"Server plugins" or better fs plugins integration

[Sob]

I already suggested this, but today I prepared stronger arguments. ;)

Picture says almost everything:
Image: http://www.volny.cz/sobosh/tcnetext-screen.png

And for the brave ones, here is the real thing:
http://www.volny.cz/sobosh/tcnetext-alpha1.zip
(included is full Delphi source code)

Yes, it's buggy, but it serves primarily as sample how cool can things be. And remember, this is only quick and dirty hack. Imagine what can be done if it was part of TC itself.

The whole idea is simple: don't let fs plugins sit aside, let them be a real part of TC. Users don't want to think about protocol used by site they want connect to. They want to open list of *all* available connections and simply connect. Clicking through the neighbourhood to open for example SFTP connection is very user unfriendly. Lets put all connections together and satisfy users.

And when users are fully satisfied, lets think about developers. Once I thought about creating plugin for FTP over SSL. With some good FTP component for Delphi, it should be an easy task, I thought. Wrong. TC does not care about connections, it just asks plugin for content of remote directory. And plugin has to take care about checking if it belongs to server already connected or if a new connection must be open. It adds a lot of problems. While current fs plugin api works well with things like local ext2 partitions, for connecting to servers it is not optimal.

But there is a solution: create new, connection oriented, plugin type, the "server plugin" and make both users and developers happy! :)

[Lefteous]

2Sob

create new, connection oriented, plugin type, the "server plugin" and make both users and developers happy!

http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?p=14543#14543
Good to hear there is a new supporter of this idea

I have added this important feature request to our Wiki. Additional details are welcome:
http://www.ghisler.ch/wiki/index.php/Server_plugin_interface

[Sob]

I extended the Wiki page a little.
It seem to me that implementing the server plugins should not pose a major technical problem. Although I aggree there could be objections like that's too similar to fs plugins. But even if only fs plugin api was extended with 'centralized bookmark handling', it would be kind of victory. :)

[shocquer]

My question is, why there's still no implementation for this?
I'm just maintaining the sftp plugin, but some of users are happy with it. but some of them think it should be more integrated with TC. and this isn't possible now.