Update service for fGallery

2006/08/17

I have heard a lot of bad words about programs “calling home” and therefore I do a check if there are any negative comments if I should implement this as a feature in fGallery and later in all my plugins.

The checking is done through the fGallery panel of the WordPress admin area. A new tab will be present and a button to click, the script calls my server and checks the version number against my database.
The service will then tell you which version you are using and suggest link to the download page should your version be out dated.

I do hererby swear that the update service will not log anything like user IP or referrer. This is just a convenient way for you to check that your installation is up to date.

I really need your opinions on this one since there have been much raveling on this matter lately.

This is how the version checker looks on my server.
/* Version checker fahlstad.se plugins. */ if(isset($_GET['plugin']) && isset($_GET['version'])){


	$plugin = strtolower($_GET['plugin']);

	$old_version = $_GET['version'];
	$sql = "SELECT plugin, version FROM versions WHERE plugin = '$plugin'";

	mysql_select_db($database_conn, $conn);

	$dbp = mysql_query($sql, $conn) or die(mysql_error());
	$db_plugin = mysql_fetch_assoc($dbp);

	$download_link = "http://www.fahlstad.se/wp-plugins/$plugin";
	if($old_version == $db_plugin['version'])

		echo "

You are using the most recent version of $plugin.

";

	else

		echo "

You are using version $old_version, the most recent version is $db_plugin[version]. The new version can be downloaded at www.fahlstad.se.

";
}