enough for this feature!)

[juho-jaakkola]

We prefer the author to hand over the project to someone else instead of removing it completely.

So the emails should:

• Somehow encourage continuation of the project
• Irritate the author as little as possible

[ewinslow]

SGTM

[juho-jaakkola]

@PerJensen had the idea that authors could manually mark a project as unmaintained. We should implement that first and then send notifications only about the projects not marked as such.

[beck24]

It's possible also, for very simple plugins, that no changes are necessary. Eg. I have a couple of plugins from 1.8 beta that have not needed any updating all through 1.8 and I expect to work in 1.9.

Should we have some way of marking them as still supported - that would prevent the 'unmaintained' message from showing for a while longer? Maybe a 'remind me in 6 months' or something?

[juho-jaakkola]

We could also just check whether the plugin compatibility has been updated.

Simply tick the checkbox for 1.9 and you're done.

[beck24]

good point